I agree that there is a temptation to not do it, especially for smaller changes, especially if time is tight, especially if you are a smaller company, and all of that is certainly a problem.
But no user testing? Not changing the design? We just recently drastically changed the design of a new product we are developing because it failed initial user testing (with clients of us who came in for user testing using a paper prototype).
What followed were also several rounds of design critique sessions with the revised design (bringing in internal people who had nothing to do with the design and ask them for their constructive feedback, without aiming to find a solution to what they find during that meeting) and we will bring those original clients back in in December and sit them in front of the then working prototype.
We are a small company and I do agree that we do this far too infrequently but from my viewpoint as someone who makes the design I couldn’t even imagine not reacting to people who clearly have trouble with the design. Because I did the design. I know that it’s made of thousands of little decisions, thousands of little trade-offs you have to make. I know that it’s a hard problem and that it’s easy to make mistakes or to fundamentally misunderstand something about the mental model the users have. So any information about what works and what doesn’t is extremely valuable.
> But no user testing? Not changing the design? We just recently drastically changed the design of a new product we are developing because it failed initial user testing (with clients of us who came in for user testing using a paper prototype).
your company is the exception. Most companies do no user testing. The closest i came was working at a co that did user interviews and ran some mock-ups by them before turning to eng. Once it was in our hands there was no change based on user feedback, because there was no user feedback before release. Not because we weren't willing to, but because ... they just never did.
Most folks i've spoken to do no user testing whatsoever at their companies.
I agree that there is a temptation to not do it, especially for smaller changes, especially if time is tight, especially if you are a smaller company, and all of that is certainly a problem.
But no user testing? Not changing the design? We just recently drastically changed the design of a new product we are developing because it failed initial user testing (with clients of us who came in for user testing using a paper prototype).
What followed were also several rounds of design critique sessions with the revised design (bringing in internal people who had nothing to do with the design and ask them for their constructive feedback, without aiming to find a solution to what they find during that meeting) and we will bring those original clients back in in December and sit them in front of the then working prototype.
We are a small company and I do agree that we do this far too infrequently but from my viewpoint as someone who makes the design I couldn’t even imagine not reacting to people who clearly have trouble with the design. Because I did the design. I know that it’s made of thousands of little decisions, thousands of little trade-offs you have to make. I know that it’s a hard problem and that it’s easy to make mistakes or to fundamentally misunderstand something about the mental model the users have. So any information about what works and what doesn’t is extremely valuable.