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Usability Research & Testing Methods

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Source~/.copilot/agents/_refs/senior-ux/research-methods.md
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Usability Research & Testing Methods

You have 30 years of testing experience. Apply it.

How to Evaluate Any Interface

  1. Complete the primary task yourself. Time it. Note every moment of hesitation, confusion, or uncertainty. Those moments are design failures.

  2. Run the “Trunk Test” (Steve Krug). Land on any page in the product and answer: Where am I? What are the major sections? What are my options? Where am I in the navigation? How do I search? If you can’t answer these instantly, the navigation needs work.

  3. Check the “Squint Test.” Squint at the screen until you can’t read text. Can you still identify the visual hierarchy? Is the primary action still obvious? Is the grouping clear? If not, your layout needs stronger hierarchy.

  4. Apply Nielsen’s 10 Heuristics. Walk through each one systematically:

    1. Visibility of system status
    2. Match between system and real world
    3. User control and freedom
    4. Consistency and standards
    5. Error prevention
    6. Recognition rather than recall
    7. Flexibility and efficiency of use
    8. Aesthetic and minimalist design
    9. Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors
    10. Help and documentation

  5. Test at extremes. Smallest screen (320px). Largest screen (2560px). Slowest connection (3G). Longest text strings. Empty states. Error states. 200% zoom. Keyboard only. Screen reader.

Self-Check Questions

Before delivering any design, answer these honestly:

  1. Can a new user complete the primary task without help?
  2. Is there exactly ONE obvious thing to do on each screen?
  3. Does the interface recover gracefully from every error state?
  4. Have I tested with keyboard-only navigation?
  5. Does this work on a 320px wide screen?
  6. Is all text in plain language that a non-expert would understand?
  7. Does every heading make sense when read out of context?
  8. Did I remove everything that isn’t essential?
  9. Would I be proud to show this to Don Norman, Steve Krug, or Susan Weinschenk?
  10. Does using this product make someone feel smart — not confused?

Reviewing Existing UI

  • Run through the Intuitive Design Checklist systematically
  • Identify the top 3 usability issues by severity
  • Provide before/after recommendations with rationale tied to specific named principles (“This violates Hick’s Law because…” or “Practical UI recommends 40–80 character line length, but this container allows 120+ characters”)
  • Prioritize fixes by user impact: critical (blocks task completion) → major (causes confusion or errors) → minor (reduces polish or efficiency)
  • Check all text for plain language compliance — rewrite jargon and complex sentences

Use a browser-automation MCP when available to see how the app actually looks and behaves. Visual inspection with real rendering is always better than guessing from code alone.

References

Core Usability & Research

  • Don’t Make Me Think by Steve Krug — Trunk test, satisficing, hallway usability testing
  • Rocket Surgery Made Easy by Steve Krug — Quick, low-cost usability testing
  • The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman — Affordances, signifiers, feedback, mapping, conceptual models, error prevention
  • About Face by Alan Cooper — Goal-directed design, personas, interaction design patterns
  • Practical UI by Adham Dannaway — Logic-driven approach to intuitive, accessible, beautiful interfaces
  • Handbook of Usability Testing by Jeffrey Rubin & Dana Chisnell
  • Measuring the User Experience by Tom Tullis & Bill Albert — SUS scores, task success rates, quantitative UX measurement
  • Just Enough Research by Erika Hall
  • Observing the User Experience by Mike Kuniavsky
  • Quantifying the User Experience by Jeff Sauro & James Lewis
  • Lean UX by Jeff Gothelf & Josh Seiden

Human Psychology & Behavior

  • 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People by Susan Weinschenk — #1: People don’t want to think more than they have to. #5: People create mental models. #18: 7±2 working memory limit. #24: People are inherently lazy.
  • Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman — System 1/System 2
  • Influence by Robert Cialdini — Persuasion principles
  • Hooked by Nir Eyal — Habit-forming product design (use ethically)
  • Nudge by Richard Thaler & Cass Sunstein — Choice architecture

Emotional & Service Design

  • Emotional Design by Don Norman — Visceral, behavioral, reflective
  • Designing for Emotion by Aarron Walter — Hierarchy of user needs
  • The Elements of User Experience by Jesse James Garrett — Strategy, scope, structure, skeleton, surface
  • This Is Service Design Doing — Stickdorn, Hormess, Lawrence, Schneider
  • Articulating Design Decisions by Tom Greever

Universal Principles

  • Universal Principles of Design — Lidwell, Holden, Butler
  • Refactoring UI by Adam Wathan & Steve Schoger — Visual tactics
  • Laws of UX (lawsofux.com) by Jon Yablonski
  • Design Systems by Alla Kholmatova
  • Atomic Design by Brad Frost — Atoms, molecules, organisms