The big idea: A prototype is only worth building if it produces data.
End-users tell you whether it works for the body and the task. A client tells you whether it works for the organisation — budget, installation, cleaning, what they already own. Run them separately.
Who to ask, what to ask them to do, what to record — then the ladder from a comment to a design change.
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Running a session that produces evidence
Decide the measurement before they arrive
Time, count, distance, load, error rate. Decided afterwards, you have impressions; decided beforehand, you have a number that plugs into the specification.
Give a task, then stop talking
"Change the drill bit and make a hole in this board." Every explanation you add deletes a finding about learnability.
Record behaviour as well as words
Where the hand went, what they tried first, what they never touched. Users are unreliable narrators of their own hands.
Ask the open question last
"What would stop you using this?" after the task, never before it — asked first, it produces a prediction rather than an experience.
Produces politeness
- "What do you think of it?"
- "Do you like the grip?"
- Explaining how it works before they try
- Testing on friends, family and classmates
Produces data
- "Change the bit and drill a hole in this board."
- Timing it, and counting where they stop
- Saying nothing and writing down what they try
- Testing on people who match the target demographics
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Feedback arrives as a sentence, and a sentence is not a design change. Pair it with what you observed, work out what it means about the design, and only then decide what to alter.
| What was said | What was observed | What it means | The change |
|---|---|---|---|
| "It felt like it was going to slip" | 7 of 12 users regripped during a 30-second drill | The grip is secure but not reassuring under torque | Add a positive thumb rest, not more rubber |
| "The battery release is fiddly" | 4 of 12 used two hands; 2 gave up and asked | The latch needs more force than one thumb can apply | Lengthen the lever so the same force needs less thumb travel |
| "It's quite heavy" | Nobody's task time increased; nobody stopped early | A comment about expectation, not a performance problem | No change — record it and watch for it again |
Not every comment is a fault: The third row matters. A comment with no observed consequence may be an expectation rather than a problem, and redesigning for it costs you the loop you needed elsewhere.
Record it, look for it again, and act when the behaviour supports the words.
Then retest the same way: The change goes into the next model and the same task is run with the same kind of users and the same measurement.
A change that is never retested is an opinion about an opinion, and it cannot appear in the evaluation as evidence.
How this is tested — selecting prototypes and gathering data and feedback that develop the design. It comes up two ways:
Paper 1 — multiple choice
- Identify which instruction will produce usable data.
- Pick the correct response to a stated piece of feedback.
Paper 2 — analysing a product
- Explain how you would gather data from users on a named prototype.
- Analyse feedback and justify the change it leads to.
The trap: Acting on the loudest comment. Pair every comment with an observation before you change anything — and be willing to conclude that no change is needed.
Twelve users tested a cordless drill prototype. Seven regripped during a 30-second drill and said it felt like it might slip; four needed two hands for the battery release; three said it was heavy, but none took longer or stopped early. Analyse this feedback and state the changes.
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