Techniques for Usability Testing

Concurrent Think Aloud (CTA)

Pros:

• Understand participants' thoughts as they occur and as they attempt to work through issues they encounter.
• Elicit real-time feedback and emotional responses.
• Does not interfere with usability metrics.

Cons:

• It can interfere with usability metrics, such as accuracy and time on task.

Retrospective Probing (RP)

Pros:

• Does not interfere with usability metrics.

Cons:

• Difficulty in remembering ~ poor data.

Concurrent Probing (CP)

Pros:

• Understand participants' thoughts as they attempt to work through a task.

Cons:

• Interferes with the natural thought process and progression that participants would make on their own, if uninterrupted.

Retrospective Think Aloud (RTA):

Pros:

• Does not interfere with usability metrics.

Cons:

• Overall, session length increases.
• Difficulty in remembering thoughts from up to an hour before ~ poor data.