How to Collect and Clean Usability-Testing Data

Collecting Data During Usability Testing

Now that you know a bit about the different types of usability testing, let’s look at how you can collect data when conducting usability testing.

Choosing Data-Collection Methods

You can collect either quantitative or qualitative data during usability testing. The method you choose for collecting data depends on the type of information you want for analysis.

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Quantitative Data Collection

Quantitative data–collection methods help you measure things easily. It’s all about numbers, which makes usability assessment almost effortless. Such data-collection methods are suitable for tracking the following indicators:

• observing task-completion rate—Record whether each participant completes each respective task. Then divide the number of successful task completions by the total number of tasks the participant attempted. This helps you evaluate the user-friendliness of your Web site or app.
• assessing time on task—When tracking time on task, record the time it takes each test participant to complete a given task. Some participants might take more time than others. Some might be able to perform the assigned tasks more quickly. Determine the average time it took participants to assess their performance on the task.
• measuring error rates—When tracking error rates, count the number of errors participants make while attempting the tasks. Such errors might be clicking the wrong link on a page, providing incorrect information through a form field, or performing the wrong action using an app.
• leveraging the System Usability Scale (SUS)—This questionnaire can help you assess participants’ feedback after they complete the usability test. They would rate the usability of your system, tell you about their overall experience, and give you a score so you can get an idea of your platform’s perceived usability. This is an efficient way to gauge users’ satisfaction with a system.

Qualitative Data Collection

Qualitative data can help you understand why users have certain perceptions about the usability of your Web site or app. Qualitative data provides descriptive insights that enable you to explore participants’ experiences and understand their opinions.

• conducting interviews—One of the best ways to collect qualitative data is to conduct interviews, asking open-ended questions of test participants and learning about their experiences or thoughts.
• organizing focus groups—While this is not the most popular way of collecting qualitative data, it can help you gather broader feedback and explore participants’ opinions. You would gather data in a group setting in which participants share their experiences and painpoints.
• conducting surveys and assessments—Surveys and assessment tools aren’t just useful data-collection instruments for extracting quantitative insights. You can also use them to collect qualitative data. You just need to make sure that you ask open-ended questions and allow participants to share their experiences freely.

Preparing for Data Collection

Now that you know about the types of data you can collect during a usability study, you need to set up an environment in which to conduct testing. You should try to make do with the tools that are already available to you, but bear in mind that you might also need to obtain new tools or set up new facilities.

Based on the types of data you want to collect during a usability study, let’s consider a few useful types of tools you might you might need, as follows:

• screen-recording software—This tool lets you capture the participant’s screen and mouse movements. There are many options, from free to premium software with advanced functionalities.
• Web-conferencing software—This can be an efficient tool for conducting remote usability tests, during which you would ask participants a series of questions. There are many free options such as Zoom and Google Meet, allowing you to collect usability data effortlessly during remote, moderated sessions.
• notetaking applications—You can use Web-based notetaking apps to record your observations or jot down participants’ opinions during test sessions. These tools are useful for collecting qualitative data.
• usability-testing platforms—There are many platforms that can help you conduct usability testing and record useful data for analysis. Some offer comprehensive testing solutions with built-in data collection and analysis capabilities.
• prototypes—In some cases, you might need to use a prototype of your Web site or app to collect data regarding your target audience. This enables you to test specific features of your platform and check whether they offer a seamless user experience. This is an excellent data-collection option for early-stage testing or an iterative design and testing process before development.
• live Web site or application—You might also use the live version of a Web site or app for data collection. However, this might not be a feasible approach and using a prototypes is generally a much better alternative. But this method can help you identify usability issues and areas for improvement.

Once you’ve determined the right tools to meet your needs and set them up, you’re ready to begin testing.

Conducting a Pilot Test

To make sure that the responses you collect can help you gain valuable insights, you must first conduct a pilot test before initiating a full-fledged testing and data-collection process. This can help you identify any flaws in your test tasks or scenarios. You can also determine whether your preferred data-collection tools are fit-for-purpose and would help you capture the necessary data.

Plus, you can fine-tune your testing process before you start conducting your actual test sessions. You can make sure that you’re taking a viable approach to ensure that the data you collect can help you achieve your goals and improve the user experience.

Cleaning Data for Usability Testing

Once you’ve deployed the right tools and successfully collected your data during usability testing, you must clean your data to prepare it for analysis. No matter how careful you are, your data might contain errors or discrepancies that require your attention. If you don’t clean your data properly, the results you get from your analysis could be misleading.

There are a few things you must consider when cleaning your usability-testing data prior to analyzing the data, as follows:

• handling missing data—You might not always get complete data or get answers to all your questions when conducting usability testing. When that happens, you need to decide whether to fill in the missing data or remove incomplete responses altogether.
• removing irrelevant data—The data you obtain through usability testing might not always be relevant. So you’d need to filter out unnecessary information. Prioritize removing data that doesn’t help meet your research goals. You should also look for outliers. These are extreme values that could skew your findings. Be cautious though, especially when handling sensitive user data. In some cases, testing could inadvertently expose personal information, so always follow best practices to avoid data breaches or leaking information that could end up on the dark Web.
• standardizing data—Make sure that your data is consistent. You might come across several discrepancies. Handle them with care. If you’re using multiple data sources, ensure that the data doesn’t contradict itself. Verifying the authenticity of data sources can help you make the right decisions here.
• consolidating data—First, you must consolidate your data. You might deploy different tools or methods to record responses from participants during your test sessions. So you must bring all your recordings, transcripts, notes, and survey responses together into one coherent data set. Centralizing your data can simplify the analysis process. If you have collected data through recordings, you should consider transcribing it, converting recordings to text so you can access valuable insights. Next, you should organize your transcripts or notes. Structure them to make it easy to extract task-related information and identify potential issues.
• transforming data—Sometimes, you’ll need to transform your data to enable better analysis. Typically, you’ll transform qualitative data into quantitative data so you can perform your analysis with ease and measure performance. However, this is not always necessary because you can often get valuable findings from the qualitative data as it is. You would just need to use different analysis methods.

You’re All Set

In this article, you’ve learned about collecting and cleaning data from usability testing. Although this might seem like a complex process, the recommendations I’ve provided in this article will help you get started on mastering different techniques that can help you extract valuable insights from your data.

Using the right methods or tools to collect usability data, then clean the data is important because it lets you pinpoint exact problems. You can gain valuable insights concerning users’ behaviors and opinions. Therefore, you can easily make data-driven decisions and improve the overall user experience to hack growth. When you conduct usability testing, software development is no longer guesswork. You can make design improvements based on solid evidence.