I have been reflecting during the last months about usability and how tests are conducted. I am doing a lot of experience at Venere.com where we test our prototypes in many different ways (and this is not banal at all if you think that I am talking about Italy!).
I will probably get back to you with some examples of an interesting method I’d like to explore more. I call it bird’s eye method and that’s why: you make the user look at the page from a couple of meters. Of course, the display is a standard size. Eye bird method could reasonably be an interesting option designers could add to their tests. I can’t see it like a solid and informative test. It’s more like an extra information you may want to get from users.
I have been trying it a little bit since I have noticed that stepping back from the display allows you to see things in a different way: the structure of your page is clearer and you tend to focus less on the details. I think that this is an interesting approach when you want to ahve a different perspective on your work. Can it be useful for the designers too? I would say yes if we consider it as a tool to enhance their reflections and clarify their decisions.
Update: you’ve probably been reading about the 5-second test. This method of testing the usability of a webpage can be considered an useful tool as well and I think that both, 5 secods and bird’s eye, aim to capture the very first impressions and feeling the user gets from the webpage. At this stage, the user is not able to process deeply the information he gets from the page but still his feedback is useful because the structures and the basic elements are elaborated very quickly. It’s like when you are looking at a picture: in a first moment, your mind elaborates a rough concept of what is in front of you, just the essential features you need to recognise your target. I think that by investigating these processes and their relation with the usability we could discover interesting stuff.
