The Complete User Testing Guide
I. OVERVIEW
In Advance
Block off 1 hour for each User Test
Pick a Director.
Pick a Prototype Lead
Plan for everybody to take notes
Set up one or more scenarios
During the Test
Make sure the testers are working from a realistic scenario and reacting to a concrete prototype
Listen for their reality
Make real-time changes
Don’t lead the user or shape their reactions
Don’t leave without asking the biggest questions at the end
After the Test
Take a moment to jot down key takeaways - you’ll need them later
User Testing Guardrails
✅ As long as you follow these minimal guidelines, the test will go fine.
Listen more, talk less. Let the user talk 60-90% of the time.
Make your prototype concrete and fill it with plausible concrete examples.
Identify one or more realistic scenarios with the users.
Don’t be attached to any given solution: be ready to potentially discard 90% of your design.
Ask for a 1-10 rating of both the new solution and status quo using the 1-10 scale exactly as written.
II. USER TESTING PHASES
PHASE 0: WELCOME + INTRODUCTIONS (10 mins)
Introduce yourselves and get situated + buffer for late arrivals/technical issues.
PHASE 1: SCENARIO (5 mins)
Situate the user in a truly realistic scenario, hypothetical or recent.
Tip: Inauthenticity here breaks the whole test, so make sure the scenario feels realistic to them. It can help to ask a lot of questions like, “When exactly would you be doing this? What day? What time? Where would you be sitting?” etc to get them truly immersed.
PHASE 2: PROTOTYPE SIMULATION – USER GUIDED (15 min)
The user navigates through the prototype as they realistically would. Make real-time changes in response to their actions. It’s okay to say “pause” and take a few minutes to adjust the prototype.
Tip: Goal = Understand the user’s language, mental organization & areas of attention
PHASE 3: PROTOTYPE REACTION – EXPERIMENTER GUIDED (10 min)
Direct the user to react to specific areas of the prototype not previously touched on that you are curious about their reactions to. Make real-time changes in response to their actions.
Tip: Let the user react naturally without leading them, just point to the section.
PHASE 4: INTERVIEW (10-15 min)
Directly ask user questions you want to learn more about in an open dialogue.
Tip: Open with the 1-10 rating questions. This will unlock a goldmine.
PHASE 5: CLOSING/THANKS (5 min)
III. THE 1-10 SCALE
✅ Be sure to ask this every time, early in the interview — even if you already feel like you know the answer, or it doesn’t fit the flow of the conversation.
This is worded the way it is so that the scale is truly centered on a 5 (fine/as expected). Be really rigorous about framing it this way, or users are likely to rate everything a 7 or 8 and you won’t get useful information.
Ask, “On a scale of 1-10, where 1 = horrible, 10 = mind-blowing, and 5 = fine/as expected, how valuable would this experience be you if it were real? Honestly.”
Ask, “What makes it that rating?”
Ask, “On the same scale, how would you rate the {the way you currently do it}?”
Ask, “What would make our solution a 9 or 10?”
Pay attention to their tone of voice. People may often say, “6 or 7” and usually mean “6, but I’m too polite to say so.”
IV. ADDITIONAL GUIDES
HOW TO LISTEN
Leave all attachments behind.
Remember: The purpose of the prototype is to PROVOKE insight, NOT to be right (we’ll build the right one later). Don’t get distracted defending or explaining the prototype.
User talks 80% of the time.
Look for:
Actions
Word choices
Energy shifts
Micro expressions
Anything that surprises you
Separate what you directly observe from new ideas or hypotheses. New ideas could turn out to fail, but insights grounded in direct observation last forever.
The main purpose of the test is for you to get information from your userv— not to do customer service for the user. You don’t need to change the user’s mind or continue a conversation if it’s not valuable.
HOW TO PERFORM A SIMULATION TEST
Instruct the user how to use the prototype.
Settle their mind into a realistic scenario so that they’re able to react authentically.
Show them something concrete.
Let silences stretch out; give them space to think.
If they fall silent for a long time, prompt them with, “What’s going through your mind?”
Do not lead them.
Call Play/Pause when needed to make changes or get quick feedback.
Make real-time changes in response to what they share for updated feedback.
HOW TO INTERVIEW
Ask, “I notice that at X time, you did Y. Can you tell me more about that?”
Ask, “You just said X. Can you tell me more about that?”
Ask, “At X point, what was going through your mind?”
Don’t direct the user with leading questions.
Don’t ask, “Why did you do/say X?” Users often don’t know why and will make up an answer because they want to be helpful, but it won’t reflect their true experience.
Don’t leave the interview with questions unanswered — ask the user the heart of the thing you want to know.
HOW TO ENCOURAGE AUTHENTICITY
Make the user feel comfortable by modulating your voice and emotional expression to their energy level. Resist the urge to be effusive or high-energy.
When asking for negative feedback, give an extreme example of the negative end out loud so that you are the one breaking the ice on critique. For example, “Or you can totally say, ‘This is the most boring thing I’ve ever seen’ and go browse Facebook instead.”
Get users to react to the concrete prototype in front of them, not predict how they might react to something hypothetical.
Have them speak in first person present tense, as though they were actually in the scenario. Eg, “I’m thinking right now, are these people going to follow through with what they’re promising here?” Do not let the user speak in hypothetical language like “I would…” Some users may need this clarified several times.
Don’t be afraid of awkward silences or user frustration — those moments of discomfort are where some of the best insights come from.
HOW TO TAKE NOTES
Plan for everybody to take notes.
Your notes don’t have to ever be legible to anyone else — you want your notes to reflect your own personal perspective.
Budget 5 mins at the end of each test to write down additional thoughts as you reflect back on the entire test.
When you write down insights, whenever possible note which direct, specific observation(s) the insight comes from.
Remember to write down trends that you notice across users.