For this project I used in the wild testing riding the trains of Copenhagen, to emulate real life use of an app.
What was tested
A platform where users can buy a gift card through a website, and redeem it in a shop or restaurant. The customer service by telephone and mail was also subjected to testing.
- 2 weeks + 1 day for reporting
- Anyone aged 18-80
- All newer mobile devices
The test missions
Is it easy to find, buy, and use a gift card?
How well does the product fare when used in real life situations?
Is customer service helpful?
The results
I gave the customer different suggestions that could better the user experience of the site, and found a critical problem in one of the shops. I also gave them an idea of what kind of experience customers had when using the product and customer service.
How can you do it too?
Observations
Observe 4 test participants in their home environment for 2 nights while they buy gift cards, and redeemed them in a restaurant
Customer emulation
Call customer service, pretending to be different customer personas with a unique problem
User interviews
Present the test participants with the system and ask them to perform a number of tasks while they talk out loud about their experiences.
The most time consuming part of this test was involving the many test participants. I had interviews with one group, and followed another group over 2 days while they ordered and redeemed the gift cards.
Make sure to schedule enought time for both testing with your test participants, and for reporting on their experiences. Qualitative data must be analyzed and broken down in a way that allows the customer to understand their needs and problems in just a few pages.
Read more
- UserZoom has a detailed article on in the wild testing.
- I made a blogpost shortly after I finished the case that you can read here.
- I also made another blogpost about how I approached testing the company’s customer service
