Summary
It is more important than ever to understand your audience to succeed but it takes rigor to gain valuable insights. Learn how framing usability test scenarios with distractions and interruptions lead to a deeper line of questioning and exponentially increases the accuracy of your user research. Join Marc Majers & Tony Turner, the user experience team from the book Make Your Customers Dance, to discuss techniques that will make a big impact on your product's competitiveness.
Key Insights
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Designers typically plan for the perfect user path but often overlook the 'unexpected' or interrupted paths that real users take.
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Interrupted UX means deliberately introducing realistic disruptions (e.g., phone calls, alerts) into usability testing to mimic real-world conditions.
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Incorporating interruptions in tests increases participant engagement and immersion, leading to richer and more accurate findings.
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Observational research is crucial to identify relevant interruptions before designing disrupted usability tests.
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Mental models differ between designers, products, and users; interruptions help reveal user mental models more clearly.
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Interrupted usability testing can reveal new feature requirements, such as the need for auto-save when users get interrupted.
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Interruptions should be balanced carefully to simulate stress without overwhelming or upsetting participants.
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Interrupted UX experiments should be used supplementally, not in every test, to maximize their effectiveness and manage complexity.
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Prototype fidelity affects how effective interruptions are; higher fidelity prototypes enable more meaningful disruption scenarios.
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Engaging stakeholders in live interruptions during usability testing can increase their investment and observation quality.
Notable Quotes
"Are you planning and testing for the unexpected path, not just the perfect path?"
"Interrupted user experience is about building in interruptions into your usability studies to make them more realistic."
"Typically, there’s some kind of interruption that happens in real life, like a phone call or connectivity issue."
"Adding interruptions exponentially increases the accuracy of your research findings."
"If you have interruptions during testing, participants get more immersed and offer higher quality discoveries."
"We saw in tests with interruptions, people start talking out loud, revealing needs like auto-save we hadn’t thought about."
"You want to keep participants comfortable and manage their emotions when interruptions make them stressed."
"The story curve suggests interruptions should happen mid-flow, not too early or too late in the session."
"Use interrupted UX supplementally, like eye tracking—an extra tool in your utility belt to use when needed."
"Involving product owners in making interruptions during testing increases their engagement and observational insight."
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