Usability Testing Guide: What It Is, How to Run It, and When to Use Each Method

Usability testing has an important role in UX and if you’re new to it, this article gives you a solid introduction to it with practical tips, a checklist for success and a look at our remote testing tool, Treejack.

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Concepts of usability testing

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Usability testing is the process of evaluating a product or service with users prior to implementation. The goal of usability testing is to identify any usability issues before the product or service is released into the world for use. Usability testing is a research activity that results in both quantitative and qualitative insights and can be used to gauge user satisfaction.A typical usability testing session is moderated and involves a participant, a facilitator and an observer. The facilitator leads the session and the observer takes notes while the participant completes the task based scenario.

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While this is common, usability testing is scalable and the possible approaches are endless giving you the flexibility to work with the resources you have available—sometimes one person performs the role of facilitator and observer!Location also varies for usability testing. For example, you might conduct your testing in a lab environment or you might talk to users in a specific environment. It also worth noting that not all usability testing sessions are moderated—more about this later.Usability testing usually occurs multiple times during the design process and can be conducted anytime you have a design you would like to test.

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‍User research activities like a focus group for example, are conducted early in the design process to explore and gain understanding before ideas are generated. Usability testing is about testing those ideas as early and as often as possible. From a fully functioning digital prototype to a simple hand drawn wireframe on paper, nothing is too unrefined or too rough to be tested.

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Developing a usability test plan

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Before you start a round of usability testing, you need to develop a usability test plan. The usability test plan will keep you organised and is an opportunity to define roles and set clear expectations upfront. The first step in developing this is to hold a meeting with your team and stakeholders to discuss what you are going to do and how you plan to achieve it. Following this meeting, a document outlining the usability test plan as it was discussed is created and shared with the group for review. Any changes suggested by the group are then added to the final document for approval from the relevant stakeholders.

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What to include in your usability test plan:

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• The goal, scope and intent of the usability testing
• Constraints impacting upon testing
• Details on what will be tested eg wireframes
• Schedule and testing location
• Associated costs eg participant recruitment
• Facilitator and observer details for each session
• Session details
• Participant recruitment approach
• Equipment
• Details of any documentation to be produced eg a report

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Usability testing questions

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Once you have developed your test plan, you need to create a list of questions and task based scenarios for the testing session. These form the structure for your testing and provide a framework of consistency across all testing sessions in the study.The questions serve as a warm up to ease the participant into the session and can also provide insights on the user that you may not have had before. These questions can be a combination of　open and closed questions and are especially useful if you are also developing personas for example. Some examples of what you might ask include:

• Tell me about a recent experience you had with this product/service
• Do you currently use this product/service?
• Do you own a tablet device?

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The purpose of the task based scenarios is to simulate a real life experience as closely as possible. They provide a contextual setting for the participant to frame their approach and they need to be realistic—your participant needs an actionable starting point to work from. A good starting point for task based scenario development would be to look at a use case.It is also important that you avoid using language that provides clues to the solution or leads your participant as this can produce inaccurate results. An example of a task based scenario would be:You’re planning a Christmas vacation to New Zealand for your family of two adults and 4 children. Find the lowest priced airfares for your trip.

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Usability testing software: Tree testing

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Treejack is a remote information architecture (IA) validation tool that shows you exactly where users are getting lost in your content. Knowing this will enable you to design a structure for your website that makes sense to users before moving on to the user interface (UI) design.Treejack works like a card sort in reverse. Imagine you have just completed a card sort with your users to determine your IA and you are now working backwards to test that thinking against real world task based scenarios. Treejack does this using a text-based version of your IA that is free from distracting visual aids such as navigation and colour allowing you to determine if your structure is usable from the ground up. A Treejack study is structured around task based scenarios and comes with the option to include pre and post study questionnaires.

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As a remote testing tool, Treejack is unmoderated and provides the opportunity to reach a much larger audience because all you have to do is share a link to the study with your participants to gain insights. You also have the option of handing the task of targeted participant recruitment over to Optimal Workshop.Once launched and shared with participants, Treejack takes care of itself by recording the results as they come in giving you the freedom to multitask while you wait for the testing to finish.

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The results produced by Treejack are not only detailed and comprehensive but are also quite beautiful. The story of your participants’ journey through your testing activity is told through pietrees. A pietree is a detailed pathway map that shows where your participants went at each fork in the road and their destinations. They allow you to pinpoint exactly where the issues lie and are a powerful way to communicate the results to your team and stakeholders.

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Treejack also provides insights into where your participants landed their first click and records detailed information on pathways followed by each individual participant.

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Usability testing checklist

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The following checklist will help ensure your usability testing process runs smoothly:

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• Meet with team and stakeholders
• Determine goals, scope and intent of usability testing
• Decide how many sessions will be conducted
• Create usability testing schedule
• Select facilitators and observers for each session if applicable
• Develop and complete a usability test plan
• Determine test questions and scenarios
• Recruit participants for testing
• Gather equipment required for testing if applicable
• Book testing location if applicable
• Keep a list of useful contact details close by in case you need to contact anyone during testing
• Complete a dry run of a testing session with a team member to ensure everything works before actual testing begins
• Organise debrief meetings with observers after each testing session
• Set aside time to analyse the findings
• Document and present findings to team and relevant stakeholders

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Related reading

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• Usability Testing and Optimal Workshop
• Usability Testing Example: How Usability Testing Drastically Improved My Client’s App
• Usability Testing Interview Questions: Nielsen Norman Group
• Usability Test Plan Template example: Usability.gov

When it comes to financial services, user experience goes way beyond just making things easy to use. It’s about creating a seamless journey and establishing trust at every touchpoint. Think about it: as we rely more and more on digital banking and financial apps in our everyday lives, we need to feel absolutely confident that our personal information is safe and that the companies managing our money actually know what they're doing. Without that trust foundation, even the most competitive brands will struggle with customer adoption.

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Why Trust Matters More Than Ever

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The stakes are uniquely high in financial UX. Unlike other digital products where a poor experience might result in minor frustration, financial applications handle our life savings, investment portfolios, and sensitive personal data. A single misstep in design can trigger alarm bells for users, potentially leading to lost customers.

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Using UX Research to Measure and Build Trust

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Building high trust experiences requires deep insights into user perceptions, behaviors, and pain points. The best UX platforms can help financial companies spot trust issues and test whether their solutions actually work.

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Identify Trust Issues with Tree Testing

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Tree testing helps financial institutions understand how easily users can find critical information and features:

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• Test information architecture to ensure security features and privacy information are easily discoverable
• Identify confusing terminology that may undermine user confidence
• Compare findability metrics for trust-related content across different user segments

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Optimize for Trustworthy First Impressions with First-Click Testing

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First-click testing helps identify where users naturally look for visual symbols and cues that are associated with security:

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• Test where users instinctively look for security indicators like references to security certifications
• Compare the effectiveness of different visual trust symbols (locks, shields, badges)
• Identify the optimal placement for security messaging across key screens

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Map User Journeys with Card Sorting

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Card sorting helps brands understand how users organize concepts. Reducing confusion, helps your financial brand appear more trustworthy, quickly:

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• Use open card sorts to understand how users naturally categorize security and privacy features
• Identify terminology that resonates with users' perceptions around security

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Qualitative Insights Through Targeted Questions

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Gathering qualitative data through strategically placed questions allows financial institutions to collect rich, timely insights about how much their customers trust their brand:

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• Ask open ended questions about trust concerns at key moments in the testing process
• Gather specific feedback on security terminology understanding and recognition
• Capture emotional responses to different trust indicators

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What Makes a Financial Brand Look Trustworthy?

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Visual Consistency and Professional Polish

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When someone opens your financial app or website, they're making snap judgments about whether they can trust you with their money. It happens in milliseconds, and a lot of that decision comes down to how polished and consistent everything looks.Clean, consistent design sends that signal of stability and attention to detail that people expect when money's involved.

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To achieve this, develop and rigorously apply a solid design system across all digital touchpoints including fonts, colors, button styles, and spacing, it all needs to be consistent across every page and interaction. Even small inconsistencies can make people subconsciously lose confidence.

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Making Security Visible

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Unlike walking into a bank where you can see the vault and security cameras, digital security happens behind the scenes. Users can't see all the protection you've built in unless you make a point of showing them.

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Highlighting your security measures in ways that feel reassuring rather than overwhelming gives people that same sense of "my money is safe here" that they'd get from seeing a bank's physical security.

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From a design perspective, apply this thinking to elements like:

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• Real time login notifications
• Transaction verification steps
• Clear encryption indicators
• Transparent data usage explanations
• Session timeout warnings

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You can test the success of these design elements through preference testing, where you can compare different approaches to security visualization to determine which elements most effectively communicate trust without creating anxiety.

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Making Complex Language Simple

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Financial terminology is naturally complex, but your interface content doesn't have to be. Clear, straightforward language builds trust so it’s important to develop a content strategy that:

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• Explains unavoidable complex terms contextually
• Replaces jargon with plain language
• Provides proactive guidance before errors occur
• Uses positive, confident messaging around security features

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You can test your language and navigation elements by using tree testing to evaluate user understanding of different terminology, measuring success rates for finding information using different labeling options.

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Create an Ongoing Trust Measurement Program

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A user research platform enables financial institutions to implement ongoing trust measurement across the product lifecycle:

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Establish Trust Benchmarks

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Use UX research tools to establish baseline metrics for measuring user trust:

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• Findability scores for security features
• User reported confidence ratings
• Success rates for security related tasks
• Terminology comprehension levels

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Validate Design Updates

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Before implementing changes to critical elements, use quick tests to validate designs:

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• Compare current vs. proposed designs with prototype testing
• Measure findability improvements with tree testing
• Evaluate usability through first-click testing

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Monitor Trust Metrics Over Time

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Create a dashboard of trust metrics that can be tracked regularly:

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• Task success rates for security related activities
• Time-to-completion for verification processes
• Confidence ratings at key security touchpoints

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Cross-Functional Collaboration to Improve Trust

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While UX designers can significantly impact brand credibility, remember that trust is earned across the entire customer experience:

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• Product teams ensure feature promises align with actual capabilities
• Security teams translate complex security measures into user-friendly experiences
• Marketing ensures brand promises align with the actual user experience
• ‍Customer service supports customers when trust issues arise

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Trust as a Competitive Advantage

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In an industry where products and services can often seem interchangeable to consumers, trust becomes a powerful differentiator. By placing trust at the center of your design philosophy and using comprehensive user research to measure and improve trust metrics, you're not just improving user experience, you're creating a foundation for lasting customer relationships in an industry where loyalty is increasingly rare.

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The most successful financial institutions of the future won't necessarily be those with the most features or the slickest interfaces, but those that have earned and maintained user trust through thoughtful UX design built on a foundation of deep user research and continuous improvement.

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We all know that building a robust information architecture (IA) can make or break your product. And getting it right can rely on robust user research. Especially when it comes to creating human-centered, intuitive products that deliver outstanding user experiences.

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But what are the best methods to test your information architecture? To make sure that your focus is on building an information architecture that is truly based on what your users want, and need.

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What is user research? 🗣️🧑🏻💻

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With all the will in the world, your product (or website or mobile app) may work perfectly and be as intuitive as possible. But, if it is only built on information from your internal organizational perspective, it may not measure up in the eyes of your user. Often, organizations make major design decisions without fully considering their users. User research (UX) backs up decisions with data, helping to make sure that design decisions are strategic decisions. 

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Testing your information architecture can also help establish the structure for a better product from the ground up. And ultimately, the performance of your product. User experience research focuses your design on understanding your user expectations, behaviors, needs, and motivations. It is an essential part of creating, building, and maintaining great products. 

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Taking the time to understand your users through research can be incredibly rewarding with the insights and data-backed information that can alter your product for the better. But what are the key user research methods for your information architecture? Let’s take a look.

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Research methods for information architecture ⚒️

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There is more than one way to test your IA. And testing with one method is good, but with more than one is even better. And, of course, the more often you test, especially when there are major additions or changes, you can tweak and update your IA to improve and delight your user’s experience.

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Card Sorting 🃏

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Card sorting is a user research method that allows you to discover how users understand and categorize information. It’s particularly useful when you are starting the planning process of your information architecture or at any stage you notice issues or are making changes. Putting the power into your users’ hands and asking how they would intuitively sort the information. In a card sort, participants sort cards containing different items into labeled groups. You can use the results of a card sort to figure out how to group and label the information in a way that makes the most sense to your audience. 

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There are a number of techniques and methods that can be applied to a card sort. Take a look here if you’d like to know more.

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Card sorting has many applications. It’s as useful for figuring out how content should be grouped on a website or in an app as it is for figuring out how to arrange the items in a retail store.You can also run a card sort in person, using physical cards, or remotely with online tools such as OptimalSort.

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Tree Testing 🌲

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Taking a look at your information architecture from the other side can also be valuable. Tree testing is a usability method for evaluating the findability of topics on a product. Testing is done on a simplified text version of your site structure without the influence of navigation aids and visual design.

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Tree testing tells you how easily people can find information on your product and exactly where people get lost. Your users rely on your information architecture – how you label and organize your content – to get things done.

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Tree testing can answer questions like:

• Do my labels make sense to people?
• Is my content grouped logically to people?
• Can people find the information they want easily and quickly? If not, what’s stopping them?

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Treejack is our tree testing tool and is designed to make it easy to test your information architecture. Running a tree test isn’t actually that difficult, especially if you’re using the right tool. You’ll  learn how to set useful objectives, how to build your tree, write your tasks, recruit participants, and measure results.

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Combining information architecture research methods 🏗

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If you are wanting a fully rounded view of your information architecture, it can be useful to combine your research methods.

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Tree testing and card sorting, along with usability testing, can give you insights into your users and audience. How do they think? How do they find their way through your product? And how do they want to see things labeled, organized, and sorted? 

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If you want to get fully into the comparison of tree testing and card sorting, take a look at our article here, which compares the options and explains which is best and when.