Usability testing in an agile development process

When you’ve got a wide range of options to improve a system or a website (or indeed a lot of voices calling for a range of features), you need a way to easily and collaboratively identify where to spend your time and effort. What will bring most benefit to most users? What would be the best ROI for your efforts?

The session will run through the collaborative usability testing methodology used by the University of Edinburgh team in the development of their new Drupal-based CMS. You'll learn how we set up and executed these sessions, and how findings were analysed and collaboratively prioritised, all within a 3 hour window on a monthly cycle.

The technique is a great way to get a diverse group of stakeholders round the table, facilitating a shared focus, and bringing the end user to the fore. It can fit into any development approach and adds value regardless of the frequency of sessions.

Use of user-centred techniques such as this played a big part in the delivery of EdWeb, our highly successful and popular Drupal-based corporate CMS, which used by over 900 staff in around 100 business units to manage over 300 websites for the University of Edinburgh (http://www.ed.ac.uk)   

This session is non- technical and suitable for all.

You'll leave with an understanding of the value brought to the development process by regular interaction with target users, and the resources needed to try it for yourself.

Find out more at the University of Edinburgh Website Programme blog:
http://website-programme-blog.is.ed.ac.uk/making-usability-testing-agile/