A pilot test is a great way to make sure the team is truly ready to go. Are the materials printed? Are all the documents ready? Has payment been taken care of? Is the website up and running? A checklist will help, but conducting the study in a more relaxed environment is a good way to test the team’s preparation. Think of it as a “training flight” for astronauts before they are sent into orbit.
2. Checking the wording
If a tester is confused by a poorly written task, his valuable time guatemala phone number data is wasted studying the interface. The customer should be the first to detect this misunderstanding and spend time on additional explanations. Tasks may seem well-formulated to you and your team, but they can also be confusing to participants. To ensure that the study goes smoothly and brings the desired result, find and fix weaknesses.
3. Timing
Planning your testing time can be tricky. How many tasks will participants complete in a session—3 or 7? Doing the tasks on your own and allocating more time than you need is a very rough estimate. Doing the tasks with a couple of participants will help you estimate the time needed more accurately and allow you to prioritize the actual research effectively.
4. Data that may be needed
If the pilot goes well, you'll already have a nice jump in your research. Run the sessions as if they were a real test, the data from which can be used. Even if one or two tasks are done incorrectly, you'll still be able to apply the information.
Don't be too quick to throw out data just because the test was a pilot. At the same time, don't put too much hope in the results of a pilot test: if something goes wrong early on, it may affect the reliability of the final data.