Due to taking unwarranted credit for a recent project, Dan was promoted. He decided to celebrate by throwing a party. He sketched out a map to his house, then asked his assistant to make copies for his "team." The party was slated for a Saturday afternoon and Dan spent the remainder of the week preparing for the soiree.
Saturday rolled around and a funny thing happened. Only half of the invites showed up. Of the half that did most were late. Some were extremely late. Dan was confounded. He had given everyone a map. Back at the office on Monday, Dan was eager to learn why so many had either skipped the party or were so late.
He started with Scooter. Turns out Scooter didn’t understand the abbreviations Dan had used on the map and could not figure out how to get to the party. “You could have called me,” replied Dan. “Not really. You didn’t have your number on the invite.”
Dan moved on to Maddy. It turns out Maddy made a wrong turn on one of the streets and became so frustrated she never made it to the party. “Plus, you didn’t include your phone number!” Maddy stated incredulously. “I know, I know,” Dan muttered as he walked to Sam’s cubicle.
“I wasn’t familiar with the roads you had on the map. Sorry bud,” Sam stated quickly. Sitting in the cubicle right next to Sam was Jeremy. He overheard the conversation and jumped in with, “Yeah, I had never heard of those roads before.” Trying to pass the blame, Dan retorted, “You could have looked it up on Google!” Jeremy and Sam glanced at each other and just nodded.
Finally, Dan nearly back to his office ran into Hank. Hank had the same problem as Scooter. He didn’t understand Dan’s secret code (Hank’s reference).
How could Dan have avoided so many usability errors? How many end-users would he need to test his map with to see where they were having trouble?
Usability testing always provides useful information to design and development. Certainly large studies can lead to insightful information. So too can small studies. With a little upfront usability, Dan’s party would have been much more of a success – although it probably wouldn’t have had much impact for his likeability.
