Mini-User Testing Practice During Agile Development: The Results of a Survey Conducted with User Centric Specialists

Abstract

In ergonomic practices, user testing is a central method to get feed-back from users regarding usability. In the last decade, new design methods have emerged like agile method, design thinking, lean startup. Most of these methods are looking for direct user’s feedback. In this context, in 2013 we published a book “user-centered agile method” which goal was to propose a method which enables to have continuous user’s feedback during the entire life circle of a project integrating agile development. Our approach was to take advantage of agile method to apply user testing also during development that is, during each agile iteration. We call this kind of user testing, applying around five participants, “mini-user testing”. Four years later, we wanted to evaluate the usage of “mini user testing” during agile development, into our ergonomists community and what it could imply regarding the evolution of these community’s practices. To answer these questions, we built a questionnaire which was filled by two survey populations. This article reports the results of this study.