James H.

There can never be enough testing, even if it's internally. It is important that you conduct usability tests often to achieve the maximum benefits from the whole design process. Nowadays with better tools, usability tests can be easily beset up and integrated into your development cycle.

Based on your test results, work with your team or product managers to analyze the findings. It is key to be empathetic with an open mind towards the users as more than often the finding may completely be oppositive to the assumptions and worse completely throw the project off the rails. And that is exactly the point of user testing, you can't get too attached to the design and ideas based on gut feeling. It is much safer to bet money on designs that are improved based on the results and feedback of the test.

Once you've got an idea or an MVP design, conduct usability testing before putting any more design effort to help you Identify specific areas where testing and validation can enhance your concept. With the results from these initial tests, collaborate and share knowledge with the team where ideas and designs can be refined and reiterated.

There is no one-size-fits-all just like it's impossible to follow a methodology perfectly. Usability testing for example is often done in the early stages to identify roadblocks or changes that would otherwise be risky as a cost in the final stages of development. Startups tend to follow this but for more mature teams, testing can be done in conjunction with the product being built say to remove roadblocks.

Low or High-fidelity prototype or not, you need to be clear about which functionalities and features you want to test and build the prototype accordingly to ensure a smooth and successful test. Another thing to keep in mind that is often missed is choosing the right group to test. Not everyone is the target audience say, an online art store. For enterprise products, this step is somewhat simpler, as the target audience is targeted and well-defined.

A plan is undoubtedly the most crucial step in the whole process. In this stage, ensure that you have clearly defined goals. Do you want to collect qualitative data or quantitative data? Do you want the users to interact with the navigation or the aesthetic? These answers will lead you to build the right prototype for user testing. One thing to keep in mind is to limit your goals in order to get clear, concise, and specific results out of your testing.