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Building a new and improved user testing process for Webmaker together

TLDR version:

• We’re starting on a new and improved user testing process for Webmaker. Building a more regular and agile way to gather and implement feedback from our community is a key priority this year.
• The goal: make our tools, new features and Webmaker.org work better for the people we want to serve. Especially teachers, informal educators, Hive members, and Mozillians.
• It’s more than just “user testing.“ It’s about bringing our lead users closer into the design and build process — to co-build, share ownership and take Webmaker UX to the next level.

How to Get Involved

1. Attend our prototype user testing session. Jan 24 in the Mozilla Toronto community space. (Sign up on EventBrite here)
2. Help build a new Webmaker user testing kit. So that other community members can host their own user testing sessions around the world.
3. Sign up for updates and discussion on the Webmaker newsgroup. To discuss user testing, find out when the new user testing kit is done, and just generally contribute.

Prototyping the process

We’re thinking of this first event as a mini user testing science fair, or “feedback fest.” Here’s the basic recipe for our prototype user testing event on Jan 24:

• Invite 20 – 30 community. Ideally, a representative mix of our lead users: teachers, Hive-members, and techies new to teaching.
• Set up user-testing “stations.” Anyone can propose something they’d like to test — a new feature, tool, watching users try to perform a task, etc. Participants can wander from booth to booth, “Science Fair”-style. (The draft list of Jan 24 user testing stations is here.)
• Offer a mix of testing and training. To make sure participants are getting good as much value from the process as we are. (We know some of the participants are curious about using Popcorn, for example, so we’re going to offer a “Popcorn for Beginners” station, too.)
• Document the test results. Ensure the testers have tools and best practices for easily documenting the results and learnings they come away with. And a bit of methodology to use.
• Give swag. Make sure we reward our participants with some nice swag and hearty applause.
• Build relationships. Once we’re done, we’ll have some drinks and snacks and turn it into a bit of an open mixer. To bring Webmaker designers, developers, and users closer together and just generally jam.
• Document it. So that we can use the event as a model for a Webmaker User Testing Kit others can follow.

Building a Webmaker User Testing Kit together

I just saw this bug and I am damn interested to help you out. Can I be told how to join you and help testing webmaker? (p.s I am a peer in the webmaker task force of Bangladesh) –Tanha Islam, Mozilla Reps

This is just a prototype event. The real prize, of course, is a community-driven system that scales. Since we first started working on this ticket, we’ve received requests from a number of community asking how they can get involved.

We think the best approach is to write and localize a Webmaker user testing kit. Like our current Webmaker event guides, but specifically geared towards user testing.

We haven’t started writing it, yet — our plan was to host and learn from this prototype event first. But if you’d like to get involved in building the kit, here’s how:

• Add yourself to this ticket. That’s where we’ll track and manage the process of writing, designing and shipping it.
• Add to the user testing kit draft here. Help write it up. Or add links to existing user testing resources, guides or best practices you think would be good to follow.