Rocket Surgery Made Easy
The Do-It-Yourself Guide to Finding and Fixing Usability Problems
New Riders / 2010 / 168 pages
It’s no secret…
Anyone who’s done them—or even just watched one—knows that usability tests work.
In fact, after years as a usability consultant I’m convinced that they’re the single best way to improve the user experience of a product.
But even though almost everyone now understands that improved user experience (UX) can increase sales (thanks, Steve Jobs!), usability testing still doesn’t happen often enough.
So, what keeps people from doing it?
That’s easy: They think usability testing requires a lot of time, effort, and expertise.
But they’re wrong. I know from years of experience–and personally teaching hundreds of people how to do it–that almost anyone can do effective, valuable usability tests quickly and easily.
Why? Because a usability test really boils down to just doing two simple things:
I wrote this book to show just how easy it is
Rocket Surgery is a how-to book for doing your own usability tests.
In 168 pages, it explains everything you need to know to conduct tests. Written in the same non-technical-but-informative style as Don’t Make Me Think, it includes all the scripts, checklists, and handouts you’ll need.
If you’re thinking it can’t be as simple as I’m saying, watch this recording of a demo usability test that I made to accompany the book.
You’ll see that there’s really no trick to it, and you’ll be surprised at how much you can learn with very little effort.
Who should read it?
Anyone who’s never done usability testing, and wants to start.- Developer and designers who want to improve their own work by doing some informal testing.
- UX professionals interested in doing leaner testing.
- Product managers who want their teams to do more testing.
Where to buy it
NOTE: Some of these are affiliate links, meaning that at no additional cost to you, I might earn a small commission if you click through and make a purchase.
Try before you buy
FAQ
What's the difference between this and Don't Make Me Think?
- Don’t Make Me Think is a book about how to think about usability. It’s an introduction to usability/UX/user-centered design principles.
- Rocket Surgery is about how to do usability. It’s a how-to book that shows you how to do your own simple, fast, effective usability tests.
There is some overlap, because Think also explains what usability testing is and why you should do it. But the books are really very different.
I’m not going to be doing usability tests myself. Do I need this?
If you manage people who do testing, I’d definitely recommend reading it, since it may show you a better way for them to work. (You might even end up buying copies for them to read.)
Does this only work for testing Web sites? What about apps, for instance?
The book focuses mostly on testing Web sites a) to keep it short and uncomplicated, and b) because when I wrote it in 2010 web sites were much more widely used than apps.
But the same method can be used to improve almost anything that people use. Web, mobile, and desktop applications are obvious candidates, but it’s just as effective for things like PowerPoint presentations and election ballots.
On the Downloads page, you’ll find test scripts I’ve added specifically for testing mobile web sites and apps.
Are you suggesting that amateurs can do testing as well as experienced professionals?
No. Professionals will always (well, nearly always) be able to do a better job.
A professional
- will have valuable experience setting up and facilitating a test
- has usually seen the same usability problems many times and knows a lot about how to fix them, and
- may be in a better position to spell out unpleasant truths.
My point is that almost all amateurs can do a good job (good enough to be very valuable), and there are rarely enough professionals available to do as much testing as is needed. Getting it done is far more important than doing it “perfectly.”