These days we’re all under pressure to produce new software, new features and new interface improvements quickly.  And the speed demanded by a market of disruptors and startups is ever-increasing.

Within this context, techniques such as agile and lean startup can help immensely to identify critical issues, bring people together in constructive forms and ensure a focus on delivery of software.  However, in the rush to ideate, build an MVP and launch, we can still sometimes forget to validate assumptions and fail to incorporate the right kind of user input through selected contextual research.  When this happens, sometimes the results can be frustrating; other times they can be disastrous.

Two recent instances have highlighted this.  One is well known:  Microsoft’s now-infamous Tay AI bot fiasco.  The other is virtually unknown but personally frustrating to me:  the recent relaunch of the public website for my son’s school Trinity Grammar.

Continue reading “How user testing can go wrong: two case studies” →