How to Set Up a Usability Study in Indigo Studio

In this post, we’re going to walk you through how to set up a usability study with Indigo Studio, Infragistics’ rapid prototyping solution. Indigo Studio's remote usability testing makes it easy to gather data from a wide range of users, without worrying about location and scheduling constraints. And it's easy to do.

In short, setting up a study takes four steps:

• Sharing the prototype on indigodesigned.com.
• Creating a usability study.
• Defining tasks.
• Inviting participants.

Let’s go through the steps now, one by one.

1. Share the prototype on indigodesigned.com.

To follow this example, download the Money App prototype. Money App is a prototype that simulates user stories for managing daily expenses. Open the project in Indigo Studio, and click Share Prototype in the Project Home. Click Generate Link to Prototype to publish it with the default settings. Select Manage Shares from the Share Prototype dropdown in the Project Home to go to indigodesigned.com.

2. Create a usability study.

Select the share you just created to see its details. Click on Create Usability Study. Optionally, add welcome and thank you messages.

The welcome message is what your participants will see before starting the study. For the thank you page content, you can suggest future actions for participants completing the study. For example, you might ask them to go complete a post-study survey.

Select Usability Studies in the navigation bar while signed in to indigodesigned.com to see and manage all your studies.

3. Define tasks.

You need at least one task to start a study. To add a task, click on Add a New Task. Then, add a description. To follow the example, type: Assume that you spent some money on a cup of coffee. Record this expense using the app.You won't be there to moderate, so the way you phrase your tasks and the detail in the prototype may influence the outcome of the study. Start recording the flow. Click on Record a Flow. This launches the prototype and the recording interface to define the steps the participant needs to take to complete that task. Mark the starting point.

For this example, it's the start state, the one you're viewing. Depending on the task, you may select any state as the starting point. Interact with the prototype to define the remaining steps. If you make a mistake, you can always undo the last step. Save the task flow.

Once you complete the task as you expect your participants to finish them, save the task flow. And that’s it. You can add as many tasks as you want.

4. Invite participants.

Click the Start this Study button. Use the Invite option to get a direct link to share with participants. Once participation begins, you cannot make changes to your study. When you are happy with the number of participants, you can close the study to prevent additional sessions. 

And that's it! If you haven't tried Indigo Studio yet, get it for free, and start gathering user data on your prototypes today. For more information on usability testing in Indigo Studio, visit Usability Testing at Scale on infragistics.com.