How do you validate new UI?

Peter Chudakov
15 replies
Hey hunters! This is a very important question to us, because recently we have been redesigning the UI of our platform, and it would be great to hear possible ways of validation. Thanks!

Replies

Ask your users or potential users. I also find my children are excellent at giving a clue whether it's user friendly or not!
@slowpokepeter I don't think the method really matters - it's just about talking to potential users. We're using a mix of personal relationships, cold messaging and hopefully some success via posting for beta users on social media.
Peter Chudakov
@maxwellcdavis What is the best way to ask the potential users? Simple cold emails, or we should look for other ways?
Peter Chudakov
@maxwellcdavis Understood. Thanks for your advice(:
Sharath Kuruganty
The best way to get feedback is to build in public. If you are not doing it, you should consider it :) Share the screenshots or tease them. You will find genuine feedback from people when you do that.
Peter Chudakov
@5harath Thanks for sharing! We are definitely looking into starting building in public. From where do you think we should start?
Jake Gutstein
@5harath @slowpokepeter If you have MVP users, go ahead and lean on them (particularly if they're emblematic of your beachhead market).
Peter Chudakov
@5harath @jake_gutstein We are already doing that. I was interested if there are any other possible ways!
Jake Gutstein
@5harath @slowpokepeter You can always pay (https://www.usertesting.com etc.) but I really think real user feedback will always do you the best.
Stefan Morris
Analytics can help - set up reports on your current UI to measure your site, for example: - time spent on pages or navigating pages - setting up funnels and watching their performance - setting up heat maps to see where the user's cursors tend to congregate - etc Now that you have a baseline, you can run the same reports with your new UI to see the differences.
Peter Chudakov
@stefan_morris Thanks for sharing! We already use different metrics to analyze our current page performance. The big question is: how to validate new UI before starting building it.
Stefan Morris
@slowpokepeter I see - well the most common way is to use focus groups. Bring in users to test by giving them specific tasks to accomplish in your UI.
Jake Gutstein
The best approach is to test it in front of people. Can totally be lean by using clickthrough prototypes or screenshots and watching how people react but spending more time getting real user feedback will always do you better than looking at screens internally.
Leandro Henflen
Good question Peter. In the first place, I would consider handling this as a UX validation instead of simple UI. There are several ways to do that and depending on the project this is what I usually do: 1. Run user testing sessions using Lookback + Figma 2. Validate prototypes with Maze adding questions to the user 3. Installing FullStory to review the user's behavior/performance.