Usability Testing Checklist Template

Owned by the researcher. Enter the date of the first session on the first task: the planning counts back from it in working days, and the sessions, analysis and follow-up count forward. Choose the method there too, so the checklist shows only the tasks for a moderated or an unmoderated study.

• Set up the study: the product, the method, the first session date and the people — the study’s name, the product or service and the part being tested, whether the study is moderated in person, moderated remotely or unmoderated, the date of the first session, and the researcher, product owner, designer, note-taker, data protection lead and study approver; later tasks are assigned from these fields
• Write the research questions — what the team needs to learn from this study, written as questions the sessions can answer, and the decision the answers will feed
• Agree what the study covers and what it leaves out — the journeys, screens or features in scope, the prototype or build version that will be tested, and anything the team has agreed not to test this time
• Set the success measures — what counts as success on each task (for example finished without help, finished with help, not finished), any measures you will record, and whether the study looks for problems or measures performance
• Review earlier research, feedback and known issues — findings from earlier rounds, analytics, support tickets and user feedback, so the study does not spend sessions on problems the team already knows about

Decide how the study runs, who takes part and how many. The recording answer adds the storage and clip tasks, and the participants answer adds the tasks for disabled participants, children or vulnerable adults and health information.

• Confirm the method and why it fits the questions — why a moderated or an unmoderated study suits these research questions, and where the sessions take place
• Decide how the sessions are recorded and noted — whether screens, audio or video are recorded, who takes notes, and how notes are written so they can be matched to a participant number
• Define who to recruit — the user groups, the experience or situation participants need, the ways they reach the service, and the spread of age, gender, ethnicity, disability and background to aim for
• Set the number of participants — how many participants in each user group, and how many rounds, with the reason
• Choose how to recruit and the incentive — a recruitment agency, a participant panel, existing users who have agreed to be contacted, a charity or community group, or colleagues for an internal service, and the incentive for each participant
• Choose the tools and check the providers’ data terms — the prototype tool, the video call or testing tool, the recording and note-taking tools, and whether each provider’s terms say what participants’ data is used for and when it is deleted

Participants’ contact details, screener answers, notes and recordings are personal data. Record the lawful basis, write the information sheet and the consent form, then recruit, screen and book the participants. Recruiting runs from the screener to about a week before the sessions, so it overlaps Phase 4.

• Confirm and record the lawful basis for participants’ data — the lawful basis under UK GDPR for using participants’ personal data in this study, why it applies, and whether a data protection impact assessment is needed
• Confirm the extra condition for health or disability information — the condition under UK GDPR Article 9 that allows the study to use health or disability information, recorded beside the lawful basis, and how little of that information the screener and sessions need
• Write the information sheet and privacy information — a plain-language sheet that says who is doing the research and why, what happens in the session, whether it is observed and recorded, what data is kept, who it is shared with, how long it is kept, that taking part is voluntary and can be stopped at any time, and how to complain
• Prepare the consent form, including the recording — the form or script participants agree to, covering taking part, observers, the recording and how the data is used, and how you will keep evidence of each participant’s consent
• Arrange consent from a parent, guardian or carer — how you will get informed consent from both the participant and a parent, guardian, carer or other responsible adult, and who will be present at the session
• Write the screener questions — the questions that check each person meets the recruitment criteria, asking only for what you need, and how the answers are kept
• Recruit and screen the participants — each participant recorded by participant number rather than name, with their group, session time and status, so notes, recordings and consent can be matched without names
• Arrange access needs and assistive technology — how each participant wants to be contacted, any communication support such as a sign language interpreter, their own assistive technology and devices, materials in the format they need, and help getting to the venue
• Confirm the sessions and send the information sheet — a time confirmed with each participant, the information sheet and consent form sent in advance in a format they can use, and the calendar shared with the note-taker and observers

This phase runs alongside recruiting in Phase 3, so some of its tasks fall due before recruiting ends. Write the tasks participants will try and the script or on-screen instructions, then prepare the prototype and the room, the call or the testing tool.

• Write the task scenarios and put them in order — a short, realistic scenario for each task that sets a clear goal without hinting at the answer, the research question each one answers, the order they run in and the length of the session
• Write the discussion guide and introduction script — the introduction that says who you are, explains the research and reminds the participant about the recording, each task with its instructions, the follow-up questions and a planning checklist for the day
• Write the on-screen instructions and follow-up questions — instructions that make sense with no one there to explain them, the questions shown after each task and at the end, and an address participants can write to if something does not work
• Prepare the prototype or build and the test data — a version that will not change during the sessions, accounts or dummy data for participants to use, and a way to reset it between sessions
• Book an accessible room and the equipment — a lab, meeting room or visit that suits the participants, step-free and accessible, with any interpreter or assistant booked, the devices and recording equipment, and time between sessions
• Set up the video call and screen sharing — the call link, how the participant shares their screen, how observers join without being seen or heard, and a short test with each participant’s device if they are unsure
• Build the study in the testing tool — the tasks in order, any screener in the tool, the recording settings, the follow-up questions and the number of completed sessions to collect
• Brief the note-taker and observers — the note-taking template, where observers watch from, that they stay quiet during tasks, and how they protect participants’ privacy
• Set up where recordings are stored and who can see them — an approved place for the recordings, named by date, round and participant number, with access limited to the people who need it and no copying or downloading where the technology allows

A pilot tests the study itself before real participants see it. The go or no-go halts the checklist: the session tasks cannot be completed until the study approver completes it.

• Run the pilot session — one or two practice sessions with a colleague or a participant, run exactly as planned, checking the task wording, the timing, the consent steps, the recording and the tools
• Fix the tasks, script and set-up after the pilot — the changes to tasks, wording, timing, tools or consent materials that the pilot showed were needed
• Put right what stopped the study going ahead — the problems the study approver named, fixed, and the pilot run again if the tasks or tools changed
• Approve the go or no-go for the sessions — the study approver checks that the pilot went well, the tasks and script are final, the lawful basis, information sheet and consent form are ready, recordings have an approved home, and participants are booked, then decides Go or Not yet

Run each session the same way, take notes on what people do and say, and keep consent, incentives and data in order as you go.

• Launch the unmoderated study — a reminder or invitation with the study link, the study opened to the first few participants, their sessions checked, then opened to the rest
• Run the moderated sessions — a reminder the day before, a check that consent is in place, the incentive given at the start, the introduction script, each task introduced neutrally with the participant thinking aloud, follow-up questions at the end, and a short debrief with the note-taker after each session
• Take notes and log observations — for each participant number, what the participant did and said on each task, written as observed rather than interpreted, with the time in the recording where it happened
• Check each recording and replace sessions that cannot be used — each completed session watched, sessions with technical problems or skipped tasks set aside with the reason, and more participants invited if the round falls short
• Check consent for every session and act on any withdrawal — a consent record matched to every participant number, and any participant who withdrew has their data deleted
• Confirm every incentive is paid and thank the participants — each incentive paid or sent, any expenses for disabled participants covered, and a thank-you that says what happens next with the research
• Move the session data to approved storage — notes, photos, forms and any recordings moved off laptops, phones and recorders to approved storage, paper scanned and shredded, and access limited to the people who need it

Turn the notes into findings while the sessions are fresh, rate how serious each problem is, and answer each research question.

• Hold the analysis session and sort the observations — everyone who observed invited, observations written one to a note, sorted into themes such as tasks, screens or user groups, and each theme named
• Write the findings for each research question — short statements of what was learned, the evidence for each, the success measures for each task, and the answer to each research question, including any question the study could not answer
• Rate the severity of each problem — each usability problem listed with the tasks and participants it affected and a severity rating, judged on how often it happens, how hard it is to get past and whether it keeps getting in the way

Share what the study found, agree what to fix and in what order, and get the fixes into the backlog with their severity.

• Write up the findings and recommendations — a short report or playback deck with the research questions, the method and participants, the findings, the problems by severity and the recommendations, using anonymised quotes and screenshots
• Remove personal data from the clips you share — names, faces where needed, contact details and anything confidential blurred or bleeped in clips and screenshots, and clips that still identify someone shared only with the people who need them
• Present the findings to the team — a playback to the product team and stakeholders, with time to discuss the problems and a reminder not to share participants’ details outside the session
• Agree which problems to fix and in what order — the product owner’s decision on each problem: fix now, fix later or not fix, with the reason, starting from the most severe
• Add the fixes to the backlog — a backlog item for each agreed fix, with the problem, the evidence, the severity and a link to the findings

Plan how the fixes will be tested again, record what to change next time, and close the data down: contact details deleted and a deletion date set for everything else.

• Plan the re-test of the fixes — which fixes need testing again, the method, and the date of the next round, which runs as a new checklist from this template
• Record what to change in the next study — what worked and what did not in the recruiting, tasks, sessions and analysis, and any change to this checklist
• Delete contact details and set the deletion date for the research data — participants’ contact details deleted now that the study is over, and a deletion date set for the notes, recordings and consent records in line with your retention policy