Hashtag User Testing

In any project, there comes a time during development, especially from a design point of view, where it feels like a wall has been hit. You have went along with a design solution for so long now, you can’t just throw it and start again because it’s deeply rooted into the whole solution, but you can barely evolve it further. Even after iterative testing and user feedback, the feedback begins to reduce as the amplitude of change lessens. A complete overhaul isn’t always necessary, a big change however could be accommodated and help to drive the solution further.

The ‘local maximum’ reflects the stage where so many changes have been made to an iteration, that no more can be done to better the outcome.

Not long ago I came across this post on usertesting.com, the first line reading "If you're in the UX industry, you've probably heard the words "omni-channel" and "multi-channel" getting thrown around". That automatically made me feel left out, as no, I hadn't heard them before, or if I did then my subconscious was deceiving me.

So after that punch in the ego I read through the post, taking in and understanding what these 'terms' actually meant and how they were used within UX. It's exactly the kind of thing that if you didn't know and you were in the situation of trying to describe your process, you would be thinking to yourself 'there must be a word for this'.

Using a mobile/web app as an example works perfectly to get the point across so I'll take you through it.

When we have a project to create a new app, we get to the point where we need to test a prototype with real end users to understand how it works in-situ and if it fulfills needs. Depending on the intended structure and media channels for that app, there are two main types of testing that are obvious to choose between.

If the app contains the same experience, the same procedure and the same objective on web and mobile, then you would use multi-channel testing. As the same experience is expected across multiple devices/media channels. This means the user can be tested once on just one of the channels/devices.

If however, the app requires users to sign up online, either within a website or using a web app, in order to then appropriately use a mobile app for that product, you would use omni-channel testing. In simpler terms, there's an experience per media channel, and these all need tested ('omni-experential'...?). This means the user needs to be tested across all channels/devices, not just once and on one device.

This post will serve you well if you didn't know these terms, it will aid you also in describing these types of testing in future by utilising industry jargon.