The Fountain Institute is an independent online school that teaches advanced UX & product skills.
Usability Is the Last Thing You Should Be Testing
Usability Is the Last Thing You Should Be Testing
by Jeff Humble
Dear Reader,
Here's a common scenario you might find yourself in:
Somebody in leadership has been pushing for an idea for a long time, and your team finally gets a chance to tackle it. You want to do this by the books, so you design three versions and run a usability test with five users.
You catch some problems early and start feeling pretty confident in your approach. The executives love the design, so everyone is happy.
The idea is finally built, but customers completely ignore it.
It never gains traction, but nobody knows why. Eventually, the leader realizes the idea is a dud and blames the team's execution for the result.
🤦🏽♀️ What happened here?
You skipped the desirability test.
Usability should have been the last thing you tested.
4 Checks to "Validation"
Rather than validating an idea, you want to put an idea through 4 different validation checks. Here are they are in the most common order:
- Viability, a.k.a. "Should we build this?" - Generally not a design area, validated by business stakeholders
- Feasibility, a.k.a. "Can we build this?" - Generally not a design area, validated by tech stakeholders
- Desirability, a.k.a. "Will people want this?" - Potential for design, validated by users
- Usability, a.k.a. "Will people understand this?" - Owned by design, validated by users
Generally, you will go in that order, meaning usability is the final check and not as crucial as desirability. That might come as a shock to you if you're not aware of the whole process.
Desirability and usability are challenging because they are risks related to people, and people change. What was desirable five years ago may not necessarily be desirable today.
That's why testing is a full-time job. There are always risks related to desirability and usability. Very few designers can test for both.
Testing for desirability is a blind spot for many teams, and it's a good growth role for a senior designer.
Learn more in our four-week course on designing product experiments...only 2 essential seats left!
What methods do you have for testing desirability?
“wErE a FaMiLy HeRe. BrInG yOuR wHoLe SeLf To WoRk.” 🤦🏼♂️ -@tomfall
|
COURSE: Defining UX Strategy COURSE: Facilitating Workshops |
Until next week, y'all! ✌️
|
Jeff Humble |
The Fountain Institute
The Fountain Institute is an independent online school that teaches advanced UX & product skills.
What Can't AI Do in Design in 2026 By Hannah Baker Dear Reader, If you work in design, your feeds are probably saying the same two things on repeat: Here’s everything AI can do for you, and Here’s why you should be terrified. Most of that conversation focuses on tools and job titles: “Will designers be replaced?” “Which roles are safe?” It makes for good headlines, but it’s not how the work actually changes in real life. A few months ago, walking to my studio listening to a Planet Money...
Does the Double Diamond make sense for AI-enabled teams? by Jeff Humble Dear Reader, For twenty years, the Double Diamond has been our north star. Discover, Define, Develop, Deliver. It's elegant. It's teachable. It's in every junior's UX case study. And it made sense…when it was created. All that upfront research made economic sense when coding was the most expensive part of the process. Better to get it right before handoff because it's expensive for engineering to make changes later. But...
When Frameworks Fail and Gut Feelings Take Over By Hannah Baker Dear Reader, You know that moment when the data looks clear, the framework is airtight, and yet something in your stomach says, don’t do it? That’s judgment, the quiet, inconvenient voice that shows up when the evidence has already spoken. It’s also the thing most of us struggle to explain, even though our careers depend on it. Businesses love reasoning. We build frameworks to make decisions look rational, dashboards to make them...