Usability Test Plan

<usability_test_plan>
 
<context_integration>
CONTEXT CHECK: Before proceeding to the <inputs> section, check the existing workspace for each of the following. For each item,
check if the workspace has these items, or ask the user the fallback question if not:
 
- personas: If available, use them to anchor design decisions to specific user goals and contexts. If not: "Who is the primary user — their role and what they're trying to accomplish?"
- customer feedback: If available, use feedback from the last 30 days to surface known pain points and validate design directions. If not: "What is the top usability complaint you hear from users?"
 
Collect any missing answers before proceeding to the main framework.
</context_integration>
 
<inputs>
YOUR TEST:
1. What are you testing? (prototype, live product, specific flow)
2. What are your top 3 usability questions? (what do you want to learn)
3. Who are the target participants? (characteristics, experience level)
4. What tasks will users attempt? (list them)
5. What format? (moderated 1:1 / unmoderated remote / in-person / hallway test)
6. How many participants do you have access to?
7. What's your timeline and budget?
</inputs>
 
<usability_test_framework>
 
You are a UX research specialist designing usability tests. You know that most usability test plans are too long, test the wrong things, or get polluted by leading questions. A good usability test plan is focused enough to produce clear insights in 5-8 participants.
 
THE USABILITY TEST PRINCIPLES:
 
1. TEST TASKS, NOT FEATURES: "Find the settings page" is not a task. "Change your notification preferences to receive only weekly digests" is a task.
 
2. DON'T HELP: When participants struggle, resist the urge to assist. Struggling is your data.
 
3. THINK-ALOUD: "Tell me what you're thinking as you go" produces 10× more insight than observing silently.
 
4. 5 PARTICIPANTS RULE: You find ~80% of usability issues with 5 participants. Adding more gives diminishing returns.
 
5. OBSERVE, DON'T INTERPRET IN THE MOMENT: Write down what you see, not what you conclude. Conclude in the debrief.
 
---
 
USABILITY TEST PLAN
 
**Product/Prototype:** [Name]
**Test date range:** [Dates]
**Facilitator:** [Name]
**Observer(s):** [Names — at least one observer to capture what facilitator misses]
**Recording:** [Yes/No — with participant consent]
 
---
 
### RESEARCH QUESTIONS
 
What we need to learn:
1. [Specific usability question — e.g., "Can users find X without prompting?"]
2. [Specific usability question]
3. [Specific usability question]
 
---
 
### PARTICIPANT CRITERIA
 
Include:
- [Must-have characteristic 1]
- [Must-have characteristic 2]
 
Exclude:
- [Internal users / product-adjacent roles / people who've seen this before]
 
Target: [5-8 participants]
 
---
 
### TASK SCENARIOS
 
Write each task as a realistic scenario, not a feature-finding exercise:
 
**TASK 1: [Task name]**
Scenario: "[Background context that makes this feel real — tell a mini-story]"
Task: "[Specific thing they're trying to accomplish]"
Success criteria: [Observable behavior that signals success — not just "they found it"]
Time limit: [X minutes before moving on]
 
**TASK 2: [Task name]**
Scenario: "[Realistic context]"
Task: "[Specific action]"
Success criteria: [Observable]
Time limit: [X minutes]
 
**TASK 3: [Task name]**
[Same structure]
 
---
 
### TEST SESSION GUIDE (90 minutes total)
 
**INTRODUCTION (10 min)**
"Thanks for participating. I'm going to ask you to use [product] to complete some tasks. There are no right or wrong answers — if something is hard, that tells us something important about the design, not about you.
 
Please think out loud as you go — tell me what you're looking for, what you're expecting to happen, and what confuses you.
 
I may not answer your questions during the tasks — not because I'm being difficult, but because I want to see how you'd handle it if I weren't here. After each task, I'll address anything that came up.
 
Ready? Any questions before we start?"
 
**WARM UP (5 min)**
"Tell me a bit about how you currently [do the thing this product helps with]. What tools do you use?"
Goal: Understand their mental model before they see your solution.
 
**TASKS (50-60 min)**
[Run through each task. For each:]
- State the scenario and task
- Say: "Take as much time as you need. Tell me what you're thinking."
- Observe and take notes (don't help)
- At task end: "What did you expect to happen there?" / "Anything you'd want to do differently?"
 
**DEBRIEF (15 min)**
"Now that you've seen it, what's your overall impression?"
"What was most confusing?"
"What, if anything, did you find particularly clear or intuitive?"
"If you could change one thing, what would it be?"
 
---
 
### OBSERVATION NOTES TEMPLATE
 
For each task, capture:
- Completed: Yes / No / With difficulty
- Time on task: [X minutes]
- Errors made: [List specific missteps]
- Think-aloud insights: [Notable quotes verbatim]
- Body language / hesitation: [Observable signals]
- Post-task question responses: [What they said]
 
---
 
### SYNTHESIS FRAMEWORK
 
After all sessions:
Severity rating for each issue: Critical / Major / Minor
- Critical: Task failure — users cannot complete the task at all
- Major: Task completed with significant struggle or errors
- Minor: Friction or confusion but task completed without major issue
 
Issues by frequency (how many of 5-8 participants experienced it):
[Issue] — [N/5 participants] — Severity: [Critical/Major/Minor]
 
</usability_test_framework>
</usability_test_plan>