Book Report: Rocket Surgery Made Easy by Steve Krug
Rocket Surgery made Easy
The Do-It-Yourself Guide to Finding and Fixing Usability Problems
In this how-to companion to Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability, Steve Krug spells out a streamlined approach to usability testing that anyone can easily apply to their own Web site, application, or other product. (As he said in Don't Make Me Think, "It's not rocket surgery".)
I picked up Rocket Surgery Made Easy because I wanted to formalize my understanding of usability testing. At this point, I have only done small scale tests using whatever people are at hand. None of the projects I’ve worked on have had the budget or resources to do more than that—or so I thought!
Krug outlines a ‘do-it-yourself’ approach to usability testing that seems entirely possible to do with very little resources. The book describes in great detail how to conduct observable usability tests, why it’s important to do this regularly, and how to get stakeholders on board. Krug’s colorful writing style makes his otherwise dry subject matter surprisingly entertaining. The book is packed full of useful resources like checklists, scripts, recommendations for software and services, schedules, test timing, and suggestions for how to test on a range of budgets. I will definitely keep this book in my library for future reference.
Krug discusses a few common problems that testing reveals, but this book is more about the mechanics of actually doing the tests. He describes a test taking procedure that takes one entire day, involves as many stakeholders as you can wrangle, and observes three user test subjects. He explains the how and why of doing this on a monthly basis.
I especially liked how he talks about the soft skills involved with facilitating tests—interacting with test subjects, navigating office politics, and how to keep stakeholders on track during debriefing meetings.
I feel confident after reading this book that I could pull off regular testing given the right project. I also now see the value in involving as many stakeholders as possible —because ‘seeing-is-believing’ is the key to buy-in from an entire organization.