What’s guerilla testing?

Now you learned to create a digital prototype of your idea/solution and the next logical step is to test it with users to find problems as early as possible, and here comes the guerilla testing which – in simple words – is all about getting your product in front of people

Guerrilla testing (also known as hallway usability testing) is a relatively fast and informal way to test ideas to get high-level feedback, and potentially uncover user experience problems.

It can be done pretty much anywhere: a coffee shop, a shopping center, or on the street. Ideally, you’ll test between 8–10 users as part of your hallway test, with each usually lasting for around 10 mins.

Why choose guerrilla testing as a research method or testing technique?

Sometimes you just need a fresh pair of eyes on a solution! Guerrilla testing allows you to go out and ask anyone their thoughts on your product or service. There is no waiting around for recruiters to find people exactly ‘on spec’ nor any travel costs for users.

Guerrilla usability testing can give you a completely blank perspective: someone who has never heard of your software doesn’t work in your company, isn’t from your target demographic, and doesn’t meet your expected level of competency. Those results can be very enlightening but need to be balanced with thoughtful research goals and outcomes.

Remember

Testing in UX design is a continuous process, and we are doing testing in different stages of product development.

so don’t consider it, as a rule, to make guerilla testing only in this specific stage, but you will learn to test any digital product along the way, which will be illustrated in the next section.