From the life of the usability lab Mail.Ru Group

Our usability lab is a fun place. Not because the team we have got so close, although it didn’t manage without it. It’s just that a variety of people come to us to research software products, and they often make us happy with their statements, comments and exclamations. Very sincere, and therefore especially valuable in terms of analyzing the convenience of interfaces, structure and internal software logic. We even record the most interesting and amusing cases with our respondents, and today we want to share with you some of these notes.



The usability lab of Mail.Ru Group is equipped with powerful equipment for conducting various studies with users. This is a Tobii monitor with built-in eyetracking; and a mobile test bench for smartphones and tablets, also capable of recording eye movements; and BioPac - an apparatus for recording the psycho-physiological reactions of the user.





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But the main "ingredient" of competent research is, of course, users. We love our users very much, because their criticism and wishes are the most valuable for the product.



We calculated that the Mail.Ru Group usability laboratory runs, on average, 40–50 people a month, and today we’ll tell you about various nice and funny cases related to respondents.











One man, once having been at usability testing, once again, tried to get to us twice within three months, coming under different surnames (and the entrance to us is only on the passport). Each time we politely explained that we could only come to us once, and poured him coffee. :)



Another man came to the morning test in a somewhat ... altered state of consciousness. As it turned out, in the evening the day before the test was a very important football match.



Another one came to us in slippers (no, it was not an employee).



During the tests, respondents are able to find out a lot of new information. Women who came to the usability testing of the project "Horoscopes", said that they choose the color of the dress, depending on which planet affects the current day of the week. They also said that they would cancel the meeting with the boyfriend if they read in the horoscope about the upcoming quarrel.



The sweetest case was when testing the “Answers” ​​project, when the respondent refused to take a reward, arguing that he could not take money from his beloved project. But agreed to a souvenir.



We were very worried when pregnant women came to us to test the “Children” project, but everything went well. It happened that moms came with their children. While the moms were busy, the children enjoyed themselves in our lounge area.



And now we give quotes from the respondents, which we carefully collect and hang on the wall above the desktops.



Usability testing of gifts in the social network Odnoklassniki. Users say about gifts:

• “Horns once received with a fool ... Well, I thought, they themselves will disappear”
• "When a man gives such a hat, it is very sad ... You still have to give me VKontakte fur coat!"
• “Size is not the main thing”

Usability testing site ArcheAge:

• "Wait for an account to create, we have not yet finished foreplay"
• "The sea can be made sweeter"

Usability testing of the Auto Mail.Ru project:

• “I have little interest in the laws, because I do not comply with them” [about traffic rules]
• "Such an article is long, so it happens that the author has suffered and carried out"
• "I do not like to write, I do not like to read"

Interviews with Mail.Ru Search project users:

• “I am such a preservative in this regard” [about adopting new features]
• "We have shoveled half of the Internet"
• "For so much time on the Internet, everything has already been found"

And for dessert, we shot a short video about our laboratory: