Touchstone tours

What it is

An in-situ observation interview hybrid method where the user shows you around a meaningful space/product so you can observe their experiences and explore their feelings and thoughts.

Pros & Cons

Pros:

  • Uncover people’s mental model of the system.
  • Identify any parts that they DON’T use(underused features) or aren’t even aware of (hidden or unclear features).
  • Understand people’s feelings about the system and its context: their bahaviours, explanations, facial expressions and so on.

Cons:

  • You may not get the right target audience.
  • Sessions are short so you will lose some of the insights that you would get from formal user testing.
  • Might not be appropriate for all types of websites or apps.

How to use

Checklist:

  1. Equipment for the product that you want to evaluate: a PC for a website, a phone for an app
  2. A moderator and (optionally) a notetaker
  3. Script: a list of tasks for participants to complete and instruction guidance for the moderator

Participants: at least 5

Steps:

  1. Sit down at the equipment with a user.
  2. The moderator asks the user to speak aloud as they complete each task, tell them “Pretend I’m a new [their role]. Explain [system] to me and show me how you use it.”
  3. Quietly notes their behaviours and any difficulties they encounter.
  4. Review the notes taken by the moderator, watch recordings of the sessions, and conduct any additional analysis as needed.

Tips & variations

  • If necessary, prompt with very basic, non-leading questions, keeping up the roleplay of a clueless newbie: “what do you mean?”, “what’s that for?”
  • Ideally have someone else observing and taking notes.
  • Do on their own device for extra insight into shortcuts & workarounds like bookmarks.
  • Do it remotely using zoom
  • Record it so you can rewatch and analyse further.

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