A4: The test station card

[GIVE THIS TO THE ROOM · for whoever runs your station, 15:30 to 16:00]

YOUR STATION

One laptop or phone with the prototype open. Two chairs. Your sticky-note assumptions where you can see them. You get several users, five to eight minutes each.

Open with life, not the screen (one minute). "Before I show you anything: tell me about the last time you [the problem moment from the brief]." Past behaviour first. It tells you how to read everything they do next.

Hand over and go quiet. One real task from the brief: "You have 90 seconds. Find tonight's outfit." Then silence. If they stall: "what are you thinking?" If they ask "should I click this?": "what would you do at home?" Never explain the interface. Every hint erases a finding.

Watch for three things, write them as they happen:

1. Where they hesitate
2. Where they tap something expecting it to do something it does not
3. Whether they can say what this is for after the first screen

The log, one line per user: what they tried → what they did → what they said. Behaviour, not conclusions. Three honest rows is a tested prototype.

Discount on sight: compliments, "I would definitely use this", and feature requests. Polite noise. What they did is the data.

The thing that failed teaches you more than the thing they praised.

Sources: built on Rob Fitzpatrick's The Mom Test and Jakob Nielsen's thinking-aloud method.