Post-Implementation - Most Important

Sometimes even the best interfaces cannot meet the changing requirements of the typical workplace. In this case, post-implementation user testing can pick up the difficulties that were not picked up first time around.

They Think it's All Over ...but they've forgotten the need for post-implementation user testing

You would be forgiven for thinking that the lifespan of the typical usability project ends with final implementation and a product or website's release into the market. In one sense it does - the user-centred design process is over, and presumably the result is an easy-to-use product or site that is already yielding results. All well and good - but sometimes even the best interfaces cannot meet the changing requirements of the typical workplace. In this case, post-implementation user testing can pick up the difficulties that were not picked up first time around.

At this point the client may quite rightly be wondering why these problems weren't spotted before deployment. The reason lies in the way in which the user has developed alongside the product. First impressions, whether favourable or not, may turn out to be misleading after an extended period of use. For example:

Users exposed to the same product or interface for an extended period of time become extremely sensitive to time delays. The type of pauses and waiting times that may not be commented during a single test may have become sources of great irritation to staff who have used a product for six months.

First-time users are likely to be extremely impressed with features that may, after a longer period of use, be regarded as frustrating or simply ignored. Microsoft's 'Help' characters, whose incessant prompting causes most experienced users to remove them completely, might fall into this category.

Customisable interfaces may have changed so much over the course of time that original features are now lost, and tasks once prioritised are now difficult to complete effectively. The ability to easily restore default settings will help avoid this problem - post-implementation testing will help to spot it when it happens.

External environment (including the hardware upon which applications and sites may be run), so easily controlled during a test, may also have changed considerably over time. Elements added to or removed from these environments may dramatically change user requirements from the application in question.