
Summary: UX Practitioners, and more importantly stakeholders must avoid making the mistake of over-generalizing or incorrectly observing user test sessions. Since the purpose of usability testing is to create informed design decisions, this is not a trivial issue. Poor (biased) observations are rampant. Let's fix this now!
Avoiding These User Testing Observation Traps...
Observing a usability test seems straight forward: watch and form an opinion. It is that simple, but if you are not careful of the way your mind works, you can end up with the wrong set of take-aways-- a potential disaster to what otherwise could be a rich learning experience. Here are the main things you need to avoid and be aware of, to get the most from your observations: