Insightful usability testing with just a few participants.

Testing to find usability issues is never a waste, no matter your budget.

Because zero users give zero insights.

Five people find more than 75% of the issues in the current version of a design.

So you only need a few people for usability testing?

Just a few people will give you very valuable insights. But I recommend testing as many people as possible. Just not all at once. It’s best to test with a small group of people – iterate your design and test again. I value usability testing across many small tests.

The essential things that help me to improve the usability of my designs are:

1. Usability tests
   
   
2. Iterative Design
   
   
3. Defining distinct groups of users.
   
   

If you target multiple distinct user groups. You need more participants for each round of testing. You only need a few if your target audience is interacting with your design in similar ways.

Insightful usability testing does not have to be very expensive and complex.