We’re planning to do UAT before we release.

I often hear this when product teams are working with white-label third-party software or updating an existing web application from 1998 Visual Basic to a modern design.

User Acceptance Testing appears to fulfill the user-centered checkbox. Still, in actuality, sometimes it’s someone imitating the user who is verifying the system’s functionality and unintentionally ignoring the context of use, the usability of the system, and user satisfaction.

Bringing in a UX researcher to conduct a usability test of the completed product will uncover usability issues and user satisfaction, but there is a better way. All products need some amount of UX research, but not all need the full spectrum of generative to evaluative research.

This is where scoping the research activities to meet budget and schedule constraints play an important role in product delivery. Benchmarking the performance and user satisfaction of the current system with a survey is a great way to identify the legacy system’s good, bad, and ugly parts. It is also useful for identifying which users are open to answering additional questions about their answers.

All survey results are anonymous, and users opt-in to provide their email addresses for follow-up questions. I have a standard survey that I use, a few tweaks here and there, and it’s ready for a new user group and system. I can analyze the survey results while a UX designer develops wireframes or prototypes. A quick user feedback session on a redesigned prototype will benefit the team.

Iterating on the feedback allows the team to develop a more robust redesign that meets the user’s needs and addresses their pain points with the current system.