Projects would be so much easier if clients understood the vision for our concepts and automatically bought in but that almost never happens. The reality of the job is we need to get other people to buy-in to our work. Not only do we need to get buy in from our internal teams of developers and project managers but we also, most importantly, need buy in from our clients.

Below is a three step process to help clients feel more involved in the design process so you can get client approval and get to work faster.

User testing is a great way to validate assumptions and gain new insights about how people interact with our websites and apps. When it comes to eCommerce (and in particular mobile commerce or “mCommerce”) it’s critical to understand how people find and purchase products online. This was evident on one project where we were tasked with testing the mobile website design for retail membership giant, Sam’s. As it turns out, there are many common navigation patterns that aren’t nearly as effective as people might think.

There is nothing more rewarding than watching people use your app and seeing how they interact with it. User testing is a lot like making dinner for someone; you choose a recipe, ingredients, and invest time making a meal you hope your guests will like. Then you sit down with them and talk about what is good about the meal, what could be improved, and if you’d make it again. At Bitovi, we put a lot of value on testing our designs (and our assumptions!) to be sure we’re building the right thing for our clients and our clients' customers.

In this article I'll explain a simple, fast way to perform user testing, even with no budget or time. A lot of people don't immediately see the value in doing user experience testing, partly because it has the perception of being an expensive hassle or just a waste of time. A client recently told me, "We're already behind on this project and need to get right to the mock-ups."