Boagworld: UX, Design Leadership, Marketing & Conversion Optimization · Paul Boag, Marcus Lillington

How to Test During a Website Redesign

·1 hr 8 min·5 clips

If users get their first click right, they have an 87% chance of completing the action correctly.

The lesson starts with a moan. Before the UX advice gets tidy, Marcus vents about lockdown, the UK edging toward a tiered system, and the special misery of being an extrovert stuck inside. Paul lets it run for a bit. Then the sprawl turns into the actual question: how do you test during a website redesign without slowing everything down or spending a pile of money? The answer is nicely plain. For usability, Paul says a small group can still expose obvious problems in journeys, labels, and tasks. Six people can tell you a lot. Design testing needs a different touch, because taste is slippery and one person's hatred of blue trousers should not become the whole redesign strategy. That distinction carries the episode. For visual direction, they prefer broader, lighter surveys a client can share through social channels to collect a wider spread of reactions. Thirteen people may start to show a pattern. Paul mentions reading that even a modest group can smooth out the outliers, while joking that nobody needs 130 people for every design dispute. The method fits the thing being tested: sit with a few people for usability, then use unfacilitated tools when you need broader reactions to design. Organizations hover around the whole conversation. Recorded sessions matter because watching users struggle can shift minds faster than one more meeting argument. The hosts know that job well, especially when they are hired to make the case for digital transformation or better tools people already use. Then it wanders back into old man teasing, a Sinead O'Connor reference, a jab at younger listeners, and a hopeful 2021 joke.

As heard by us

A practical redesign guide that separates usability testing from design feedback and shows why recordings can persuade teams.

The piece treats testing as part of redesign work, not as a luxury added at the end, and it draws a clear line between usability testing and design testing.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

You need redesign testing that stays useful without turning the project into molasses.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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