First Fridays Product Testing Program

First Fridays Product Testing Program (a.k.a. GSA First Fridays) is a usability testing and education program that focuses exclusively on federal government websites.  We've tested more than 37 federal sites to date, including IRS, Census, USAJOBS, and the Department of Transportation.

Schedule of Upcoming First Fridays Tests

How First Fridays Works

Types of Tests

How You Can Join In

Learn How to Facilitate Tests

First Fridays Toolkit

Schedule of Upcoming First Fridays Tests

Date/Time: Friday, June 1, 2012, from 9 AM–1:30 PM ET

Date/Time: Wednesday, June 20, 2012, from 9 AM-1:30PM ET

Date/Time: Friday, July 6, 2012, from 9 AM-1:30PM ET

Contact: First Fridays to volunteer as a test participant or observer

How First Fridays Works

First Fridays Product Testing Program is a twice-monthly demonstration project aimed at teaching agency staff how to find and fix usability problems on government websites and applications. We test on the first Friday and third Wednesday of every month.

During a four-hour session, GSA asks three recruited participants to perform 35 minutes of tasks on the test website. Site stakeholders observe the participants doing the tasks from another room. After the test, the observers debrief over lunch and identify the three most serious problems and quick-fix solutions to be completed within 30 days. We send site stakeholders a short report and test recordings, and we follow up with them 2-3 weeks after the test. Agency employees may sign up for facilitator training.

First Fridays is based on "discount" usability testing supported by industry leaders, including Steve Krug in his latest book, Rocket Surgery Made Easy.

Schedule of First Friday Product Testing

Types of Tests

First Fridays provides the following kinds of usability testing services:

• Formal Tests- Day-long tests of a live or staged website, which include recruiting three test participants, creating tasks for them to accomplish. Observers will be in another room monitoring the test and taking notes.
• Hallway Tests- Also known as "Quick Tests," these involve creating paper prototypes or printouts of a web page or pages, and getting feedback from a large group of people in a public space, usually at random.

How You Can Join In

• To offer your site, or to volunteer as a test participant or observer, contact First Fridays .
• After you’ve had an opportunity to observe a First Fridays Product test, come learn how to facilitate your own tests. We’re offering this unique training opportunity for you to learn how to offer this simple production testing at your agency. The Facilitator-in-Training process takes about 3 months and includes four sessions of increasing responsibility in facilitating.

Learn How to Facilitate Tests

After you’ve had an opportunity to observe a First Fridays Product test, come learn how to facilitate your own tests. We’re offering this unique training opportunity for you to learn how to offer this simple production testing at your agency. The Facilitator-in-Training process takes about 3 months and includes four sessions of increasing responsibility in facilitating.

Format: Four sessions of facilitator training
Date: The first Friday of every month and the third Wednesday of every month
Time: Each session lasts from 8:00 am-1:30 pm (including time spent on pre-facilitation preparation)
Cost: $100 (includes all sessions and training materials)
Prerequisite: Attend a First Fridays Test and participate in observation and debriefing

The Training Process:

1. Watch in test room; be active observer during debrief; role-play facilitator
2. Listen in on planning calls; learn to set up equipment; watch in test room; conduct 3rd participant test; be active observer during debrief
3. Set up equipment; conduct 2nd or 3rd tests; be active observer during debrief
4. Set up equipment; conduct all participant tests; manage debriefing; write Final Report
5. Listen in on planning and post-test calls for their tests; join in monthly FF community calls

Contact First Fridays to sign up for this training

First Fridays Toolkit

     Hallway Testing Resources

• First Fridays Hallway Testing Evaluation Form (MS Word, 52.5 KB, 4 pages, April 2012)
• Hallway Testing—Lessons Learned (MS Word, 102 KB, 5 pages, April 2012)
• First Fridays Hallway Test Presentation (PPT, 18.5 MG, 29 pages, April 2012)
• Check out the First Fridays Product Testing Checklist (PDF, 65.2 KB, 7 pages, June 2011)
• Read about Writing Great Test Scenarios (PDF, 101.21 KB, 2 pages, September 2011)
• Use our Letter of Intent Template (MS Word, 25 KB, 1 page, December 2011)
• Use Steve Krug's sample script (PDF, 233.5 KB, 6 pages, November 2009)
• First Fridays script, Spanish language (MS Word , 22 KB, 3 pages, August 2011)
• Instructions for observers (PDF, 113.7 KB, 2 pages, June 2011)
• Final Test Report Template (MS Word, 45 KB, 2 pages, October 2011)
• Mobile testing lessons learned (PDF, 30 KB, 1 page, November 2011) 

Resources and Publicity

• Testimonials: What People are Saying about First Fridays
• Read about First Fridays in the Government Executive article, "GSA aims to make agency websites more user-friendly" (December 13, 2010)
• Watch Steve Krug's 25-minute Demo Usability Test
• Watch the webinar discussion of the First Friday Test of the Dept. of State’s Passport Pages
  (Windows Media File, 49.4 MB, 1 hour)
• Read the First Friday’s Quick Solutions to Common Website Problems (PDF, 47 KB, 2 pages, June 2011)

Content Lead: Jonathan Rubin
Page Reviewed/Updated: May 8, 2012