What state is the product in?

For a summative usability study, the product being tested may be a live, production version, while a prototype or a test version might be used for a formative usability study.

The development state of the product is important to know, because when a product is not yet publicly available, there may be privacy concerns that need to be addressed. Does the study sponsor require all participants to sign an NDA, for example? We will address how to handle this in Chapter 3, How to Effectively Recruit Participants.

If the product under testing is to be provided as a test version or on test servers, it is important to understand whether test data is available and whether the test data is representative of live data. For example, if an early prototype only allows for a very specific navigation path that directs the user to buy a television, then it will probably not be relevant to all participants equally if they are not currently looking to buy a TV. It is possible (but not advisable) to run studies with test data that is incomplete (because only mandatory fields have been filled, for example) or not representative (because dummy images have been used instead of real ones, for example), but it is important that the UX researcher is aware of this, in order to prepare the participants. We will look into this in the subsequent chapters on running a study.

It is also prudent to note the version of the product to be tested, and how long it has been live (if it’s already in production).