Protocol
Walk through the task as a first-time user
Knowing where the button is can hide how hard it is to find.
When it fits
- You need to inspect a new flow before arranging user sessions.
When to avoid it
- An expert imagining a newcomer is still an expert. Test important assumptions with representative users.
Why it matters
Write the task and the actions required. At each action, inspect what a newcomer would need to know and what the interface actually reveals. Record possible failures as hypotheses, not as user research results.
Steps
- Ask whether the user would form this immediate goal and notice the available action.
- Ask whether the label connects the action to the goal and the result makes progress clear.
- Record the missing cue and a change or user test that could examine it.
An example
A training app offers Start baseline, but nothing explains that this creates a recording. The walkthrough flags the unexplained term.
Check your result
Can each predicted difficulty be traced to a particular step and missing piece of information?
Keep this limit in mind
- An expert imagining a newcomer is still an expert. Test important assumptions with representative users.
Connected ideas
Useful withGive the user a goal and keep your instructions out of the result
Evidence and sources
Supports
A cognitive walkthrough inspects whether a new user would form the relevant goal, notice an action, connect it to the goal and recognise progress.
Inspectors predict difficulties; a walkthrough does not observe users succeeding.
Evaluate Interface Learnability with Cognitive Walkthroughs · Four questions for each action.