test-scenario
owl-listener/designer-skills
Write realistic usability test scenarios with success criteria and observation guides.
What is test-scenario?
Expert tool for creating usability test tasks with clear success metrics and facilitation notes. Use this when designing a usability study to generate participant scenarios that reveal genuine user behavior without leading questions.
- Generate realistic task scenarios with context, goals, and success criteria
- Define measurable completion metrics including time, errors, and difficulty ratings
- Create structured observation guides for facilitators to track hesitations and user behavior
- Support multiple task types: exploratory, specific, comparative, and open-ended
- Write scenarios in participant language rather than product jargon
- Order tasks strategically from warm-up through increasing complexity
How to install test-scenario
npx skills add https://github.com/owl-listener/designer-skills --skill test-scenarioHow to use test-scenario
- 1.Define your study goals and the features or flows you want to test
- 2.Specify the participant context and their motivation for using the product
- 3.Request scenarios for each test objective, indicating task type (exploratory, specific, comparative, or open-ended)
- 4.Review generated scenarios for realistic language and clear success criteria
- 5.Pilot test scenarios with 1-2 users before running full sessions
- 6.Order scenarios from simple warm-up tasks to more complex goals
- 7.Prepare follow-up questions for each scenario based on observation guides
Use cases
- Design usability test tasks for a new product feature or interface
- Create scenarios for remote or moderated user testing sessions
- Generate observation guides to help facilitators track meaningful user behaviors
- Develop comparative tasks to test user preferences between design options
- Write exploratory tasks to understand how users discover and navigate features
- UX researchers and designers planning usability studies
- Product managers preparing user testing sessions
- Design teams validating interface decisions with real users
- Research teams conducting moderated or unmoderated testing
test-scenario FAQ
Use test-scenario to write individual task scenarios and observation guides. Use usability-test-plan to design the overall study structure, participant recruitment, and research methodology.
Write more scenarios than you plan to use to allow flexibility during sessions. A typical study might use 5-7 tasks, so prepare 8-10 scenarios.
No. Write tasks using participant language and motivation, not product jargon or UI paths. For example, 'Find the return policy' instead of 'Click the footer menu and select Returns.'
Measurable criteria include task completion (yes/no), time to complete, number of errors or wrong paths, assistance requests, and self-reported difficulty on a scale. Avoid subjective measures.
Start with a warm-up task to build confidence, progress from simple to complex, and group related tasks together. Avoid fatigue by varying task types.
Full instructions (SKILL.md)
Source of truth, from owl-listener/designer-skills.
name: test-scenario
description: Write realistic usability task scenarios with success criteria and facilitation notes. Use when you have a study and need the tasks. For the surrounding study design, use usability-test-plan (design-research).
Test Scenario
You are an expert in writing usability test scenarios that reveal genuine user behavior.
What You Do
You write test scenarios with realistic tasks, clear success criteria, and structured observation guides.
Scenario Structure
Context Setting
Brief, realistic backstory that gives the participant a reason to act without leading them.
Task
Specific goal to accomplish. Action-oriented, not question-based. Avoids UI terminology that hints at the answer.
Success Criteria
- Task completion (yes/no)
- Time to complete
- Number of errors or wrong paths
- Assistance requests
- Self-reported difficulty (1-5 scale)
Observation Guide
What to watch for: hesitations, facial expressions, verbal comments, navigation choices, error recovery behavior.
Task Types
- Exploratory: Find information (e.g., 'Find the return policy')
- Specific: Complete a goal (e.g., 'Add a blue shirt size M to your cart')
- Comparative: Choose between options
- Open-ended: Achieve a goal with multiple valid paths
Scenario Writing Rules
- Use participant's language, not product jargon
- Give motivation, not instructions
- One goal per task
- Don't reveal the UI path in the task wording
- Include both simple and complex tasks
Best Practices
- Pilot test your scenarios before real sessions
- Order tasks from easy to hard
- Include a warm-up task
- Prepare follow-up questions per task
- Write more scenarios than you need (allow flexibility)
Related skills
More from owl-listener/designer-skills and the wider catalog.
theming-system
Design multi-brand and multi-mode theming architectures using token layers.
typography-scale
Create modular type scales with harmonious size, weight, and line-height relationships for consistent digital typography.
usability-test-plan
Design comprehensive usability test plans with research questions, methodology, participant criteria, and facilitation guides.
user-flow-diagram
Diagram screen-level paths, decisions, and branches to map feature traversal.
user-persona
Build research-grounded personas with goals, frustrations, and behavioral patterns for consistent user reference.
ux-writing
Write clear, helpful interface copy that guides users through your product.