Jakob Nielsen, the often overbearing father of usability, recently wrote an article recommending that those of us who are in the usability profession participate in user tests sometimes.

And I certainly must say, I second that emotion. But not just for those in usability profession, rather all man-kind.

Participating in tests allows you to:

1. 1. Open your mind to how other users think. Often simply by pointing at your own prejudices.
   2. See and better understand common user paths and techniques.
   3. Finding out what really doesn’t work.

So if you want to give it a try you can sign up with some of these organizations:

IEEE- in person and remote tests
OCLC
Small business sites online tests – drop us an email with some basic information about yourself and we will let you know when we are testing!