Gutenberg Usability Testing for April 2019

To keep a steady pulse on the user experience in Gutenberg, the Research Team is conducting weekly usability tests on These tests are meant to be non-moderated tasks for new and experienced WordPress users. One test per week is given and reviewed to help highlight how people might go about completing tasks within Gutenberg.

The tasks will remain the same for each user over the course of two months. This will help compare a few usability tests within a similar range of time throughout the year.

I’ll gather the results at the end of each month to share.

Each user was new to WordPress, but wasn’t screened for demographic data.

Testing script

Imagine your friend has requested that you build a webpage on their site using excerpts from the novel, Moby Dick. They sent you a mockup of what they’d like you to build. And to help you further, they’ve already uploaded all the media and content you’ll need for this. They’ve also created a draft page for you to design called, “Moby Dick Excerpt.”

  1. In a new tab in your browser, review the mockup at:
  2. Now go back to:
  3. Log in with
    username: XXXX
    password: XXXX
  4. Find and open the “Moby Dick Excerpt” draft page.
  5. Begin editing the content so that it looks like the mockup. Try to get as close as you can to the mockup’s design before completing. All the assets are already added to the site in the Media Library.
  6. Once you’re done, publish the page.

Please make sure to talk through everything out loud as you complete the tasks.


Video 1 (April 15, 2019)

Video 2 (April 22, 2019)

Video 3 (April 30, 2019)


  1. While watching the above videos, did you have any findings or key takeaways?
  2. Do you have any thoughts on how this script might be improved?
  3. Would you like to create a usability test script? If so, share in the comments below.

Caveat: Because these are non-moderated usability tests, sometimes the people going through the tasks treat them as such – simple tasks they need to finish. This can lead to a lack of creativity and exploration on the part of the user and may not reflect real-life situations when building a site.

#gutenberg, #usability-testing