Usability testing - A summary of key concepts
Filed Under Usability, Benefits, Testing | Posted on March 19, 2008
Usability testing is a technique used to evaluate a product by testing it on users. This can be seen as an irreplaceable usability practice, since it gives direct input on how real users use the system. This is in contrast with usability inspection methods where experts use different methods to evaluate a user interface without involving users.
Why do usability testing ?
When a design has a usability problem, it’s because someone made a wrong decision. They chose to take the design in a direction that creates frustration for the user. A different design choice would have prevented the frustration. Doing usability testing helps in finding such problems early and solving them, creating a better chance that users will be satisfied with the product (whether that be a client server application or a web application).
The first and most basic reason why usability testing is important is the bottom line itself. In the case of an application, the end user represents the bottom line. After all, the end user is the final judge of how successful a project really was. The application could be incredibly well designed in terms of code, complexity, system design, and well tested, but if the workflows are frustrating to the user, then it will not fly and you will end up with a dud on your hands.
Usability testing also ensures that assumptions made about user behavior are validated, and potentially contentious issues caused by differing assumptions among team members are resolved by showing them what a probable user behavior would be like.
What role does usability testing play in the overall effort ?
Iterating—developing a prototype, testing it with users, analyzing the test results, changing the prototype based on the findings, and then repeating the test, analyze, revise cycles—is the best way to produce a successful Web site / Web application / Client Server application.
When to do usability testing ?
Test early; test often. Usability testing lets the design and development teams identify problems before they get “set in concrete.” The earlier those problems are found and fixed, the less expensive the fixes are. As the project progresses, it becomes more and more difficult and expensive to make major design changes. The more you test and change based on what you learn, the more confident you can be that the site will meet your objectives and your users’ needs when it is launched.
Leave a Reply
