Usability Testing
A Successful Test Strategy Requires This Component
Usability testing is a critical part of quality assurance testing. By definition, usability testing is "a type of evaluation conducted to determine how easy, convenient, and effective a product or system is to use." In other words, it's all about making sure your users can actually use your product or service as intended.
There are many different ways to go about conducting usability tests. One popular method is called "think-aloud protocol," in which testers are asked to think out loud while using the product or service under test. This helps researchers understand not only what users are trying to do with the product, but also why they're doing it. Other methods include eye tracking (which can show where users look on a screen while using a particular website or app), focus groups (in which small groups of users discuss their experiences with a given product), and surveys (which can be used to collect data from large numbers of users).
No matter what method you choose, there are some key things to keep in mind when conducting usability tests:
- Make sure you have clear objectives for each test. What exactly do you want to learn? How will this information help improve the user experience?
- Recruit participants who represent your target audience. It's important that the people you're testing with are representative of those who will actually be using your product or service in the real world.
- Give testers specific tasks to complete during the test; don't just let them loose on your site or app and see what happens! This will help ensure that you get useful data from each session.
- Be prepared to take action based on what you learn from the tests. Usability testing should never be an exercise in futility--if something isn't working well for users, make changes!