Usability testing in design — why is it important?
Before we dive into understanding What is Usability Testing let us know what Usability means and why it is an integral layer which adds to an effective UX.
Usability falls under the broader umbrella of the term “User Experience” and refers to how easily a user interacts with a website or product. It comes under the heading of UX design, but is not the whole story of user experience design.
In Usability Engineering Jakob Nielsen have suggested 5 qualities of a Usable Product:
- Effective — The completeness and accuracy with which users achieve their goals.
- Efficient — The speed (with accuracy) with which this work can be done.
- Engaging — How pleasant, satisfying or interesting an interface is to use.
- Error Tolerant — How well the product prevents errors, and helps the user recover from any that do occur.
- Easy to Learn — How well the product supports both initial orientation and deeper learning.
When we can apply all these factors into Design it makes it easier for the users to find what they need, achieve their desired goal and become proficient when using a design interface. Even the most beautiful interface can’t guarantee a success without a usable and clean functionality system. That’s why Usability makes a core part of effective User Experience.
What is Usability Testing?
Usability Testing is a research methodology used in User Centered Design Process to evaluate a product by testing it on potential users.
Typically, during a test, Participants will try to complete typical tasks while observers watch, listen and takes notes. The goal is to identify any usability problems, collect qualitative and quantitative data and determine the participant’s satisfaction with the product.
To run an effective usability test, you need to develop a solid test plan, recruit participants, and then analyze and report your findings.
7 Steps of Usability Testing :
There are 7 key steps involved in an effective Usability Testing,
- Create a prototype
- Come up with a Test plan
- Recruit/Choose your test participants
- Perform the test
- Analyze the test results
- Document the data
- Report your findings
Types of Usability Testing,
While there are many types of Usability Testing methods like Summative and Formative, Early Prototype Test, Advanced Prototype Test, Remote Usability Test, Moderated and Un Moderated Test, Expert Reviews, Eye tracking, the common ones are,
- Hallway/Guerilla Usability Testing,
- Remote — Un Moderate Usability Testing
- In Person moderate Usability Testing
Why Usability Testing is important?
Though Usability Testing makes up the core of building an effective UX a lot of companies don’t take it into vogue and their reasons varies from “no budget and it costs a lot of money”, “no time” or “we have been in the industry for a long time and we know our customers”. But this attitude in turn can cost businesses more money, time and other resources which they fail to realize.
When Usability Testing is conducted using right techniques it avoids you from building a wrong product which in turn saves you a lot of time, money and other precious resources.
According to Forbes, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos invested in usability design 100 times more than in marketing during the portal’s first year. According to Bezos, this strategy was the one that led to Amazon’s overwhelming success.
According to Jakob Nielsen, Businesses that spend only 10% of their budget on usability improvements see, on average, a 135% increase in their desired metrics, so the ROI of usability is significant.
Still not satisfied about the benefits of Usability Testing? Here are few more points to consider,
- Ensures user satisfaction with a product
- Allows you to see how successful users are with their tasks
- Useful for getting user reactions and feedback about the product
- Adding new features (Can users get to the new features ? Can they use the feature ? How does the new feature interact with the existing interface)
- Verifying that design goals are met
- Matches business decisions to real-world use
- A highly usable interface which stands out in the competitive market
People ignore design that ignores people — Frank Chimero
To sum up, Usability Testing is a crucial part in User Centered Design Process to evaluate whether your product/website is usable enough and to know what’s working and what’s not working in your design. Hence Watching users try to accomplish tasks on your website, mobile app, or another software product, is the most effective and efficient way to uncover usability problems which can increase your ROI and at the same time make your users happy by making their experience more engaging, memorable and satisfying.
