What is Usability Testing?
Usability testing is a
nonfunctional testing technique (black-box testing) where we can find errors
and areas of enhancement by observe the results we have collected during the
test. In other words, Usability testing is a method for ensuring that the
actual users of the system can carry out their tasks efficiently, effectively
and satisfactorily. This should be a regular practice during the software design
and development life-cycle.
Furthermore, moderated usability testing is targeting four areas where
we need to concentrate during the test: System Performance, System Accuracy,
User emotional response and Recall.
System Performance –
How the system is behaves when doing the intended task. How is the system
response time? How many steps we need to do our job, etc.
System Accuracy –
Is there any misleading information. How many errors identified during the
test? Is there enough validations and recovery information.
User emotional
response – How is the user gut feeling after finish the task. Is this user
friendly? Is the user confident enough about the system or stressed out.
Recall – Are the system
functions remembered to user after some time (non-use)
Two scenarios for usability testing
As a software product seller – In this case if you are applying
usability testing means you are evaluating the design of your application.
According to the test results of the beta users, you can get an idea of the UI
guidelines / Usability guidelines you are following inside the company and how
to improve it before the final release.
As
a software product seller buyer – Usability testing for the product you are
going to buy means that you are evaluating the product suitability for your
employees. Before company spends money on that product, they need to ensure
that this product should work in a way that the employees can do their jobs
efficiently and effectively.
Some Usability Testing Aspects
1. Navigation
issues – This is one of the most important parts of the web site design. Better
to use most common navigation mechanisms such as tabs, menus, etc. No matter
what mechanism you use, it should be consistent across your web site to be able
to find those elements easily. Try to keep the user experience inconsistent and
search for key elements every time will lead to frustrate your customers and
leave the site.
2. Browser
related issues – Most of the browsers render the site according to its technology
and will not be a common one. So then, you see your site as expected doesn’t
mean everyone does. If your site is not according to the UI it should display
and if your CSS is not working correctly then definitely you will limit your audience
radically and creating a bad image.
3. Information issues – Presenting necessary
information is a vital thing in web site design. Writing a meaningful description/tag
line in some ware prominent will help to understand what it does within a few
seconds. And the information should be relevant, user friendly to grab the
customer’s attention.
4. Search
facilities – It’s very important to use search facility in today’s sites. Most
web users are using search as their main navigation mechanism. If your site does not have this facility or
it doesn’t work as it should, users won’t be playing around your site and they
will go for another one.
5. Performance
issues - Most users like to have a fast websites, if you are not paying
attention to this then you are going to lose a lot of potential customers /
visitors. Remember that after 6~7 seconds, most of the users will leave the
site.
6. Colors
– This is another vital point. Site (Links, Fonts, Tags, images) colors should
be according to the theme of your company, product that you are going to
publish and it should eye-catching. We need to consider normal users as well as
the special people like color blind etc.
Usability Testing Categories
We can categorize usability testing on what kind of tools +
techniques we are going to use. It is as follows:
1. Testing
based on the results which generated by tools – In this category, we are
talking about the tools which we can use to test the performance without
interact with real users or no anonymous user data.
2. Testing
based on the anonymous user data which collected by tools – We are manly
targeting the click trackers and analytics tools. Main task of these tools are
to collect anonymous user data from various destinations in the world.
3. Testing
based on the real user participation – This category is the most suitable and
complex type of test. We are collecting data when users are actually doing the
test as well as the users feedbacks. For this purpose, we can use Moderated,
Un-moderated tools (standalone or web based) and feedback collectors.
Next time (in Part 2), I’ll explain what the hierarchy of
these tools and what are the Moderated, Un-moderated techniques and related tools.
