A Beginner's Guide to Usability Testing
Nasir Ahmed
UX/UI Designer | Passionate about helping clients worldwide transition their business to digital.
What is usability testing?
Usability testing is a method of?testing the?functionality of a website, app, or other digital product by observing real users as they attempt to complete tasks on it. The users are usually observed by researchers working for a business during either an in-person or, more commonly, a remote usability testing session.
The goal of usability testing is to reveal areas of confusion and uncover pain points in the customer journey to highlight opportunities to improve the overall user experience. Usability evaluation seeks to gauge the practical functionality of the product, specifically how efficiently a user completes a pre-defined goal.
What is usability and why should you care about it?
Let’s start with the very basic dictionary meaning. Usability is defined as “ease of use”. To be more specific, we can say usability is the ease of access and use of an object. It is an indicator that answers the question:
“How easy is an object to use?”
While usability finds its origins in product design, nowadays it is also vital for apps, websites and more in general user interfaces. Let’s just think about it: developing an e-commerce website with a counterintuitive purchasing funnel may have catastrophic consequences!
It quickly becomes clear how crucial it is to evaluate interfaces’ usability. Such a practice is called Usability Testing.
What is usability testing? What is the purpose of usability testing?
Usability testing is defined as the evaluation of a product by testing it on potential users.?
The only way to understand if something is easy to use is to concretely make individuals try it while observing their behaviour and comments very carefully.
If for example, a washing machine brand wanted to test the usability of its product, then it would have to test it on a potential customer. ?To understand whether or not the machine is usable, the company should pick a potential customer and give her a precise task. A good example could be “use the machine to wash these clothes with the cotton program at 30 degrees”. By then observing the potential customer, the company would acquire precious knowledge about their washing machine.
Going back to the tech field, usability testing evaluates important aspects vital for usability such as the overall website structure, the clarity of contents and the navigation flow. Usability testing is entirely based on the end customer perspective and it has the final aim to understand whether or not an average user would find an interface easy to navigate and to explore.
May it be a washing machine, may it be a website, usability testing requires to carefully observe users while they concretely make use of something.
To make things easier, let’s take the example of an e-commerce website that sells shoes. To test such a website, then you may ask the users to try to buy a particular pair of shoes. By looking at their behaviour, where they click, how long it takes them to select the right product, and by listening to their comments, you can understand a lot about the website usability.
Big Advantages of Usability Testing
From saving time and money to ensuring user satisfaction and adoption, here are four of the most compelling benefits of usability testing before creating a new product.
1. Save Thousands of Hours
By usability testing first on a prototype, you can gauge user reactions well before you begin development. This saves projects from wasting a huge amount of valuable hours trying to fix user experience pitfalls after they’ve already been coded and deployed.
Usability testing allows you to validate at a very basic level whether or not your product is feasible to execute. It also enables you to identify potential issues upfront, so you can make smarter product decisions and iterate on changes quickly.
>> User research is not optional, but it can be economical. Learn how to get started with practical user research.
Usability testing also helps product managers understand exactly what needs to be built. Unambiguous understanding of the product’s purpose, function and features allows product managers to equip designers and developers with clear direction. It also allows teams to develop accurate timelines and cost estimates.
By understanding what features and functionality — as well as changes — are needed in advance, you can streamline your entire workflow across teams saving thousands of hours in the process.
2. Save Thousands of Dollars
One of the big advantages of usability testing is that you’ll save not only time, but also money. Think about the costs associated with development hours, or with an issue identified late in the game that needs to be corrected quickly and retroactively.
It’s always better to build something to an ideal function than to “fix it,” and upfront testing allows you to identify changes in advance and mitigate unexpected costs later on. Not to mention it helps avoid frustration!
Usability testing also helps identify which product benefits and functions are most desired by the user and most critical to business success. Prioritizing development decisions based upon actual data and feedback, rather than playing a guessing game, allows you to make smart decisions from the get-go. Smart decisions mean you can avoid expensive and large-scale feature changes down the road, building only what works from the beginning.
Add to all this the fact that usability testing is doable for projects of almost any budget. You can solve the most pressing usability problems with a single round of testing on only five real people.
The savings are clear. In the short term, you save money by fixing UX problems before they happen. In the long term, your business will benefit from usability testing by helping customers achieve their goals better than the competition.
>> User-centered design benefits the bottom line by reducing risk, giving products a competitive edge, and more.
3. Validate and Adjust Features Based on Hard Data
If you’ve decided to launch a product, presumably you have done some research to verify whether the product is a good idea. But no matter how prepared you are, sometimes what you’ve studied doesn’t match what actual users expect.
One of the core purposes of usability testing is that it allows you to validate product plan using hard data and real evidence.
Up to 64% of software features that are built are never or rarely used. To avoid wasted resources, it’s absolutely essential to confirm that users will in fact desire the features you plan to build. Unearthing hard data about what works and what doesn’t work through usability testing allows you to create product roadmaps with confidence.
4. Ensure Your Product Will Succeed Before Going to Market
Usability testing is not only an advantage when vetting your product’s functionality and features, it also serves as a key indicator of its success in the marketplace. You can validate your assumptions and determine whether users will find value and utility in your product. You can identify any red flags or issues in advance, rather than after you launch, and avoid costly or upsetting problems.
Usability testing also allows you to see how easy (or difficult) your product is to use, providing clues about its potential adoption rate.
No one will use your product if it’s not easy or intuitive or if it doesn’t solve the problem it’s intended to. User testing allows you to confirm all this in advance, so you can go to market with confident expectations of how your product will perform.
Types of usability testing
The kind of test you want to run will help you choose the right usability testing method. All product research and testing broadly falls into three main categories:
If you prefer to learn in video form, take a look at this handy video for a rundown on the different types of usability testing.
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1. Qualitative or quantitative
Any user research will fall into the category of qualitative or quantitative. You ideally want usability testing to gather both kinds of data, to provide a rounded evaluation of the user experience.
Qualitative usability testing focuses on the ‘why’; understanding users' experiences, thoughts, and feelings while using a product. For example, you could conduct a think-aloud study where users verbalize their thoughts while using your product to complete usability tasks. Qualitative data can be gathered from observation, interviews, and surveys.
Quantitative usability testing focuses on collecting and analyzing numerical data like success rates, task completion times, error rates, and satisfaction ratings. It’s about identifying patterns, making predictions, and generalizing findings.
2. Moderated or unmoderated
Moderated and unmoderated usability testing are two different approaches to usability. In moderated usability testing, a moderator guides the users through the test (in-person or remotely). They answer any questions participants may have, ask follow-up questions, and record observations during the test.
Unmoderated usability testing, as the name suggests, doesn’t involve a moderator. Users complete tasks independently, typically using usability testing tools that record their actions and responses.
3. Remote or in-person
Research can be done remotely or in-person, depending on the type of product you're testing and your research goals.
Remote usability testing can be moderated or unmoderated, and is done using online tools or software that allows users to share their screens, record their activity, and provide feedback. It’s useful because your team and test participants can be based in entirely different locations.
In-person usability testing, on the other hand, is conducted in a physical location, usually a usability lab or other research facility. For that reason, it can be more expensive, time-consuming, and limiting in terms of sample size and geographic reach. Many researchers opt for remote research, however in-person testing may be necessary for products that require safety considerations, supervision during use, or physical testing.
When should you do usability testing?
You need to carry out usability testing continuously to make sure your product stays relevant and solves your user’s most pressing problems throughout its lifecycle. Here's a quick overview of when to do usability testing:
1. Before you start designing
You can identify user needs, expectations, and potential pain points early on through preliminary research, surveys, or even testing competitors' products. With that data as a benchmark, you'll start the design process with a solid foundation for creating a user-centric product that's even more intuitive to use.
2. Once you have a wireframe or prototype
"I think usability testing is applicable at every stage of the design process. I test at an early concept phase, and once we get the first results, we use them throughout other design phases and re-test with users," says Vaida Pakulyte, UX researcher and Designer at Electrolux.
For example, you could use card sorting and tree testing on your wireframe or prototype to discover how users would approach the product—or make sure the existing design is easy to navigate.
3. Before launching the product
At this stage, you already have a working, or almost-working, product. Now it’s time to evaluate its overall effectiveness through summative testing. The goal of summative testing is to measure how well your product performs via specific usability heuristics like efficiency, effectiveness, and user satisfaction. Each testing task should represent typical user scenarios.
4. At regular intervals after launch
Even after your product goes live, it’s crucial to ensure it remains user-friendly, accessible, and relevant over time. With a research tool like Maze, your team can create and run live website testing and discover issues caused by browser updates, third-party integrations, or changes in user behavior patterns.
How to do Usability Testing: Complete Process
Usability testing process consists of the following phases
Phase 1) Planning:
During this phase the goals of usability test are determined. Having volunteers sit in front of your application and recording their actions is not a goal. You need to determine critical functionalities and objectives of the system. You need to assign tasks to your testers, which exercise these critical functionalities. During this phase, the usability testing method, number & demographics of usability testers, test report formats are also determined
Phase 2) Recruiting: During this phase, you recruit the desired number of testers as per your usability test plan. Finding testers who match your demographic (age, sex etc.) and professional ( education, job etc.) profile can take time.
Phase 3) Usability Testing: During this phase, usability tests are actually executed.
Phase 4) Data Analysis: Data from usability tests is thoroughly analyzed to derive meaningful inferences and give actionable recommendations to improve the overall usability of your product.
Phase 5) Reporting: Findings of the usability test is shared with all concerned stakeholders which can include designer, developer, client, and CEO
Methods of Usability Testing: 2 Techniques
There are two methods available to do usability testing –
Laboratory Usability Testing:. This testing is conducted in a separate lab room in presence of the observers. The testers are assigned tasks to execute. The role of the observer is to monitor the behavior of the testers and report the outcome of testing. The observer remains silent during the course of testing. In this testing, both observers and testers are present in a same physical location.
Remote Usability Testing: Under this testing observers and testers are remotely located. Testers access the System Under Test, remotely and perform assigned tasks. Tester’s voice , screen activity , testers facial expressions are recorded by an automated software. Observers analyze this data and report findings of the test. Example of such a software – https://silverbackapp.com/
Conclusion
Usability testing can be used in a variety of ways during your project lifecycle. Despite not being able to mimic real-life usage, usability testing is still the best method of ensuring your website supports users in achieving their goals quickly and easily. When businesses meet the needs and expectations of their users, they are more likely to develop a successful service.