Usability Testing through the eyes of a Nascent Designer…There is a lot to Go!

Usability for User-centered products?

Usability is the characteristic of a product that describes its ease of use. Usability (being easy to use) testing is a method of gathering feedback about a product from potential users or people who have the same characteristics as potential users, to help product developers build products that more effectively satisfy the needs and desires of users. Creating more usable products through this process is often referred to as user-centered design.

Usability is important because consumer products are becoming increasingly sophisticated, users often select products based on ease of use. Consequently, product developers who conduct usability testing to build ease-of-use into their products often gain a competitive advantage.

According to Dumas & Redish (1993), authors of A Practical Guide to Usability Testing, usability testing helps product developers determine whether “the people who use the product can do so quickly and easily to accomplish their own tasks” (p. 4).

Let’s Get There…Operational Definition

Usability Testing feedback can be qualitative?—?user feedback about the quality of the product or some aspect of it?—?or quantitative?—?a measurable result such as the time it takes to complete a task.

In order to measure their product’s ease of use, product developers and/or usability researchers will need to tailor these five criteria of usability to the details of their particular application-

1.Learnability

Describes how quickly a novice user can develop a basic proficiency with the product and generate results at some desired level. Users prefer products that allow them to be productive after only a short training period.

2. Memorability

Refers to how well an occasional user can use the product after having not used it for a certain time. If the product has poor memorability, it may be difficult for the occasional user to remember how to use it effectively. High memorability can eliminate the need for retaining in order to use the product properly.

3. Efficiency

Measures how productive an experienced user can be with the product. For example, one measure of efficiency for an data entry software application might be the amount of data entries that customer service representatives could process per hour after they have become adept at using the software. Users desire a high level of efficiency so that they can be more productive.

4. Error tolerability

Requires that the product helps prevent users from making errors and allows users to quickly recover from their errors. It is important that any errors that do occur are not catastrophic. For example, in Photoshop, users should not lose their data when they make an error saving a data file. Likewise, users should not need to start over from the beginning of the process when an error does occur.

5. Likeability

Subjective measure of how well users enjoy using the product. If their experience is a good one, users will likely continue to use the product regularly to accomplish their tasks.

What you do in Usability Testing?

In usability testing, Product developers collect empirical data ( data that results from an experiment.) by making observations of users who are conducting representative tasks using a product or prototype.

Characteristics of Usability Testing

Four common characteristics:

1. Defined Objectives

Clear objectives allow product developers to choose test participants, test methods, and user tasks that are best suited to address the questions of interest.

For example, if the primary objective of a usability test is to assess a product’s learnability for first-time users, then the test will require selecting novice rather than experienced product users.

2. Real Users

Usability testing requires that test participants have similar characteristics to users in the product’s intended target audience. Consequently, reviews by design experts are not considered usability tests, although such evaluations may be conducted as part of the overall development process.

Real Scenario:

“If the participants are more experienced than actual users, you may miss problems that will cause the product to fail in the marketplace. If the participants are less experienced than actual users, you may be led to make changes that aren’t improvements for real users.”

3.Real tasks

Users will provide the best feedback when testing is conducted in the same context in which they will use the final product. Tests may be conducted in a testing laboratory or a facsimile of the “real” environment.

4.Early and Iterative Testing

Usability testing should begin early in the product development process?—?from the time the design is put on paper?—?and continue throughout the process, through prototyping and finally to the finished product stage. Early testing can help product developers refine specifications to ensure that the product’s design fits the mental model that users have for it and to help it feel more intuitive to users.

Outcome

When used to its best advantage, usability testing permits product developers to use the feedback to drive design choices and to make appropriate design modifications. Each time usability testing is conducted, it should incorporate results from the previous test into the next step of the design process.

Usability Testing and the Design Process

Usability testing is a component of a broader development process known as User-Centered Design which focuses User’s’ needs at the focal point of design development.

User-centered design (UCD), which is known by other names

• usability engineering,
• human factors design,
• ergonomics
• computer human interface design

Designers should conduct usability testing on a prototype of the product to ensure that they have not overlooked a key user needs.

Later in the development process, functional testing will be needed to ensure that the product works as intended prior to release.

For example : A functional test of an application might be conducted to see if the links that appear on screens actually connect to the desired destinations.

Current Scenario:

Corporations conduct usability tests only near the end of the development process to see if users are satisfied with their usage experience. This type of testing is referred to as validity testing or verification testing.

It is only a narrow use of usability testing because it is not iterative, which is the key aspect of usability testing that makes it successful.

Validity or verification tests are referred to as usability tests only in the sense that they measure user satisfaction?—?which is also one of the key aspects of usability. “But changes that are recommended as a result of usability tests conducted late in the development process may be superficial and may not necessarily be implemented due to cost and time constraints”.

The fact :

Few as eight cycles of testing during a product development life cycle, with just one or two participants, can increase user accuracy by 20%.

 

Recognizing the Value and Limitations of Usability Testing

Companies cite valid reasons for not conducting usability testing –

Budget constraints and release dates to name just two

Recognizing the Value of Usability Testing

Usable products can also provide users with feedback, give users control, and minimize user’s’ cognitive load. Products that are not usable are both frustrating and inefficient for users. Usability greatest goal is to positively affect users’ experiences, so it stands to reason that the greatest value of usability testing is to the users.

1. The Value of Usability Testing to Companies

Usability testing has short- and long-term value to companies. In the short term, usability testing can help companies minimize the cost and risk associated with releasing a product that has potential usability problems. In the long term, usability testing can help companies increase

• revenue,
• sales,
• brand loyalty;
• acquire a competitive edge
• create historical records of usability benchmarks for future releases of products and future products.

2. The Value of Usability Testing to Product Developers or Designers

Usability experts like Jakob Nielsen and Michael Wiklund suggest that usability testing can be of great value to product developers in many ways:

• use their time more efficiently
• minimize the need for unscheduled updates
• make developing documentation and training easier.

3. The Value of Usability Testing to Users

Dumas, Redish, and Rubin suggest that usability testing provides the greatest value to product users because it places:

• focuses on developing usable products
• helps increase user satisfaction

Recognizing the Limitations of Usability Testing

Just as it is important to recognize the value of usability testing, it is equally important to recognize and understand its limitations and reasons why usability testing is sometimes resisted and occasionally omitted from the product development life cycle. .

1. Usability testing is conducted in a simulated environment.

Whether testing is conducted in a lab or in the field, it is still conducted in a simulated environment. Even when usability testing adheres to strict test procedures, it still only artificially represents product use.

As Rubin states, “the very act of conducting a study can itself affect the results”

2. Usability testing does not necessarily prove that products work.

What is actually measured during usability testing is the statistical probability that products work; statistical probability provides no absolute guarantee that products will work when they are released. Although this limitation seems ominous, it can be minimized.

3. Usability testing may include test participants who do not represent the target audience.

Product developers sometimes have difficulty identifying and describing their actual product users and thus choose test participants who do not represent the target audience.

Rubin agrees when he states, “Participants are only as representative as your ability to understand and clarify your target audience” (p. 27). Product designers can minimize this limitation by carefully analyzing their product’s intended users and choosing test participants who best reflect their characteristics.

Stay Tuned Readers! As said above..There is a lot to go….

Part #2…..

Planning and Preparing for a Usability Testing

Decide What to Test

Determine When to Test What

Decide How Many to Test

Design the Test……………

Part #3

Utilizing the outcomes of Usability Testing