Usability Testing

Usability testing allows you to observe whether real users can easily complete real tasks with your design (or product), without training or assistance. Usability testing can be done at various stages of the product lifecycle but is most often done during the design phase to try out a new design concept or refine the detailed aspects of a design. Sometimes usability testing highlights important functionality or content that is missing.

You don't have to wait until a product is implemented to test it with users. Before you code the user interface, prototype it and test it with users. People are surprisingly comfortable evaluating incomplete or non-functional prototypes.

Usability testing is most effective as part of an iterative design process. For instance, a design (or product) is tested with users, the team makes changes to the design to address problems discovered during testing, and the design is re-tested to find out if the changes solved the problems. Some products are large or complex enough to warrant several usability tests on different aspects of the design, different areas of functionality or content, or different tasks for different kinds of users.

Formal vs. Informal Usability Testing

Formal usability tests are typically run in the OIM usability lab, where the UW staff involved with a project can watch the test sessions live. A formal usability test takes about 3-4 weeks total to plan, design, run, analyze, and report the results.

An informal usability test takes a couple of days and is typically run in campus offices or computer labs. Informal tests are a quick and easy way to get feedback on one or two aspects of a design, such as the wording or layout of a Web page.

The Usability Testing Process

The first step of the testing process is to meet with a member of the UCD group (a usability specialist) to begin planning the test. Topics to discuss include:

• Where the project is in terms of the product lifecycle (e.g., planning phase? design phase? etc.)
• How much time the project team has
• What the team's usability concerns are
• What parts of the design (or product) are most important to evaluate
• Who the intended users of the design are
• How many participants to recruit (the usability specialist typically does the recruiting)
• Whether to create or modify a prototype for the test
• When and where to run the test

You will continue working with the usability specialist to design the test and create test materials, such as a task script and interview questions for test participants.

The usability specialist conducts the test sessions. If it is being run in the usability lab, the project team can watch the test sessions live in the observation room next door. There are many advantages to watching test sessions live:

• No test report can capture the richness and excitement of watching users struggle (or not!) with your design.
• You will learn how users think as they use your design (or product).
• After each session the project team and usability specialist can discuss what they observed. (This reduces the time needed to analyze and report the test results.)

Finally, the usability specialist reviews all notes, analyzes and interprets the data, and reports the results. Sometimes the usability specialist recommends changes to the design (or product), while other times he/she works directly with the project team to brainstorm possible changes.