Usability testing is technique that is used to evaluate a product by testing it on users. This can be seen as an irreplaceable usability practice, since it gives direct input on how real users use the system. This is in contrast with usability inspection methods where experts use different methods to evaluate the user interface without involving users. Usability testing focuses on measuring a human made product’s capacity to meet its intended purpose. Examples of products that commonly benefit from usability testing are foods, consumer products, websites or web applications, computer interfaces, documents and devices.
Website usability testing is an essential element of quality assurance. It is a true test of how people actually use a website. It is easy when you know how to test a website. It is extremely cheap when you do it by yourself. The person who is guiding the user during the usability test and taking notes is called a facilitator. Someone else observing the test, often in a separate room is called an observer. Everyone that is involved in developing the website, including the strategy group, designers, programmers, stakeholders etc. are called website development team. The extent to which the intended user can meet his or her goals using the system being tested is called usability.
Testing little or often is far more valuable and cost effective than doing on whopping big usability test of an entire site when it is almost finished. There is always a suitable time for website usability testing. Suitable times for testing the website usability are as follows:
- At the website’s conception
- Before planning a redevelopment
- Repeatedly during development or redevelopment, as critical pages or sections are prepared
- When traffic analysis shows on anomaly
- When the owner requires hard information about a page or site
With all the tests you want to discover whether the user: gets the point of the page, understands the navigation system, can guess where to find things. In a general you want to know: how do users interact with the website you are testing, what is difficult for people to do, where do they get lost, what makes sense to them, what makes them feel distrustful or insecure, what do they like and what do they hate. In a specific test you might want to know: can a user accomplish a key task, and can the user find something specific.
The website usability test ranges from 5 minutes to 1 hour. While website usability tests, one should note that the users should be outsiders. Find the users that are not involved with the website in any way. They should be completely new to the website and somewhat familiar with the website. Ideally run the test in the user’s home or work place. The benefits of doing this are: the users feel more relaxed, the user does not need to know new systems, and you get to see how the website works on different computers, browsers and modems.