Usability Testing
Usability testing, just like its name, is a way to check whether the product (both the design and its functions) is usable to a certain group of representative users. This involves making the scenario, observing the user on how they complete the given task. This is done to make sure that the product is the way the users needed it to be: easy to use, easy to navigate, and works fine. Usability testing is a way to see how easy to use something is by testing it with real users.
In usability testing all aspects are considered, the background of the user like age, their habits (are they used to use such applications or not), how familiar the users are with similar applications and many more things.
Why?
Usability testing is done to make sure that the product being released fits to what the user needs. That is why usability testing might be done repeatedly and not just once. This is to make sure that the product caters to a wide range of users, not specific users and that it works for everyone. We do this to increase the quality of users interaction with our website, system, product or service.
Why do we have to do that?
Let’s think about it. The reason this product is being made is for the user. If the product we made cannot cater to what the user wants and needs, why would we make a product in the first place. It is understandable to think that there are so many different types of users in the world, how to be able to cater all of them?
We can’t. Everyone has their own habits and preferences.
But we can cater to the needs of our main user and the general public. But it would be easier if we have a little more specific type of user in mind!
Before jumping into how we can conduct usability testing, we need to know that there are several stakeholders in conducting usability testing.
first is the researcher or the facilitator. Basically the person in charge of explaining to the participants what they will be doing. Then, there are the participants. The participants are samples of the user that will help us test our product.
How?
Planning
1. Define what we want to test.
Is it the new feature? Is it the old feature that is questionable? Ask ourselves and reflect. What do we want to know? Which aspect? Try to make sure that the description is clear and understandable.
2. Decide how to conduct the test.
Is it remote or in-person? What features do we want to test? Or is it the design that we want to test? Is it regarding how the user navigates on our product? Do we ask the user to do it individually or in a group? This is important so that we know how well the product works.
Set the task
In order to test the user, we need to be clear on what we need the user to be doing and what we want to find out.
Prioritize which are the most important task
since we are doing this repeatedly, we need to make sure which tasks are the most important for the user to do
Define task clearly
For the participants to understand what we want we need to define the task clearly so that there are no misunderstandings in the instructions
Create a scenario
This is important so you know what they will do instinctively without tasks and instructions to do certain things.
Find Participants
after making sure that everything is well-prepared, now we need to find suitable participants to help us conduct the testing. There are several ways to find participants. One is through google forms, this very common. Put in questionnaires and see if the person fulfils the criteria. Other is through advertisement and relatives.
Conduct the Testing
Now that everything is prepared, conduct the testing depending on what type of testing will be conducted.
make sure that the testing is conducted in a suitable environment. Observe and interview users. See if users fail to see things, go in the wrong direction, or misinterpret rules. This is an issue that might need to be fixed. Ask users to think aloud and tell how they feel while doing the tasks.
