If you’ve ever spoken to your users about how they interact with your product, chances are you’ve probably conducted some type of usability testing.

Usability testing is a form of user research in which product design teams observe test participants as they interact with a product to achieve a goal or specified task. This allows product and design teams to examine their product’s functionality and intuitiveness based on user actions and responses.

Whether you choose simple methods such as reviewing session recordings or more comprehensive approaches such as tracking eye movements, usability testing is an essential phase in product design and development.

It allows your product, design, and engineering teams to create a product experience that users will find efficient, useful, and enjoyable.

The goal is to find usability issues, understand user behavior, and collect feedback to improve the product. This helps product designers and UX researchers find areas where users struggle or get confused. They then gather this data to help improve the product’s design.

 

Decoding Usability Testing Tools: Features and Methods

Usability testing provides critical insights into how real users interact with the product and identifies areas for enhancement. Let’s dive deeper into the benefits of usability testing for UX teams.

Usability testing allows designers and product teams to observe test participants interacting with the experience in real-time. This will enable them to identify any pain points or frustration users encounter while navigating the site.

For example, confusing navigation, unclear instructions, or functionality that doesn’t meet users’ expectations could be highlighted.

Testing hypotheses and design iterations with real users helps validate design decisions. Designers can observe how test participants interact with different design elements to determine which design approaches are practical and which may need adjustment or refinement.

 

 

Streamlining User Experience Without Technical Expertise

Improving navigation and information architecture
Usability testing can uncover website navigation and information architecture issues, such as confusing menu structures or needing help finding important content.

Identifying these issues allows product teams to optimize the website’s navigation, making it more intuitive and user-friendly.

An essential benefit of usability testing is that it can spotlight accessibility issues that may affect users with disabilities. Testing the website with diverse user groups, including those with different abilities, allows product teams to identify accessibility barriers and make improvements to ensure the experience is inclusive and accessible to all users.

 

The Economics of Usability Testing: Costs and Opportunities

When it comes to the question of when you should do usability testing, the short answer is early and often. Usability testing is an iterative process from the prototyping phase to the post-launch. At the conceptual stage, before making any design decisions, test your low-effort prototypes, as it’ll reveal user feedback and pain points.

However, it doesn’t stop there. Test at every phase of the product development cycle to learn user behavior and understand what works well, what needs improvement, and how you can fix it. Continuously testing keeps your customer at the forefront and enables you to design products with vast human insight.

While there are many methods to usability testing, they all fall underneath four fundamental test types: in-person testing, remote testing, moderated testing, and unmoderated testing.

Understanding these high-level usability test types and coupling that knowledge with a consideration of your goals, budget, and timeline will help you chart the best path forward.

 

 

The Nuts and Bolts of Online Usability Testing Process

Remote usability testing vs. in-person usability testing
When putting together a usability test, one of the first decisions to make is whether you’ll be running your usability tests remotely or in-person.

During remote usability testing, participants complete tasks and provide feedback from their location, typically using online testing platforms or software. Because participants use their own devices in familiar environments, this can provide more natural and realistic user interactions.

Remote testing allows for a broader reach in test audience sample size and participant recruitment, as users can participate from any location with internet access. It offers flexibility in scheduling, allowing participants to complete tests at their convenience and reducing the need to coordinate in-person sessions.

Conversely, remote testing may lack the ability for direct observation and interaction with participants, which can make it challenging to gather nuanced insights.

 

Getting to Grips with Usability Testing: Quantitative vs Qualitative

Depending on the testing methods and sample sizes collected, usability testing can result in two different types of data: quantitative and qualitative.

Quantitative testing is the collection and analysis of numerical data. It aims to find patterns and averages, make predictions, test causal relationships, and generalize results to broader populations by representing data expressed as numbers.

Quantitative testing often employs surveys, questionnaires, or analytics tools to gather data from a larger sample size.

Advantages of quantitative usability testing include scalability and efficiency, as it can quickly generate data from a large number of participants. A quantitative approach provides product design teams with precise, measurable results that are easily interpreted and compared across different iterations or designs.

​​Qualitative usability testing relies on non-numerical data derived from observations and recordings that approximate and characterizes phenomena. It means collecting, analyzing, and interpreting non-numerical data, such as language in order to understand the why behind quantitative data.

Qualitative usability testing seeks to understand how an individual subjectively perceives and gives meaning to their social reality. During qualitative testing, researchers may use in-depth interviews to explore participants’ perceptions and feelings in depth.

 

 

Moderated Versus Unmoderated Usability Testing

In-person usability testing involves participants completing tasks and providing feedback in a physical location such as a usability lab or conference room. In this location, a facilitator or moderator can observe participants’ behavior, gestures, and reactions in real-time.

In-person testing allows for immediate clarification and follow-up questions, which can lead to richer qualitative data. It facilitates a more controlled environment.

During moderated usability testing, a facilitator or moderator guides participants through the process. The moderator can provide instructions, ask questions, and gather additional insights from participants in real-time.

This approach allows for more in-depth observation and understanding of user behaviors and reactions. Participants may feel more comfortable sharing their thoughts and feedback with a moderator present.

Unmoderated usability testing involves participants completing tasks and providing feedback independently without a moderator present. Participants follow predefined tasks and instructions using remote testing platforms or software.

An unmoderated approach offers flexibility in terms of timing and participant location. Participants can complete tests at their convenience.

Unmoderated testing can be more cost-effective and efficient for gathering feedback from many participants. However, compared to moderated testing, there may be less opportunity for in-depth probing and follow-up questions that emerge.

 

Remote Versus In-Person Usability Testing: Making the Right Choice

Scaling your research: Statistical significance is gained through larger sample sizes. Because unmoderated testing leaves users to their own devices (literally), you can better scale your project, potentially including hundreds of people.

Using quantitative data to cement qualitative insights: Qualitative and quantitative research don’t have to be mutually exclusive. For example, you could run a qualitative study and discover that a handful of users aren’t satisfied with a design feature. You can then use a large-scale quantitative test to prove or disprove this insight.

Democratizing UX research: The demand for UX research is higher than ever. You only have 24 hours daily, one team can’t run every research project needed. People from other departments and roles can engage in research with unmoderated research.

Finding your tribe: Unmoderated research unlocks the potential for you to gain feedback from participants anywhere in the world.

Whether you need a geographically dispersed sample size or need to reach a specific group of people with your product, unmoderated research has your back.

 

 

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Posted on: May 18, 2021, by : Gordon McQue