This Is The Way : Usability Testing
If you have a product to be launched, you probably want to find out whether people can use it: the better it works for your user, the more success your project gains. To do that, we have to observe people as they use your product. Enter usability testing.
Usability Testing is a way to see how easy to use something is by testing it with real users. It usually involves observing users as they attempt to complete tasks and can be done for different types of designs. It is often conducted repeatedly, from early development until a product’s release.
When doing usability testing, the users are asked to complete tasks while being accompanied by the researcher (that could be a representative from the development team) to see how well they can adapt to it and whether they encounter any problem.
The goals of usability testing may vary, but the following are the ones that usability testing focus on: identifying problems in the design of the product or service, uncovering opportunities to improve, and learning about the target user’s behavior and preferences.
Usability testing provides advantages such as:
- Direct feedback from the target audience to improve the product
- Users’ reaction can resolve internal debates among the team
- Able to avoid any potential issue before the product is launched
- Increases the likelihood of the product’s usage
- Minimizing the risk of the product failing
- Business targets meet its target as users are satisfied with the product.
Usability testing is an iterative process, to make usability testing work best, the following must be done:
- Plan
Define what the team wants to test, example the aspects of it, the features, etc. Also decide how to conduct the test by creating scenarios. The idea behind usability testing is enabling the user to do tasks, in order to do that, the team has to prepare task scenarios. Scenarios are the core of any usability testing, what the team wants the user to do during the test. Well-crafted task scenario helps the team to focus on designing around the real needs of the user and remove any roadblocks.
What makes a good scenario is the scenario itself is short but enough information to perform the task, use the user’s language instead of the product’s, have a simple and clear goal, and should be able to address the team’s corners in order to improve. So as implied, a good scenario prioritizes the most important tasks to meet objectives.
My group project, Logbook Elektronik, could provide the user with these following scenarios:
- Recruit Testers
Know your users are as a target group, such as conducting questionnaires to find candidates, or even directly approaching the target audience.
- Prepare The Materials
Ensure that your product is prepared enough for the user to test. The team doesn’t want any unfinished materials for being shown to the users. If the product is not yet at a finished state, even not developed at all, the team could prepare mockups that the user can use as a simulation of the finished product itself through websites like Figma.
- Set Up An Environment
The team must set up the testing in a suitable environment: it could include lab testing (in-person) or remote testing, which could be more effective seeing the situation right now.
- Conducting The Test
When the testing finally happens, provide scenarios that have been prepared for the participants, observe in detail how the users use the product based on the scenario, notice if there are any issues or confusions.
Keep usability tests smooth using the quantitative metrics (time users take on a task, success and failure rates, effort) and qualitative metrics (users’ stress responses (facial reactions, body-language changes, squinting, etc.), subjective satisfaction (which they give through a post-test questionnaire) and perceived level of effort/difficulty).
- Analyzing The Data
For reporting needs, the team must take notes or even record when the usability testing is being conducted. What to analyze is not only the design’s functionality, but the users’ experience of it. Here the team will study all data gathered from the testing to gain important insights on how to improve the product’s usability.
- Report Results
After analyzing, make sure to gather all the insights gained in one place to create a concrete report for the team to absorb in detail. Here all the people involved in the project, including the stakeholder, could examine all data carefully and proceed with the suggested improvements.
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