Usability Testing: Making Sure a Human Being Can Use the Software

Usability testing is a technique used to evaluate a product by testing it on users. This type of testing gives direct input on how real users use the system and hence is an irreplaceable usability practice. 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 web sites or web applications, computer interfaces, documents, or devices. Usability testing is carried out in order to get an assurance from the user that the software is usable in the same manner it is intended to be used. Even if the software is functional and performs well it does not mean that it is usable. For any software to be considered as usable, the person using the software under testing should not only be able to understand all the functions it can perform but also how to make it perform those functions. The person should also be able to understand the instructions given.

If an average person working on the software is able to follow the directions of using the software, run the software easily and make it perform as it was designed to perform then the software is usable. The jargon normally used in industry circles for this is “User friendly Interface”. User friendly interface indicates that the average user who has no knowledge of computers or software must be able to understand it well and use it. If the user finds it difficult in understanding instructions, moving through the menus or any other problems the same has to be rectified by the software programmers and testers. This testing will give a feedback on the ease and effectiveness of navigation, usefulness of content, effectiveness of presentation and task success rate. A usable program should be efficient, accurate, have a good recall value and has an emotional attachment to the user.

During the design and development of any software the designer is more concerned in bringing out software which is competitive with the companies’ software. The emphasis at this point is on design/ competition and not the user. Because of this mental makeup they tend to design the software with considerable complexity which the user finds it difficult to understand. The designer is not concerned with the comfort level of the user at that stage. Typical examples of this are some of the popular computer games software wherein new version is more complex than the previous one. The most successful usability test is performed when the general public is using the software without any problems.

The usability test performed in the presence of the developers has been one of the most successful methods for testing usability. In this, people perform certain tasks on command from developers and the developers observe how it responds under any given circumstance. The halfway testing theory, as adopted from Jakob Nielsen's research states that 95% of usability problems can be discovered using halfway testing technique. In this method, they ask at random 5 or 6 strangers who are “passing by” and ask them to perform certain specific tasks with the software. No inhouse technicians are involved in this testing. This is where the name "hallway testing" came from. In practice, it is established that most of the usability problems are identified and solved by this method.