Usability testing refers to evaluating a product or service by testing it with representative users. Yet many people have misconceptions about just what usability testing means.
Here are four myths about usability testing.
1. You don’t need a test plan.
On the contrary, a test plan is crucial for successful usability testing. It’s imperative that you identify the scope (what you are actually testing) and metrics of what you’re testing (for example, the time needed to perform a given task).
While scope and metrics are the two most important things to test, other elements need to be in a test plan, such as how and where the tests will be performed, and who will actually perform the tests.
2. Anybody can serve as a usability test participant.
Your goal for usability testing should be a representative user, not just anybody. For example, if you’ve written an owner’s manual for a welder, you’d expect your reader to have at least a cursory knowledge of welding. (Of course, you might say as much at the start of the document: “This document is intended for those with a fundamental knowledge of safe welding and principles.”)
Usability tests can lead not only to improvement in the documentation, but it can also lead to improvements in the product or service that the document supports. For example, a usability test can include everything from removing the product from the package, installing, and then using the product.
For this reason, appropriate product team representatives will want to help develop and participate in a usability test.
3. You can only perform usability testing in a big laboratory.
Your ideal testing environment should be representative of the environment in which the user will be using your product; that is, you’d test the owner’s manual for a welder in a welding shop. If your user is to install a particular software package, you’d conduct your test using a computer.
4. You must video record the usability testing.
To be sure, video recording a usability testing session can be helpful. For those on the team who are not directly involved with the test, actually seeing the product being installed or used can be instructive. Seeing the results of such tests can indicate problems or inconsistencies with the instructions or the product itself.
Yet video recording is not necessary if the test supervisors observe carefully, and record meticulously, what the participant is doing and experiencing. Identifying the range of reactions, and the time needed to perform selected tasks, are common metrics that are defined before the test, and observed and recorded during the test.
