What is Usability Testing?
Several tests are performed on a product before deploying it. You need to collect qualitative and quantitative data and satisfy customers’ needs with the product. A proper final report is made mentioning the changes required in the product (software). Usability Testing in software testing is a type of testing, that is done from an end user’s perspective to determine if the system is easily usable. Usability testing is generally the practice of testing how easy a design is to use on a group of representative users. A very common mistake in usability testing is conducting a study too late in the design process If you wait until right before your product is released, you won’t have the time or money to fix any issues – and you’ll have wasted a lot of effort developing your product the wrong way.
This testing has a cycle wherein when:
- the product is ready,
- customers are asked to test it,
- If any further changes,
- product (software) is returned to the development team with feedback to update the changes,
- again the software had to run usability testing,
- if there are no more changes required,
- the software is launched in the market.
This whole process from 1 to 5 is repeated unless the software is completely ready and there are no further changes required. This process helps you to meet customers’ needs and identify the problems faced by customers during the usage of the software. Usability testing is also referred to as User Experience.
Usability Testing – Software Engineering
You design a product (say a refrigerator) and when it becomes completely ready, you need a potential customer to test it to check it working. To understand whether the machine is ready to come on the market, potential customers test the machines. Likewise, the best example of usability testing is when the software also undergoes various testing processes which is performed by potential users before launching into the market. It is a part of the software development lifecycle (SDLC).
Table of Content
- What is Usability Testing?
- Phases of Usability Testing:
- Advantages and Disadvantages of Usability Testing
- Why we Used Usability Testing?
- Factors Affecting Cost of Usability Testing
- Techniques and Methods of Usability Testing
- Conclusion
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