Usability Testing
Usability Testing primarily depends on the ‘experience and feel ’of the users. Usability Testing means testing or assessing an application, product or service from a user point before it is launched to the market. They analyse and test whether it is user friendly, whether users can use varied parameters with ease, whether it is as per the mental map of how the user wants it to be.
In usability testing, engaging the users with real time scenarios like asking them to purchase or find a feature, or book tickets or create an e-mail id can typically encourage them to get acquainted with the interface on their own and lets us know on how people use the product/application.
The testers who act as real life users of the system, identify defects, gather qualitative and quantitative insights by performing realistic activities. This helps them in knowing the major obstacle and arbitrate the user’s satisfaction level of the product.
Testers check the speed, flow, navigation, layout, design, content, preferences etc in comparison to other similar products. The usability test is done to make it more efficient, effective, simple, appealing, engaging etc. Most importantly, the usability test helps you to pinpoint the changes required to be made in terms of the performance. Usability test is determined on how convenient it is to use the software and how easy it is to learn the software.
The testers must have clarity on the objective of the product/application under test, and why they are testing it so they can focus on finding valid defects. The earlier bugs are fixed, the less costly it becomes. The best results from usability test very much depends on the size of the team of testers and amount of time spent testing it.