A Quick Definition of “Usability Testing”

Welcome to another rapid-fire nugget of UX design goodness! In this article we’re going to talk about usability.

“Usability” is the idea that a normal person should be able to use your products and find them self-explanatory, efficient, and simple. Beyond making sure that things work well and are easy to understand, designers are responsible for creating products that are forgiving, evoke positive emotions, and get users absorbed in the experience.

Testing this is typically conducted by a UX researcher or designer with a chosen participant who resembles a representative user. They are briefed to perform actionable and realistic tasks, and are observed in the process of doing so.

Usability testing can be used to uphold a set of standards for quality, consistency and customer success and measured for a given set of test tasks.

Some examples of metrics that could be collected during usability testing include:

Completion rate: whether user completes the given task
Expectation: perceived difficulty of a given task
Time on task: time per completed task
Overall user satisfaction: general perception of the experience
Errors : any unintended mistakes, clicks or actions

Learn More

These tutorials will get you on your way to fully understand usability testing, including advice on how to conduct interviews and which tools to help you collect feedback.