Smarter usability testing: practical techniques for developing products

Abstract

The goal of usability testing is to get timely, useful information, but doing this on a regular basis can be difficult and taxing. Planning and conducting tests takes time, and if the development team doesn’t get information in a usable form, they will rightfully ignore the results. This tutorial looks at usability testing from 3 angles — planning, conducting tests, and summarizing the data — with an emphasis on practical suggestions for making these activities more efficient while keeping them focused on the users of the test results: the entire development team.