Usability Testing – Why is it important?

What is usability testing?

Usability testing is used to gauge the user experience of a product or website. This is carried out so that project teams can evaluate whether users can easily navigate the new product or website and make the decisions you’re expecting them to make, for example, quickly adding a product to their basket and checking out.

Why is usability important?

There are a number of reasons why usability testing is important to your business and why you should definitely consider following through with this process prior to launching any new product or website. 

One of the most important reasons is investment. As a business, you’re investing a lot of time and money into your new product or website and you want to know whether it’s going to be successful. Realistically, you’re not going to know if it’s going to be completely successfully until it’s launched and there are many factors that lead up to this, however, you can at least understand how your customers will interact with your product/website and to see if they’re following through with the actions you’re expecting them to.

Another reason is to include your customers in the process. Customers always like to give their feedback so looping them in and letting them have their say will only support your team with creating the best user experience for your customers. Not only can your customers give their feedback, you also have the chance to see how they interact with your product/website. You can see where their eyes are drawn to, what action they want to take first, how long it takes them to complete a specific task you have set – this is all helpful information for your team to know.

Finally, when are you going to get this opportunity again? Spending this time up front to ensure you have a product/website you’re not only going to be proud of but your customers are going to love is always worth the time. Also, there are so many different types of testing, it doesn’t always mean you have to incur a large cost.

What are the different types of testing?

There are various different types of testing and many ways to capture the results.

Face-to-face

The main type of testing you will probably think of is face-to-face testing. Having your users in the same room, testing your product/website and either having a Q&A session with them or asking them to fill in a questionnaire. This gives you a chance to really understand what they think of your product/website and what you can improve.

Online

Another type of testing is by getting users to sign-up online. Once you have your final list of selected testers, scheduled calls with them and show them your prototype and ask them questions about what they can see. This isn’t always the most effective way of testing as the user cannot interact with the prototype themselves, however, you’re still gaining valuable feedback.

Analytics

If you’re looking for information from your current product/website, using analytics to review how customers are currently interacting with and, for example, shopping on your site can provide your project team with a whole host of information.

Overall, our customers and clients are the key to having successful business, so why not use them to your advantage and find out what they want and need from your product/website?

If you’re interested in working with our team, get in touch today!