Usability testing
is usually the last thing on a design team's mind during the stress
of designing and launching a Web site. But it's a critical part of
the process. It helps you get the design right the first time around.
"To put it simply, including usability testing from the very beginning of the product development cycle, and through every phase of your project, will save you redevelopment during the final crunch." Microsoft Corporation, Usability in the Development Process
Start usability testing during the design phase and keep going until the site is ready to launch. The tests uncover serious problems with your site structure and navigation system. You fix them before confused visitors leave your site in droves.
That's why we work with prototypes of varying fidelity. Ranging from a simple hand-drawn paper prototype to a HTML prototype with all the design elements in place. It takes far less time and effort to change direction during design than it does to try to make changes to a live site.
Graphics and a more complete look can influence the user. With a more completely designed interface, users are influenced by how you want things to work, instead of us finding out how it would work best for the user.
So do it before the site launch, when it is cheaper!
"For every dollar spent to resolve a problem during product design, $10 would be spent on the same problem during development, and multiply to $100 or more if the problem had to be solved after the product's release. Simply stated, the lesson is clear: It is far less expensive to prevent a problem occurring in the first place than to fix it later. And one of the best ways to prevent problems from occurring, and to protect your development investment at the same time, is to keep your users/customers involved through the entire development cycle. Overlooking customer expectations doesn't just waste money, it wastes time." IBM, Cost Justifying Ease of Use
Prevention is better than cure... and its cheaper too. Web sites are always evolving. Start measuring the performance of the web site. This gives a good indicator where the problems are so that you can target your testing. Things are constantly changing – there are new products and new prices. The objective is to find problems before the user does.
Beyer,
Hugh, and Karen Holtzblatt. Contextual Design: Defining Customer-Centered
Systems. San Francisco: Morgan Kaufmann, 1997. (ISBN: 1558604111)
Dumas, Joseph S., and Janice C. Redish.
A Practical Guide to Usability Testing. London: Intellect Books,
1999. (ISBN: 1841500208)
Gould, John D., Stephen J. Boies, and Clayton
Lewis. "Making Usable, Useful, Productivity: Enhancing Computer
Applications." Communications of the ACM (January 1991): 72-86.
Hackos, JoAnn T., and Janice C. Redish. User
and Task Analysis for Interface Design. New York: John Wiley and
Sons, 1998. (ISBN: 0471178314)
Nielsen, Jakob. Usability Engineering. Boston:
AP Professional, 1994. (ISBN: 0125184069)
Shneiderman, Ben. Designing the User Interface:
Strategies for Effective Human-Computer Interaction. Reading, MA:
Addison Wesley, 1998. (ISBN: 0201694972)
| About the author |
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Gul Amir Khan is the Chief Usability Consultant for MicroUsability and the current President of the Usability Professional's Association (Singapore Chapter). Gul has been trained in Game Theory and Strategic Behavior Analysis and has incorporated these techniques in web usability engineering. He has conducted numerous usability projects and usability workshops across Asia. |
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