The Importance of Usability Testing

There comes a time when users don't quite get the experience they expect from a product. It is times like these that usability testing is important. Usability testing is simply testing the usability of a product from the perspective of the user. There are two main types of tests when it comes to usability testing which are reliability and validity. It is something we can equate with human interaction. If a product is reliable and the output is valid, it can more often than not provide a great experience. 

Some of the usability tools that I've used are Selenium which automate web browser actions using Chromium Web Driver. This allows for me to test rapid usage of a product and program a set of steps that a normal user would take. There are many options that are available in mobile application development as well which provide developers a way to test user input through automating input testing.

There are many companies that use usability testing where usability is important and the essence of their product. Apple is a good example of a company that cares about user experience, "Today, UX and UCD is strong as ever at Apple" (Spillers). It is a critical step in perfecting the connection between software and client.

Developers must pay careful attention to usability. It is not only functionality that carries the product to success. What good can a product give if it does not provide the users with a good experience? Users are the fundamental basis of success for any given software. We create software for users. Some users even go into development because they are dissatisfied with the standards of user experience seen in products they've used. "[U]sability is a necessary condition for survival," an article states the importance of usability with a taste of natural selection (

Upon applying the idea of usability testing to a project I'm currently working on, I have discovered that there are many things that a developer would not normally see. Would it continue to work after an overnight stress test? How long does a session take when using my product? Applying usability testing to my product allows me to see the things that developers often are ignorant of. Thinking from the perspective of the user has been a critical resource for me and my team.

References

Spillers, B. F. (n.d.). Busting the myth that Apple doesn't do User Research. Retrieved October 14, 2016, from https://www.experiencedynamics.com/blog/2014/09/busting-myth-apple-doesnt-do-user-research

Usability 101: Introduction to Usability. (n.d.). Retrieved October 14, 2016, from https://www.nngroup.com/articles/usability-101-introduction-to-usability/

--what is usability testing?
--why is it important?
--what usability tools do you use?
--who uses it and why?
--why should we care about usability testing?
--how do you apply usability testing to your project?
--what has usability testing revealed to you?