Usability testing
Usability testing is a qualitative, small-sample method performed in controlled conditions, involving the observation of representative participants in a series of individual sessions, as they attempt to perform tasks using a product that could range in fidelity from a low-level prototype to a live system or web site.
Usability testing is mostly 'formative', that is, observations are used to generate design recommendations to make the product easier to use. Formative usability testing subsumes paper prototyping (usability testing a low-level prototype), and RITE studies (Rapid Iterative Testing and Evaluation).
'Summative' usability testing may also be conducted to benchmark the performance of a finished product using a variety of measures, but precludes the use of participant 'think-aloud' and other open-ended characteristics of formative usability studies.
Usability testing is the most common and visible user-experience research method, but is too often the only method ever applied to a product design, and is too often conducted right before launch, thereby unexpectedly revealing conceptual and architectural problems as well as the hoped-for insights concerning specific design issues. It is best used after other methods have been applied at suitable times of the design lifecycle, and well before launch, so that the design team has enough time to react to the findings and recommendations. Formative, and preferably iterative, usability testing applied at the right stage of development generates invaluable insights for improving a product's design and usability.
UXagility works with its clients to ensure that appropriate usability testing is conducted not only at the right time, but also in concert with other research methods. UXagility has performed well over a hundred usability studies for a great variety of clients on a great variety of products and applications, including web sites, enterprise products, mobile devices and applications, TV-based applications, and on-line games (MMORPGs).
While until recently limited by having to conduct usability studies at dedicated facilities, UXagility specialises in the use of desktop-sharing applications such as Webex and GoToMeeting , whereby participants are observed as they use their own computers; this allows usability studies (especially those involving web sites) to be location independent.