If a site or app is hard to use, people won't want to use it.

And even if people HAVE to use it, poor usability impacts their speed and accuracy. The costs add up.

Furthermore, it doesn't matter whether YOU think it's easy to use, or how hard your team worked on it. It matters what the users think!

Why usability testing?

By observing how users perform tasks within an interface, we can make sense of the trends we see in usage analytics. For example, we might see that users are not re-opening the app. The numbers won't tell us why that's happening, but observing users sessions (and listening to what they're experiencing) helps a lot.

Usability testing is a method in which short, structured conversations are repeated with multiple users in the target audience to understand what users think and feel as they use the product. The process can reveal missed requirements ("The app doesn't do X, so I have to do Y, which makes it harder for me.") and pain points ("Wait, what does this button mean?"). The sessions can also be used to gather other insights such as user's reactions to potential paths (messaging, features, or aesthetics) your team is considering.

Expert analysis, ratings/reviews, and analytics are also a part of an informed design program, but none of the other techniques replace the unique value of usability testing.

Benefits of Usability Research

When teams understand what users are experiencing, they can make better product design decisions, ultimately leading to:

• Better App Store Reviews

• Fewer Uninstalls

• More Repeat Usage

• Higher Conversion

Getting the Best Outcomes From Usability Testing

These outcomes are not automatic. For maximum impact, researchers must socialize the results in a way that their teams trust and remember.

• Your results are trusted when your team believes that you spoke with the right users, and worded tasks and questions without bias.

• Your results are memorable (and undeniable) when they hear feedback first hand, and see compelling trends across user sets.

By ensuring you make findings available to the right people, and easy to find for future teams, you increase the likelihood that your study will impact decision making now and in the future.

What are the risks of NOT doing usability testing?

• Inaccurate assumptions about why users are doing what they are doing

• Ignorance of user pain points (sometimes pain points that are easy to resolve)

• Missing features or workarounds which create additional work for users or leave you vulnerable to competitors

• Inability to predict what users will value or expect

• Bad app store reviews, leading to a decline in app downloads and reduced effectiveness of your marketing

When is usability testing recommended?

• Many product teams will interview users weekly or monthly about work in progress, but any research is better than none

• At a minimum, most teams will conduct users research before concepting, before development (using design prototypes), and before launch (dev prototype)

• You should also conduct usability testing with any significant change to the user experience

• Even if nothing about the app changes, user expectations do - so usability testing is recommended even when an app is static

Great usability is fundamental to the success of any user experience. If a site or application is difficult to use, people won't want to use it or they won't use it properly.

Use usability research to reveal insights that you don’t know you’re missing, and ultimately make better decisions about your product's design.