Usability testing involves measuring the ease with which users can complete common tasks on your website. The results of the analysis and subsequent improvement is intended to:
- Increase page views
- Increase downloads
- Increase forms completed
- Increase applications completed
- Increase purchases made
- Increase repeat visits
- Increase return on investment
During usability testing, the aim is to observe people using the product in as realistic a situation as possible, to discover areas of improvement.
With the number of companies professing to understand web design in its more sophisticated form, designers are often focusing excessively on creating cool designs and compromising usability and functionality.
With spiralling costs per click, there is an increasing need to squeeze out every last on-page conversion, so a designer's function of producing great design should be a 'given' and instead focus should be on making every part of a page powerful in producing desired action.
Rather than showing users a rough draft and asking, "Do you understand this?" usability testing involves watching people trying to use something for its intended purpose.
Setting up a usability test involves creating a scenario, or realistic situation, wherein the person performs a list of tasks navigating the website being tested while our experts watch and take notes.
Several other test instruments such as scripted instructions and pre- and post-test questionnaires are also used to gather feedback on the website being tested.
The aim is to observe how people function in a realistic manner, so that we can identify areas for improvement, and also what works well. Techniques used to gather data during a usability test include think aloud protocol and eye tracking.
