Usability Testing: Enhancing The User Experience

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Usability Testing: Enhancing The User Experience

Posted On : Sep-01-2011 | seen (305) times | Article Word Count : 637 |

The most important consideration of a user while visiting a website is satisfaction and that can only be brought about if the task they want to perform can be done with maximal ease and in minimal time. Sometimes, minor variations can make a huge difference in user response, thus affecting financial success immensely. Suppose you visit an online shopping site to buy a camera. You select the camera and when you click to view it, the image gets blurred and the picture of the camera is not viewable. This is a usability problem of that particular website which restricts you from buying the product.
Usability refers to a quality attribute that measures how easy user interfaces are to use. Thus, usability testing of a web application involves QA and Testing of website for its usability and usefulness. Usability testing is a method which helps to evaluate the product on user perspective and provide a clear input of how users are actually going to use the product. This also helps to better understand the customers’ needs and how they will respond to the product; this way, certain areas of improvement can be worked upon to deliver what they exactly want. QA testing can certainly improve visitors’ retention rate and customers’ brand experience, making way for the improvement of sales and bottom-line.
Some of the popular methods for performing usability testing are:
1. Hallway test: It is a method where five to six people, randomly selected and representing the end users, are brought in to test the application.
2. Eye-tracking systems: Eye-movement tracking is a technology where user’s gaze concentrations are recorded using certain gaze capturing devices.
3. Heat map tracking: Heat map tracking is technique to track clicks on a website.
4. Many algorithms can also be used to automatically calculate the usability level of website.
Any of the above methods can be chosen according to need of the software application that is being tested. While testing the usability of a web application, taking care of the following points can improve product acceptance:
1. Make the navigation uniform throughout the application as users typically dislike having to learn new site navigation.
2. Test for background images; if it is dramatic and eye-catching, it can divert the user from written text.
3. Ensure that hyperlinks are easily differentiated from the rest of the text by different color and font settings.
4. Always check for colors that are being used in a website. For example, red color is an eye magnet for a lot of people and it is associated with danger or errors, and hence, should not be used for instructions or simple messages.
5. Always ensure that the ‘Submit’ button is on the left side and ‘Reset’ button on right.
6. Ensure that forms retain data even if the user clicks on ‘Back’ button while filling it out.
7. There should always be a ‘Print’ option available so that users can take print-outs if they find something interesting.
8. There should be a consistent look and feel throughout the application because users get confused with erratic pages that look completely different.
9. Test for different combinations of screen resolutions and browsers.
10. Every website should contain a standard 404 custom page to catch errors and that custom page must include main navigation to get back to the site.
To sum up, in case of small projects with firm deadlines, some QA testing is better than completely ignoring it. Usability testing is often ignored by clients and engineers alike, but the value that can be added from it is huge. Good usability can ensure a higher level of user satisfaction, and thus, greater success in marketplace. In order to gain wide acceptance, it is not important for an application to have a rich functionality; rather, an application with lesser functionality but more useable features can make a niche for itself.

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<h1>Usability Testing: Enhancing The User Experience</h1> Author: <a href='http://www.articleseen.com/profile_Knowledge Sharing Team .aspx'>Knowledge Sharing Team </a> The most important consideration of a user while visiting a website is satisfaction and that can only be brought about if the task they want to perform can be done with maximal ease and in minimal time. Sometimes, minor variations can make a huge difference in user response, thus affecting financial success immensely. Suppose you visit an online shopping site to buy a camera. You select the camera and when you click to view it, the image gets blurred and the picture of the camera is not viewable. This is a usability problem of that particular website which restricts you from buying the product. 
Usability refers to a quality attribute that measures how easy user interfaces are to use. Thus, usability testing of a web application involves QA and Testing of website for its usability and usefulness. Usability testing is a method which helps to evaluate the product on user perspective and provide a clear input of how users are actually going to use the product. This also helps to better understand the customers’ needs and how they will respond to the product; this way, certain areas of improvement can be worked upon to deliver what they exactly want. QA testing can certainly improve visitors’ retention rate and customers’ brand experience, making way for the improvement of sales and bottom-line.
Some of the popular methods for performing usability testing are:
1.	Hallway test: It is a method where five to six people, randomly selected and representing the end users, are brought in to test the application.
2.	Eye-tracking systems: Eye-movement tracking is a technology where user’s gaze concentrations are recorded using certain gaze capturing devices.
3.	Heat map tracking: Heat map tracking is technique to track clicks on a website.
4.	Many algorithms can also be used to automatically calculate the usability level of website.
Any of the above methods can be chosen according to need of the software application that is being tested. While testing the usability of a web application, taking care of the following points can improve product acceptance:
1.	Make the navigation uniform throughout the application as users typically dislike having to learn new site navigation.
2.	Test for background images; if it is dramatic and eye-catching, it can divert the user from written text.
3.	Ensure that hyperlinks are easily differentiated from the rest of the text by different color and font settings.
4.	Always check for colors that are being used in a website. For example, red color is an eye magnet for a lot of people and it is associated with danger or errors, and hence, should not be used for instructions or simple messages.
5.	Always ensure that the ‘Submit’ button is on the left side and ‘Reset’ button on right.
6.	Ensure that forms retain data even if the user clicks on ‘Back’ button while filling it out.
7.	There should always be a ‘Print’ option available so that users can take print-outs if they find something interesting.
8.	There should be a consistent look and feel throughout the application because users get confused with erratic pages that look completely different.
9.	Test for different combinations of screen resolutions and browsers.
10.	Every website should contain a standard 404 custom page to catch errors and that custom page must include main navigation to get back to the site.
To sum up, in case of small projects with firm deadlines, some QA testing is better than completely ignoring it. Usability testing is often ignored by clients and engineers alike, but the value that can be added from it is huge. Good usability can ensure a higher level of user satisfaction, and thus, greater success in marketplace. In order to gain wide acceptance, it is not important for an application to have a rich functionality; rather, an application with lesser functionality but more useable features can make a niche for itself.

About the Author: Knowledge Sharing Team at QA InfoTech is responsible for research on new tools & technologies for effective Software QA Testing services across all industry verticals. QA InfoTech (an ISO 9001:2008 & CMMI III certified) is one of the leading Software Testing Companies with five testing “Centers of Excellence” in the United States and India. It offers end to end software testing services. Article Source: <a href='http://www.articleseen.com/Article_Usability-Testing-Enhancing-The-User-Experience_78582.aspx'> http://www.articleseen.com/Article_Usability Testing: Enhancing The User Experience_78582.aspx</a>

Article Source : http://www.articleseen.com/Article_Usability Testing: Enhancing The User Experience_78582.aspx

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Knowledge Sharing Team at QA InfoTech is responsible for research on new tools & technologies for effective Software QA Testing services across all industry verticals. QA InfoTech (an ISO 9001:2008 & CMMI III certified) is one of the leading Software Testing Companies with five testing “Centers of Excellence” in the United States and India. It offers end to end software testing services.

Keywords : QA testing,

Category : Computers : Software

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