8 Ways to Make Usability Testing Simple

By Prometteur solutions 18 Min Read

Usability Testing services can help you bring the best out of your website and mobile app. They can be a great resource for getting feedback from your target audience and ensuring that your web app is user-friendly. 

Usability Testing services ensure your app is not only easy to use but also that it provides the best user experience. These services will also help you determine how much information your Web app should provide and how to organise it.

Usability testing is a critical part of any website or app development process, but it can be a complex and time-consuming task. In this post-usability testing made simple, we’re going to show you how to make usability testing simple and easy to do. So if you’re looking to improve the usability of your site or app, be sure to check out this post till the very end. Let us go!

What is usability testing?

Usability testing follows a process that aids in identifying and addressing any usability issues on a web app. The testing may be done using several ways to when usability testing is simplified, a group of people can use the site or app to perform the tests while recording the testing activities. The reports from their tests are what the development team would then use to address all found issues with the app or website.

There are some few things you as a tester need to have in mind when performing usability testing. The first one is to ensure your testers fit the description of behaviours of your ideal users. The second thing to keep in mind is to ensure that the test cases are well designed, also ensure that all your selected testers understand their roles and the importance of their activities as testers. The third thing to keep in mind is to ensure that your testers are monitored on a professional level using the right tools. Use smooth communication channels and record their tests. The last thing to have in mind includes is to ensure the results of the tests are all utilised in addressing the issues found and the recommendations from the testers.

Usability Testing Made Simple: What Does It Mean?

Usability testing made simple refers to a testing process that is very easy to both the testers because it follows very simple processes that are well understood by the whole team.  Usability testing made simple means that the testing is what anyone can properly do.  Before the concept of usability testing made simple, usability testing followed complex processes that take time and high resources to execute.

What Are The Benefits of Usability testing?

One excellent way of improving usability issues is by engaging in usability testing. Usability testing made simple comes with many benefits. Below are a few;

  • Usability testing leads to the improvement of your web app which also brings in more satisfied customers and increased conversion rates.
  • Any issues that may give your users issues when trying to interact with your web app will be identified and fixed during and after usability testing.
  • Usability testing made simple help you to easily gain an understanding of the process. In other words you can easily learn about how you can improve the usability experience of your Web app by revisiting your design and navigation.
  • When a usability is made simple you can have reliable user feedback because they are accurate and you can use those feedbacks to make relevant improvements of your app, website. A good user feedback also helps you to find potential usability issues that may cost you much in the long, allowing you to fix it early enough.

What Are The 8 Ways to Make Usability Testing Simple?

As web developers, designers and programmers create your software, one of the main goals is to have a final product that will be glitch free, allowing your users to easily interact with the app. To achieve this, you will need to include usability testing as part of your software development life cycle. Here are 8 good ways usability testing made simple can be utilised.

Do an Early Test

Although a usability test made simple is becoming very common among testers, sometimes the process can be tough and requires you to devote a lot of your time.  One of the best pieces of advice regarding this is for you to test early enough. Testing early comes with several benefits including giving you enough time to address the identified vulnerabilities before they become too big an issue to resolve without causing any serious damages. 

Performing early tests allows you to see where your users find troubling or struggle with white using your product. It will also aid in collecting accurate feedback from the ideal user like testers since you are not rushing the process as you would if you are not testing early enough.

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Participate in the testing of the mobile app as a group.

Use simple usability testing techniques; Reduce the size of the test group. But listen to the input of your coworkers. This is a common rule of usability made simple. Put on a gathering and let everyone know about your app. Many novel and practical concepts will come to you as a result of doing this. When several minds get together to analyse a problem, the results may be astounding. Gather around a table for some casual conversation and jot down whatever pertinent information you come up with. Utilise them to the fullest extent possible.

Have Continuous Conversation With Your Users

Every business owner wants to make improvements, increase patronage and hit high sales. But it does not just come to them as they will need the right feedback to achieve the best results. With the application of the rules of usability made simple, you should get your feedback from your ideal users. This is the best ways to know their pain points and address any usability issues that may deter the growth of your business,

We advise you to get regular testing feedback from your users. Meaning you must endeavour to regularly test your product or have regular conversations with your users abut how they feel using your product and or services. Doing these will be pivotal in helping you to uncover deep secrets and issues to address which will increase user satisfaction and the overall quality of your product.

Keep it informal

When performing your tests, keep the usability testing informal. In other words, do not make it too serious for your testers. Allow them to be at ease and act their normal self so they can give you the best feedback. For example, You can invite your testers to your office or allow them to use any other nearby computers that they may be more comfortable with. Doing this will send a lot of positive vibes to them, thereby allowing them to properly record and report the test.

Doing this can also mean that you will not have strict testing time allocated to the testers, nor will you use strict rules. Usability testing made simple requires that you keep the whole process very lighthearted, not so tight and fun to testers.

Tweak Your Product

After you have gone through all the feedback from your software testers, you should stick to tweaking and not make any significant changes to the software. The reason is that you don’t want to risk any of your users getting unhappy with the changes you make. If you keep the feedback in mind and tweak according to them, then you will be able to make a better product that your users love.

Use a Small Number of Testers

Ever heard of beta testing? It is a kind of testing activity whereby a small number of testers are used to run test cases. However, these testers may not even entirely be your ideal audience. But you just want to know what they think. 

Usability testing made simple allows you to use little resources to get useful results  and using those results to redesign your product for better gains. 

So your target testers in beta testing can be recruited, or you might just use a small number of selected representatives which align with your target audience. 

When you have fully gotten your sample, you will let your testers complete a report sheet or form on their experience with your product. The results of this assessment will then be used by the dev team to implement the changes suggested. In the end, you should have a better design which will lead to an increase in user satisfaction and sales conversion.

Focus on fixing the most important issues

After performing your usability testing, it is time to focus on the important issues that your testers have found with your product. Yes, we mean fixing them is next on the priority list.  Indoor report, you must have it arranged on priority so that you know which issues are to be given serious attention and which require mild attention. You might want to quickly fix navigation issues that are major and handle the minor ones later.

What have you learned from the testing stages? Make sure to write out all key findings during the testing process and fix those issues in the right ways. 

Have a Fixed Date

You will love to keep up with trends, of course that is a beautiful and rewarding thing to do. But remember the importance of regular testing for usability purposes. And while you implement your test cases, have this in mind; usability testing made simple and follow up with creating easy test cases.

For example, you can plan to conduct usability 5 times in a year or every first week of each month.  Having a tangible plan with clear dates will benefit your testing processes as you will be able to plan your budget allocation, time and resources properly.

Also, it will help your team to understand the essence of the process and be on same with you at all times.

If you have a fixed date for usability testing, it will allow you to easily learn from the feedback of your testers on a regular basis and apply all necessary changes for improved user experience.

Other Important Tips

Here are some tips to make usability testing easier:

The first tip is to follow the usability testing made simple best practices; keep it simple, lighthearted and fun for your testers.

The second tip is to ensure that all your testing resources, materials and tools are available and in good shape so that your testers do not have any issues the testing.

The third tip on our list is for you begin with small test cases. Doing this will go a long way in helping you to understand the not so complex issues fast and baby step you into understanding bigger issues when they are eventually found and reported by your testers.

Fourthly, use testing devices that are very similar to what your ideal users have. You do not want a situation whereby your testers and your users are using different devices. This may mislead you and will cause some usability issues in the future because you may not capture the real issues during the test.

Ensure you use the right test environment. The ideal thing is to make sure it is very similar to the actual environment you are testing for. Doing this will put you in position to know what your users’s real issues will be.

Always write down all your findings. Make them very comprehensive, easy to understand and clearly communicate them to the right teams for implementation purposes. 

Test often, using the usability testing made simple strategy.

The Important steps in a usability test

There are some important steps you need to conduct the right usability tests but ensure you keep in mind that usability testing, even when made simple can be frustrating, complex and time consuming. 

You may however keep your usability test simple by breaking it down in the following steps.

Planning

Before you begin implementing your test cases, make sure to properly plan the whole process. If you fail to plan then you are only planning to fail. in your plans, decide what you want to achieve, how you intend to achieve this and the tools you will use to get your job done.

Conducting the Test

After planning, find the right testers. Ensure they are close to your ideal users with the right devices and testing environment. Your usability test should be made simple at this stage but do not expect the process to be that easy.

Try to hire experienced testers, you may also use friends and family members if you are doing beta testing. Whatever type of testers you finally settle for, ensure they are interested and have the right devices.

Analysing the Results

Collect and analyse the reports of the tests. Make sure that you properly analyse the reports so that you can also properly implement them for enhanced user experience.

Double check your results

After receiving all your results and going through the whole process, verify the results once more by cross checking everything. Doing this is to ensure that all is well and in check. With the accurate results, you can properly implement the test results and improve your products’ usability.

We hope you enjoyed our blog post about how to make usability testing simple. Usability testing is an important part of any design process, and it can be a little daunting to start. We have outlined the simple steps you need to take to make usability testing a success. By following these steps, you will be able to get valuable feedback about your design, and make sure that your users are happy and satisfied. Thank you for reading, and we hope you find our tips helpful!

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