Website Usability ? Knowing the basics

Posted by usabilitysciences on January 5th, 2013

In today’s scenario, usability testing is one of the most important aspects of web design. With competition in the virtual world at an all time high, quality has become a parameter which is paramount.

User interface and ease of functionality of any website is what matters. It owes to the simple fact that the user has very little time at his disposal, and even the slightest bit of annoyance while browsing through a website can easily divert the customer to any other website.

Website usability testing is quite like quality control testing. It helps the web designer and developer better understand the problem areas within the functionality of a given website as experienced by a user. The whole activity of testing is centered on users in order to make their experience of using the website convenient and effortless.

In a typical setting, the process of testing is conducted in a test lab. A number of people are asked to use the website, and perform different tasks on it, under the guidance of a facilitator. While they do this, a set of professionals observe the users who are browsing through the website. This is where the observers look over, listen and take notes regarding the user’s experience on the particular websites. Based on these notes, the testing team draws inferences regarding the usability problems; quantitative data like error rates, time consumed per function etc, determine the satisfaction derived by the participant after the use of the product.

After the testing procedure, the web development team is provided with detailed feedback. This helps the developers to recode and redesign the website as per the inferred recommendations of different users based on the basic objective behind developing the website. It is imperative that the findings of the usability testing are given due importance. Accordingly, the development team should set the priorities in order and make changes to the prototype or the website.

The web usability of a product is generally gauged in the light of two major aspects-

1. Performance measures – These include the quantitative aspects related to the functioning of the website such as the time taken to perform a task, success rate in the use of a particular function and errors generated while using the website.

2. Preference measures – This is comprised of the subjective facets of the website  like the degree of user’s satisfaction and the ease of use for the user.

These two measures may not always be directly proportional to each other as one is technically inclined while the other is of a more personal nature, but the developers need to make the required changes while giving full consideration to both. At the end of the day, a successful website needs to stand up to the user’s convenience, at both levels, equally.

Today, there are a host of web usability experts available. All you need to do is to surf the internet, and choose a company that you think can provide the best of testing services at optimum rates.

About The Author:

The article has been written by Ben Bishop, the Marketing Manager at Usability Sciences. Usability Sciences offer various Usability Testing services like – Website Usability Testing, Mobile Usability Testing, Website Design Testing, Remote Usability Testing, and Rapid Iterative Testing. They also offer Eye tracking, Web Usability, Card Sorting and Intercept Survey services to improve your web experience. Besides these they also take keen interest in various online research and competitive usability research study and analysis.