Sunday, January 10, 2010

Why is Usability testing so important?


Usability testing is carried out in order to find out if there is any change needs to be carried out in the developed system (may it be design or any specific procedural or programmatic change) in order to make it more and more user friendly so that the intended/end user who is ultimately going to buy and use it receives the system which he can understand and use it with utmost ease.

Any changes suggested by the tester at the time of usability testing, are the most crucial points that can change the stand of the system in intended/end user’s view.  Developers/Designer of the system need to incorporate the feedbacks (here feedback can be a very simple change in look and feel or any complex change in the logic and functionality of the system) of usability testing into the design and developed code of the system (the word system may be a single object or an entire package consisting more than one objects) in order to make system more and more presentable to the intended/end user.

Developer often try to make the system as good looking as possible and also tries to fit the required functionality, in this endeavor he may have forgotten some error prone conditions which are uncovered only when the end user is using the system in real time.
Usability testing helps developer in studying the practical situations where the system will be used in real time. Developer also gets to know the areas that are error prone and the area of improvement.

In simple words, usability testing is an in-house dummy-release of the system before the actual release to the end users, where testers can find loop holes and developer can fix the possible loop holes.

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