Usability Testing

Introduction

Usability Testing, as expressed by the name, refers to testing how "usable" the application is. This type of testing is typically performed by new users instead of testers or developers that are already familiar with the code and / or the application. Usability Testing comes under the category of Non-Functional Testing

Usability Testing falls under the category of Non-Functional Testing, since it doesn't primarily focus on testing the functionality of the application, rather, it focuses on evaluating the overall experience of using the application, making sure its interface is easy and intuitive for the target demographic.

How does it work ?

In Usability Testing, user opinions are gathered on the following topics:

1. The ease of use
2. Intuitivity of the design
3. Any features they think are needed

This might be either through a feedback survey or an organized test where users are invited to use the application and provide their feedback.

Although anyone can perform Usability Testing, including the development team, and the software testers, it is generally important to have new users test the application since developers or software testers who are already familiar with the application might overlook the problems or complexities of the application which might otherwise be useful to be addressed.

Usability Testing is an important type of testing since it might give important insight on how the application appears to people who are completely unfamiliar with it. Collecting as many opinions as possible is an essential part of usability testing.

Typically, a template is provided to the users for reporting Usability Issues to make the issue reporting process more coherent, organized and informative.

An example template might look like this:

Report Template

Title: [A brief, descriptive title for the issue]

Date Reported: [Date]

Reported by: [Name or username of the reporter]

Affected Version: [Version of the app where the issue was encountered]

Description: [A detailed description of the usability issue. Include what the user was trying to do, what they expected to happen, and what actually happened.]

Steps to Reproduce: [First step to reproduce the issue] [Second step] [Third step] ...

Expected Behavior: [Describe what you expected to happen.]

Actual Behavior: [Describe what actually happened.]

Screenshots/Videos: [Attach any relevant screenshots or videos that illustrate the issue.]