Usability Myths and Testing
A lot of testers with whom I discussed usability issues have a very vague idea about this concept. Let's dispel the basic myths about usability and its testing:
In the perception of many testers there are 2 mutually exclusive types of testing:
Functional testing with this division seems to be more important, and GUI testing is an additional option, simple and not very important. And many people call it usability testing ...
OK, let's agree: GUI testing and usability testing are very different things . Usability is a property of the product to satisfy the needs of the user, and the graphical interface is only one of the components of usability.
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Usability of a product is determined by a whole complex of factors:
So, to achieve high usability, it is not enough to change the color of the buttons, and the usability includes both the functional component, the GUI, the help, and even the user support.
No matter how wrong! It is those who consider usability testing to be simple and conduct it without using the required techniques to discredit the concept of usability testing as such.
For useful and successful testing of usability, a sufficiently large amount of knowledge and skills is required:
At the same time, one cannot simply apply this knowledge and say: here it is necessary to change this, and here it is. Any guesses and presuppositions in usability testing should be tested on users. On real users! And here we just go to the next myth:
Imagine that your child asked for a birthday present 5 kilograms of candy, and you agreed with this. But what kind of candy does he like?
You have 2 options how to choose them:
Of course, in the second case there is a chance that you will guess, but it is catastrophically small!
The same is true in usability testing: you test the product every day, you understand much better in technologies and programs, you have much higher computer literacy than the average user (if you don’t write software for other IT people). Attention, a question: how can you evaluate what is convenient for an accountant who first launched your program, if you are not an accountant, and started it for testing about 632 thousand times?
Well understanding the principles of usability, you can get useful information from a third-party user of the product, but generate it yourself - no!
Suppose you have better recognized someone from your users, and are carefully working on the product to meet its expectations. But in real life it very rarely happens that only one type of user uses the product!
Accountants are experienced and beginners, graphic editors are used by children and designers, antiviruses are installed by administrators of large organizations and housewives. If you try to satisfy the mutually exclusive needs of different types of users, you will not satisfy anyone! That is why there is MS Paint with simple figures and brushes, and there is Photoshop with a limitless set of possibilities. Corporate antiviruses are installed through domain policies and have a centralized management server, and home antiviruses have one big “protect me” button. And, of course, many products have “advanced settings” for advanced users, so as not to scare newbies.
Do you know all your user types? Do you provide them with different product options?
If the product is customized, then many are relaxing: I can just ask the client how he should do something, and he will.
Everything is good, if not a couple of "but":
Meet the users, explore their scenarios, find out and analyze the problems - it is important! But we should be professionals in interface design, not users.
I hear about this especially often, but ... But as always, there are several "but":
Any modern product, adding new features, in 99% of cases, only increases usability! This is not immediately noticeable, but take a closer look: everything that you developed past releases could be done without innovations. But without them it would be more difficult. For example, an email client learned how to sort letters into folders in accordance with the rules - earlier it could be done manually. A new report was added to the banking program - before it was filled in with a text editor. In the graphical editor, a new filter - previously you could use your hands to carry out a similar retouch. Almost everything that your products do can be done without using them, and generally without using software. But with products, it becomes COMFORTABLE, the convenience of performing user tasks is the main goal of any product!
Usability is an actively developing area in software development. And only having dispelled the above (and others, there are still a lot of them!) Myths, continuously improving yourself and paying due attention to the usability, you will be able to produce decent products.
You can learn more about usability testing at the following links:
Myth 1: Usability is a GUI
In the perception of many testers there are 2 mutually exclusive types of testing:
- functional (whether or not the declared functionality works)
- GUI testing (how the buttons are located, what size and color they are)
Functional testing with this division seems to be more important, and GUI testing is an additional option, simple and not very important. And many people call it usability testing ...
OK, let's agree: GUI testing and usability testing are very different things . Usability is a property of the product to satisfy the needs of the user, and the graphical interface is only one of the components of usability.
')
Usability of a product is determined by a whole complex of factors:
- The presence of the required user functionality and its performance
- Ease of use and learning speed
- The number of errors that users make because of misunderstanding.
So, to achieve high usability, it is not enough to change the color of the buttons, and the usability includes both the functional component, the GUI, the help, and even the user support.
Myth 2: Usability Testing is Easy
No matter how wrong! It is those who consider usability testing to be simple and conduct it without using the required techniques to discredit the concept of usability testing as such.
For useful and successful testing of usability, a sufficiently large amount of knowledge and skills is required:
- Understanding usability and interface design
- Extensive experience of using products on similar platforms
- Understanding the business component of a product: why is it needed? What tasks solves?
- Familiarity with the user: who is he? What are the conditions for working with the product? How he does it?
At the same time, one cannot simply apply this knowledge and say: here it is necessary to change this, and here it is. Any guesses and presuppositions in usability testing should be tested on users. On real users! And here we just go to the next myth:
Myth 3: Anyone Can Evaluate Product Usability
Imagine that your child asked for a birthday present 5 kilograms of candy, and you agreed with this. But what kind of candy does he like?
You have 2 options how to choose them:
- Writing to try different sweets for the child so that he chooses himself
- Try it yourself, choose the most delicious in your opinion, and buy 5 kg of such sweets.
Of course, in the second case there is a chance that you will guess, but it is catastrophically small!
The same is true in usability testing: you test the product every day, you understand much better in technologies and programs, you have much higher computer literacy than the average user (if you don’t write software for other IT people). Attention, a question: how can you evaluate what is convenient for an accountant who first launched your program, if you are not an accountant, and started it for testing about 632 thousand times?
Well understanding the principles of usability, you can get useful information from a third-party user of the product, but generate it yourself - no!
Myth 4: Usability for all is one
Suppose you have better recognized someone from your users, and are carefully working on the product to meet its expectations. But in real life it very rarely happens that only one type of user uses the product!
Accountants are experienced and beginners, graphic editors are used by children and designers, antiviruses are installed by administrators of large organizations and housewives. If you try to satisfy the mutually exclusive needs of different types of users, you will not satisfy anyone! That is why there is MS Paint with simple figures and brushes, and there is Photoshop with a limitless set of possibilities. Corporate antiviruses are installed through domain policies and have a centralized management server, and home antiviruses have one big “protect me” button. And, of course, many products have “advanced settings” for advanced users, so as not to scare newbies.
Do you know all your user types? Do you provide them with different product options?
Myth 5: The customer knows how to make him well
If the product is customized, then many are relaxing: I can just ask the client how he should do something, and he will.
Everything is good, if not a couple of "but":
- The client does not know anything about the design of interfaces and often offers completely illogical ideas!
- The client is not always well aware of the options for implementation, and comes up with something too complicated.
- Request for request, made in accordance with the wishes of the client, turn your product into a quilt that has lost its consistency and overall unique style.
Meet the users, explore their scenarios, find out and analyze the problems - it is important! But we should be professionals in interface design, not users.
Myth 6: Usability is not very important, functionality is more important.
I hear about this especially often, but ... But as always, there are several "but":
- Usability is functional as well. And often when conducting detailed usability tests, we came to the need to remove some functionality, develop another, etc. And in these cases, this extension of functionality was kind to the world and met the needs of users, and was not just thought up by analysts because “it would be good to add”.
- If the client does not use the product (does not understand how; he does not want, etc.), then he simply will not get to the functional.
Any modern product, adding new features, in 99% of cases, only increases usability! This is not immediately noticeable, but take a closer look: everything that you developed past releases could be done without innovations. But without them it would be more difficult. For example, an email client learned how to sort letters into folders in accordance with the rules - earlier it could be done manually. A new report was added to the banking program - before it was filled in with a text editor. In the graphical editor, a new filter - previously you could use your hands to carry out a similar retouch. Almost everything that your products do can be done without using them, and generally without using software. But with products, it becomes COMFORTABLE, the convenience of performing user tasks is the main goal of any product!
findings
Usability is an actively developing area in software development. And only having dispelled the above (and others, there are still a lot of them!) Myths, continuously improving yourself and paying due attention to the usability, you will be able to produce decent products.
You can learn more about usability testing at the following links:
- “ How to wash an elephant? "- Vlad Golovach's excellent introductory book on the design of convenient products.
- “ Numerical Methods in Testing Usability ” - my overview report on usability testing at the SQA Days conference
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/211322/
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