Human-Computer Interaction

Usability testing

Lecture-10

Semester 2, 2025

Department of Public Health

College of Nursing and Health Sciences
Jazan University
Outline
• What is Usability
• What is Usability Testing
• Basic Elements
• Examples

1/20/2025 Jazan University 2

What is usability?
• Usability is closely related to:
• Ease of use
effective performance of tasks.
• Efficiency
resources expended in relation to the accuracy of goals achieved.
• Satisfaction
the comfort and acceptability of the interaction.
Usability testing
• Usability testing is a methodology that
employs potential users to evaluate the
degree to which a website/software meets
predefined usability criteria.
Usability testing – basic elements
• Problem statement
• Testing methods
• Getting test users
• Observation and testing
• Output and results
Problem statement
• Before conducting a testing one should clarify the purpose of the test
since it will guide the rest of the testing procedures.
• Important issues:
• What do you want to achieve?
• Are there any navigational and organizational problem areas within the site?
• Is there any confusing terminology within the site?
Testing methods
Method Short description
Usability laboratory A room with computer equipment, a place for
an observer to sit and a special observation area.
Web-based Online evaluation with live feedback from
users.
Thinking aloud A test subject thinks aloud while navigating the
site.
Observation Visiting the users and observing them work.

Questionnaires Site or email questionnaires are an effective

way of measuring user satisfaction.
Testing methods
Method Short description
Interviews Well suited to exploratory studies where one
does not know yet what one is looking for.
Focus groups Users are brought together to discuss new
concepts and identify important issues.
Heuristic evaluation Looking at an interface and trying to come up
with an opinion about pros and cons about it.
Log file analysis The computer automatically collect statistics
about the detailed use of the system.
User feedback Shows the immediate and pressing concerns, is
an ongoing process and is adapts quickly.
An example: usability labs
• Requirements: • Staff
• Provide test room • Usability engineer for
• Provide data analysis tools administering the activities in the
• Have a supportive environment lab
• Provide portable tools • A psychologist and a computer
specialist for analyzing the data
• Have space for group testing, from the experiments
focus groups and task analysis.
An example: usability labs
The subject room must
contain office furniture,
video tape equipment, a
microphone and a
computer with appropriate
software.

The observer side must contain a powerful computer to

collect the usability data and analyze it. A one-way mirror
separates the rooms.
Getting test users
• It is important to identify target
users and then recruit them to
participate in the usability test.
• Research indicates
that five to seven participants
are enough to show trends.
Observation and testing
• The test is divided into four phases:
• Preparation
• Test room is ready, computer in start state and written material available at hand.
• User explanation
• Purpose of the test, computer setup, test procedure.
• Running the test
• Test according to method choice.
• User feedbacks
• Satisfaction questionnaires
Output and results
• A usability report should contain
references to the following topics:
• A statistical analysis on the usage of the different regions in a website;
• A qualitative and quantitative comparison of different models for the main
elements in the site;
• Recommendations with respect to labeling, searching, organization and
navigation tools.
Output and results

• What does your organization do

after receiving a usability report?
• Implement changes
• The implementation requires a concentrated effort in order to fix
all usability problems.
• The implementation may require further consultation with
specialists in user interface design and information architecture
in order to implement the proposed changes.
Cases: Usability testing examples
As is always more intuitive to have a reality like example, we will try to present you here
some usability testing scenarios examples.

A) Let’s use as a usability testing example for shoe e-commerce platform:

Scenario: you are currently looking for a new pair of shoes, you want to buy them on
shoesecommerce.com
In this case, a typical task could be:
“go on shoesecommerce.com and buy the red Adidas Campus shoes, size 5”

B) Let’s try with a different example, a restaurant website:

Scenario: you are organizing a night out and you would love to book a table at the Italian
restaurant Mamma.
Task:
“go on mammarestaurant.com and book a table for two on Wednesday the 15th of
November.”

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Website usability testing questions examples:
•Were you able to find all the information you were looking for?
•Is the website clear?
•How can we improve our website?
•Did you encounter any difficulties while browsing?
•If you could change one feature, which one would it be?

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Usability testing questions for mobile app:
Although websites and mobile apps have common features, we
selected also some example questions for mobile apps usability testing:
•Was everything readable on the app?
•Were you able to find all the information you were looking for?
•Was the app working fast enough according to you?
•What difficulties did you find?
•Did you find the way the app is structured too complex?

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Usability testing: costs
• Website usability review by Nielsen: $30,000
• Average cost of an advanced usability lab: $20,000
• Web-based usability testing: $20,000
Free usability testing tools and cost
UserReport is a completely free tool that allows you to test and improve
your website usability.
UserReport is based on two simple tools – a survey and a feedback forum.
Running as an integrated part of your website or app, it enables you to:
•Test your users’ usability
•Collect precious feedback
•Learn how you can improve
You’ll discover UserReport is also a valid guide as its standard surveys can
work as a usability testing questionnaire sample.

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 Usability is essential to survival.

Usability is the key technique for

Conclusions superior customer relationships.

Attention to usability increases the

percentage of those who complete
a purchase after visiting a website.
“Usability rules the Web. Simply stated, if the
customer can’t find a product then he or she
will not buy it.”

“The Web is the ultimate customer-empowering

environment. He or she who clicks the mouse
gets to decide everything. It is so easy to go
elsewhere; all the competitors in the world are
but a mouseclick away."

Jakob Nielsen
References
• Sites on usability
• www.useit.com: Jakob Nielsen’s website
• www.usableweb.com: 793 links about web usability
• www.usabilityfirst.com: A guide to usability resources
• www.webword.com: Usability and human factors
• www.usability.org: Usability and general resources
• www.uie.com: User Interface Engineering
• www.webpagesthatsuck.com: Good counter examples
• www.vividence.com: Offers online testing
• www.microsoft.com/Usability: Usability at Microsoft
• Nielsen, Jakob (1994). Usability Engineering. San Diego: Academic Press. pp. 115– 148. ISBN 0-
12-518406-9.
• https://www.nngroup.com/