Usability Testing - Software Engineering

Last Updated : 11 Jul, 2025

Usability testing is a method used to evaluate the user experience and navigation of websites, apps, and digital products.

In this guide, we'll explore the basics of usability testing, its significance in software development, and how it enhances user engagement. Whether it's through in-person sessions or remote testing, we'll delve into how real users' interactions provide invaluable insights for product improvement.

Table of Content

What is Usability Testing?

Usability Testing in software testing is a type of testing, that is done from an end user's perspective to determine if the system is easily usable. Usability testing is generally the practice of testing how easy a design is to use on a group of representative users. Several tests are performed on a product before deploying it. You need to collect qualitative and quantitative data and satisfy customers' needs with the product. A proper final report is made mentioning the changes required in the product (software).

Flow-of-Usability-Testing — Flow of Usability Testing

Usability testing involves evaluating the functionality of a website, app, or digital product by observing real users as they navigate through it. Typically conducted by researchers, either in-person or remotely, the aim is to identify any areas of confusion or difficulty users encounter while completing tasks.

The ultimate goal of usability testing is to uncover pain points in the user experience, revealing opportunities for improvement. By assessing how efficiently users achieve their goals within the product, usability testing helps in enhancing its overall functionality and user satisfaction.

Types of Usability Testing

Here are some common types of usability testing explained simply:

Remote Usability Testing: Participants use a product or website from their own location while researchers observe and gather feedback remotely. It's convenient and allows testing with diverse users without geographical constraints.
Moderated Usability Testing: A researcher guides participants through tasks, observes their interactions, and collects feedback in real-time. It's helpful for understanding user behavior and thoughts as they navigate through the product.
Unmoderated Usability Testing: Participants complete tasks independently, without direct guidance from a researcher. They usually record their screen and verbalize their thoughts while interacting with the product. It's efficient for gathering feedback from a large number of users quickly.
Comparative Usability Testing: This involves testing multiple versions of a product or interface to determine which performs better in terms of usability. It helps in making informed design decisions by identifying strengths and weaknesses of each version.
Think-Aloud Testing: Participants verbalize their thoughts and actions as they interact with the product. This provides insights into their decision-making process and helps identify usability issues that might not be obvious otherwise.
A/B Testing: Also known as split testing, it involves presenting users with two (or more) versions of a product or interface and measuring which one performs better based on predefined metrics such as conversion rate or user engagement.
Guerrilla Usability Testing: Conducted informally in public spaces or online communities, often with minimal planning and resources. It's useful for gathering quick feedback from a diverse range of users in a natural setting.

Difference between usability testing and user testing

Usability testing and user testing are often confused, but they have different purposes. Both are part of UX testing, which aims to understand the user experience comprehensively. User testing involves real people using a product or service and providing feedback. It helps understand what users think about the product, how they perceive it, and what their needs are.

Usability-Testing-&-User-Testing — Usability Testing & User Testing

Usability testing, on the other hand, focuses on specific aspects like finding bugs or errors that affect user flow, checking if users can complete tasks easily, and ensuring they understand how to navigate the site.

Here are the differences between Usability Testing and User Testing:

Aspect	Usability Testing	User Testing
Purpose	Focuses on identifying usability issues and improving the user experience.	Aims to gather feedback on how users perceive the product and their needs.
Focus Area	Examines specific tasks, navigation, and task completion efficiency.	Focuses on overall user opinions, perceptions, and satisfaction.
Objective	Ensures users can easily navigate and complete tasks without confusion or errors.	Understands what users think about the product and how it meets their needs.
Methodology	Involves observing users while they complete tasks, identifying pain points or areas of confusion.	Involves observing users' reactions, their thoughts, and their feedback while using the product.
Type of Data Collected	Qualitative and quantitative data focused on usability issues like navigation and task completion.	Qualitative feedback based on the user's overall experience, perceptions, and needs.
Typical Participants	Usually a small group of users who represent the target audience and interact with the product’s features.	A broader group of users that may or may not represent the target audience.
Outcome	Provides insights into how easily users can interact with the product and accomplish tasks.	Provides a better understanding of the product’s reception and whether it aligns with user needs and expectations.
Application	Typically used during the development phase to refine product usability before launch.	Applied throughout the development lifecycle to gather feedback and validate user satisfaction.

Why is Usability Testing important?

When software is ready, it is important to make sure that the user experience with the product should be seamless. It should be easy to navigate and all the functions should be working properly, the competitor's website will win the race.

Therefore, usability testing is performed. The objective of usability testing is to understand customers' needs and requirements and also how users interact with the product (software). With the test, all the features, functions, and purposes of the software are checked.

The primary goals of usability testing are - discovering problems (hidden issues) and opportunities, comparing benchmarks, and comparison against other websites. The parameters tested during usability testing are efficiency, effectiveness, and satisfaction. It should be performed before any new design is made. This test should be iterated unless all the necessary changes have been made. Improving the site consistently by performing usability testing enhances its performance which in return makes it the best website.

Phases of Usability Testing

There are five phases in usability testing, which are followed by the system when usability testing is performed. These are given below:

Prepare your product or design to test: The first phase of usability testing is choosing a product and then making it ready for usability testing. For usability testing, more functions and operations are required than this phase provided that type of requirement. Hence, this is one of the most significant phases in usability testing.
Find your participants: The second phase of usability testing is finding an employee who is helping you with performing usability testing. Generally, the number of participants that you need is based on several case studies. Mostly, five participants can find almost as many usability problems as you'd find using many more test participants.
Write a test plan: This is the third phase of usability testing. The plan is one of the first steps in each round of usability testing is to develop a plan for the test. The main purpose of the plan is to document what you are going to do, how you are going to conduct the test, what metrics you are going to find, the number of participants you are going to test, and what scenarios you will use.
Take on the role of the moderator: This is the fourth phase of usability testing and here the moderator plays a vital role that involves building a partnership with the participant. Most of the research findings are derived by observing the participant’s actions and gathering verbal feedback to be an effective moderator, you need to be able to make instant decisions while simultaneously overseeing various aspects of the research session.
Present your findings/ final report: This phase generally involves combining your results into an overall score and presenting it meaningfully to your audience. An easy method to do this is to compare each data point to a target goal and represent this as one single metric based on the percentage of users who achieved this goal.

Advantages of Usability Testing

Usability testing is preferred to evaluate a product or service by testing it with the proper users. In Usability testing, the development and design teams will use to identify issues before coding and the result will be earlier issues will be solved. During a Usability test, you can,

User-Centric Design: By involving actual users in the testing process, you ensure that your product or website is designed with their needs and preferences in mind.
Identifying User Pain Points: Usability testing helps uncover areas where users struggle or encounter difficulties while interacting with your product. This insight allows you to address these pain points and improve the overall user experience.
Optimizing User Interface: Through usability testing, you can evaluate the effectiveness of your user interface (UI) design, including layout, navigation, and interactive elements. This enables you to refine and optimize the UI for better usability.
Enhancing User Satisfaction: By addressing usability issues and making improvements based on user feedback, you can enhance user satisfaction and loyalty, leading to increased engagement and retention.
Reducing Development Costs: Identifying usability issues early in the development process helps prevent costly redesigns and rework later on. This ultimately saves time and resources during product development.

Disadvantages of Usability Testing

The biggest cons of usability testing are the cost and time. The more usability testing is performed, the more cost and time is being used.

Bias and Subjectivity: Testers' biases, preferences, and interpretations can influence the results of usability testing. Additionally, participants may alter their behavior when they know they are being observed, leading to results that do not accurately reflect real-world usage.
Influence of Testing Environment: Usability testing often takes place in controlled environments, such as labs or testing facilities, which may not accurately replicate the conditions in which the product will be used. This can impact the validity of the test results.
Difficulty in Capturing Emotions and Context: Usability testing may struggle to capture users' emotions, motivations, and the context in which they are using the product. This qualitative aspect of user experience can be challenging to measure objectively.
Limited Scope of Testing: Usability testing typically focuses on specific tasks or scenarios, which may not fully capture the overall user experience or uncover all potential usability issues.
Difficulty in Identifying Solutions: While usability testing can identify usability problems, it may not always provide clear solutions or recommendations for improvement. Additional analysis and interpretation may be required to address identified issues effectively

Factors Affecting Cost of Usability Testing

The testing cost will depend on the following factors:

No. of participants for testing.
Number of Days which you need for testing.
which type of testing.
the size of the team used for testing.

Remember to budget for the usability testing, making usability testing into a product or any website is an iterative process and the elements that are needed are as follows:

Time: Time is an important factor with considering usability testing, it will use the specialist of usability and the team to evolve the site and also need to test the test scenarios. Be sure to budget in time for this test preparation as well as for running test cases, report writing, analysing the data, and presenting the findings.
Rental cost: If you are not considering the equipment, you will need to ensure the budget cost for all other equipment, and also need to allot the location for the testing purpose. For example the rental room like a conference room which is used to perform all operations.
Recruiting Costs: Consider how and where you have recruited your participants. You will need to allow the staff to engage a recruiting team to schedule participants based on requirements.
Participants Compensation based on: You will need to compensate the participants for their time and travel purposes that also important to finding the testing budget.

Techniques and Methods of Usability Testing

There are various types of usability testing that when performed lead to efficient software. But few of them which are the most widely used have been discussed here.

1. Guerilla Testing

It is a type of testing where testers wander to public places and ask random users about the prototype. Also, a thank gift is offered to the users as a gesture of token. It is the best way to perform usability testing during the early phases of the product development process. Users mostly spare 5–10 minutes and give instant feedback on the product. Also, the cost is comparatively low as you don't need to hire participants. It is also known as corridor or hallway testing.

2. Usability Lab

Usability lab testing is conducted in a lab environment where moderators (who ask for feedback on the product) hire participants and ask them to take a survey on the product. This test is performed on a tablet/desktop. The participant count can be 8-10 which is a bit costlier than guerrilla testing as you need to hire participants, arrange a place, and conduct testing.

3. Screen or Video Recording

Screen or video recording kind of testing is in which a screen is recorded as per the user's action (navigation and usage of the product). This testing describes how the user's mind runs while using a product. This kind of testing involves the participation of almost 10 users for 15 minutes. It helps in describing the issues users may face while interacting with the product.

Generally, there are two studies in usability testing -

Moderated - the Moderator guides the participant for the changes required in the product (software)
Unmoderated - There's no moderator (no human guidance), participants gets a set of questions on which he/she has to work.

While performing usability testing, all kinds of biases (be it friendly bias, social bias, etc.) by the participants are avoided to have honest feedback on the product so as to improve its durability.

Conclusion

In summary, usability testing is vital for evaluating user experience and enhancing digital product navigation. Include its advantages, such as optimizing interface design and improving user satisfaction, usability testing can be resource-intensive and subject to bias. However, it remains a valuable tool for enhancing product usability and identifying areas for improvement.

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