The key responsibility of a product manager is to make sure that users enjoy using their product. Encouraging customers to do what they want, even if it’s their first time using the product, is the first step. The challenge now is, how can you verify this? Ofcoure by doing usability tests!

Usability testing simply means checking how easy it is for users to use the product, website, or app. It highlights the way in which people use your product, along with problems they face during use. Designers, researchers, or managers do the usability tests to find the confusing part and make efforts to improve the product. So, usability tests help you understand the user behavior and requirements. 

Furthermore, usability is all about people and how they understand and use products; it’s not about technology. This testing should happen many times, not just once. To make your product successful, it is best to start testing early, even with a rough version. In this way, you can fix problems instantly and save time and money. In short, early testing helps you make a better product faster. 

What does usability testing check?

It is essential to know what usability testing test. Product management teams do this test to learn about their products. This test helps you to know about how people use the product and what improvements are needed for the product’s success. The central focus of the team is the 3 main areas mentioned below: 

• First, they check the ease-of-use product. They want to know that people understand the product and use it without any confusion or hesitation. The product should be easy to use, simple, and clear so users can learn it fast.
• Second, they check the efficacy of the product. This means seeing if users can finish their tasks quickly without too many steps or clicks. The main purpose is to save time and effort and make the process smooth.
• At last, the team checks whether the product is user-friendly or not. If the user feels confused during usage, then the product should give helpful hints right away. In this way user can easily use the product. 

After testing these things, teams become able to make better products that customers enjoy using. 

Basic difference between usability testing, user testing, and user research

User Research

• A general term for several ways to discover users’ requirements, behavior, and tastes.
• Consists of interviews, questionnaires, group discussions, field research, and usability testing.
• Provides insight into who the users are and what they need before creating a product.
• Influences the overall design process to develop useful and meaningful products.

Usability Testing

• A specific kind of user research is concerned with testing the ease of use of a product.
• Involves watching users attempt to accomplish tasks using a product or prototype.
• Identifies issues or points of pain in the design of a product to enhance user experience.
• Typically conducted after initial design to validate and hone the product.

User Testing

• Sometimes used synonymously with usability testing, but can also refer to testing product concepts or market fit.
• Aims at users using a product to obtain feedback on usability or concept.
• Often used interchangeably with usability testing, but in some contexts may have a more or otherwise different application.
• Usability testing is the preferred term to prevent confusion that the users themselves are what is being tested.

Why does usability testing matter?

In usability testing, actual consumers test a product or website. Because they are too familiar with the product, designers and marketers may overlook issues that these consumers can identify.

You learn vital things when you see how people use your site or when new users test it. You determine whether visitors:

• Easily use the site without any confusion.
• Can finish the tasks according to their needs.
• Dont face any issues that stop them.
• Have an easy and enjoyable experience.
• Highlight other complications that need to be fixed. 

Usability testing matters a lot, especially when you want to introduce a new product or change the design. Without it, the product team might think that all goes well, but real users could struggle. It helps to ensure that people use your product easily. 

Top benefits of usability testing

• Verify your prototype in advance through user engagement to discover issues prior to completing the product.
• Guarantees that your product or website functions as intended once used by users.
• Assists with future feature planning through validation of the idea before investing a significant amount of money.
• Verifies that the final product satisfies users’ expectations and reveals elements lacking in the interface.
• Discovers faults in complicated processes, such as multi-step checkout journeys, and makes them simpler and more intuitive.
• Explains why users are acting a particular way by augmenting other information, like funnel analysis, indicating where the user drops off.
• Discovers minor faults such as broken links, page bugs, and grammatical errors that might go unnoticed otherwise.
• Verifies fixes introduced after finding errors, ensuring improvement is satisfactory.

How to do usability testing?

A product manager or anyone else in the product team can follow the 7 steps to perform the usability testing. Let’s start to discuss these points.

1. Planning the usability test

In the first step, it is good to create a paper that explains what the test wants to find out and how it will be completed. The paper includes the answer to the following question: how the group will pick people to join the test, what steps the group will follow during the test, and the kinds of information that the group plans to collect. In this way, every member understands the plan and what to expect. Having all these queries on a single page makes sure that the test is clear and organized, so the team can work well to get effective results. 

2. Recruiting participants

This step is to select the best people to join your study. To determine whether they fit well, you create a list of questions. After that, you make a plan to begin searching for these individuals and determine whether they are a good fit for your project. This aids in selecting the ideal volunteers so that your effort produces positive outcomes.

3. Preparing test material

By getting ready your test materials, you’re making the decision of what activities you want individuals to perform with your product and what results you’d like to observe. You will then wish to ponder whether or not to arrange the environment in which the test is to be conducted, whether that is over the internet or face-to-face, for instance, at your headquarters. This makes you able to see the experience of the user when they use your product and observe to what extent it is effective. Planning carefully will also make the testing process easier and provide more value to the endeavor.

4. Setting up the test environment

In this step, you must decide the place where you will conduct the test. Usability tests can be performed in the lab at your office or online, where people can participate from various locations. You should decide which test type fits your team’s goals and what you need. This choice helps you run the best test for your project.

5. Conducting the test

In this step, you will conduct the test. It is good to arrange practice sessions beforehand with your team. These sessions can highlight any potential problems in data collection and recording. It is also a good chance to find an issue with the product before involving participants. 

6. Analyzing the data

Now the product team will analyze all the collected information. They will review data to find important details. After this analysis, they can better understand what works well and what needs to be improved. 

7. Reporting the results

After testing the product’s usability, you will share your findings with your team. This encourages everyone to accept the improvements you propose.

So, usability testing is critical to building successful products by identifying design defects early, improving user experience, and validating design decisions. Through Oxford Training Centre’s robust product management training courses, you will learn how to carry out usability tests effectively and apply the feedback to improve your projects. We invite you to explore the practical skills you will learn through our courses that will help you effectively meet user needs and enhance stakeholder satisfaction and business success.