Can anyone tell me what is usability testing and in which stage it should be done ?

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RaviShankar

  • Sep 26th, 2006
 

Hi,Usability testing is done after Blackbox Testing phase is over, UAT is done in two ways 1st is Alpha Testing :- done in development site by real customers and developer notes any issues found in this phase,,, 2nd is beta Testing which is done by real customer in customer site like environment....after fixing these bugs arised in this phase a software is released into the market...Ravi

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Nik_Agarwal

  • Sep 26th, 2006
 

Usability Testing: Testing the userfriendliness and simplicity of the application. I am not sure about when Usability testing needs to be done, but logically usaility testing needs to be done after Intergration testing. Correct me if i am wrong.

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sanjay

  • Sep 28th, 2006
 

Usability Testing : It is a black bo type of testing comes under functional testing. Here we check for the userfriendlyness of the application. How it is easy to use by the end user. Also ensure that the application is easy to work with the limit keyinputs and is easy to understand.

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raja.raja

  • Sep 29th, 2006
 

usability testing is not a functional testing. It is user interface testing that means our application following MS 6 rules r not and

Spell Check, Meaningful error messages,Graphic check,accuerency of data from the database as a result of user input and meaningful help messages.

Tab posion, enter key posion.

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vikram sheorey

  • Oct 5th, 2006
 

This is a form of testing based on intuition. You must remember that the best approach to s/ware testing is to treat the user as an idiot.Many people using websites ( for example ) for the first time are totally intimidated by all the content involved and will be put off such sites that are too cluttered and confusing. One question that many of us take for granted (and is taking the usablity option to the extreme ) is the simple next page link. Does it say ' click here for' .....?Seems obvious to most people but you wouldn't believe how many people do not actually know what to do in this situation.It should be part of the beta testing phase

anand

  • Oct 13th, 2006
 

Usability testing is the component of the high level testing which involves ,complete products but as in the cases of other testing, it is better to start early in development cycle.The most appropriate way of ensuring usability is by planning it in two phases , first at development stage and second in the post development stage as part of formal validation stage. The usability has to be kept in mind while developing any product . Usability should be included within design specification to address the usability issues very early in development cycle. The focus should be to specifically include usability provisions in the specifications of the product. If an existing product are being redesigned or small modification is done, usability issues can be avoided using similar layout of the user interface as the user who are already familiar with the product will find it more usable.

subbu348

  • Oct 27th, 2006
 

usability means "user friendlyness"

this testing comes under non-functionality testing.In this phase we r checking

how can system respond when user did a mistake.mistake in the sence wrong inputs.

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bharathi_ark

  • Nov 20th, 2006
 

The black box testing process starts with usability testing..

During this testing test engineers are estimating whether our build screens are "user friendlyness" or not.

Test engineers are verifying alignment of objects, borders, grouping of buttons, labels, etc....

this usabilty testing consists of two subtests

1. User Interface Testing

    a. Ease of use(Easy to understand every objects/screen)

    b. look & feel(attractiveness of screen)

    c. Speed in interface(short navigations to complete task)

2.Manual Support Testing: Whether our application help documents are in context sensitve or not?

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Dharmakrishnan

  • Dec 18th, 2006
 

Hi

Usability testing measures the usability of the object. Usability testing focuses on a particular object or a small set of objects, whereas general human-computer interaction studies attempt to formulate universal principles.

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mithr17

  • Nov 30th, 2011
 

As we all know catching issues/gaps/bugs early on in the project costs much less than testing at a later time. As the name suggests usability testing is testing to ensure the application flow and requirements are user friendly and intuitive enough to the user.

When I work on an application, I start usability testing very early on before development starts. Read the requirements document and point out any gaps or usability issues.

For example: The FSD is silent on error messages, then pointing it out to the BA would reduce the added effort for the dev. to re-visit the code and add them much later on.
I would personally take the approach of "end user being dumb" while checking for usability. Find out from th BA who is the target audience to the application? If suppose you are working on an e-commerce application, the target audience is general public which is a mix of tech-savvy and non-tech savvy groups. What if a person is shopping online for the first time? Does the application have breadcrumbs or links to take the user back to the main/home page? Is it giving certain message to guide the user?

Many of the above answers suggest leaving out usability testing to UAT phase. Think of this scenario: I bring in a UAT tester group that comprises of a grand ma who is 70 yrs old, a 30 women who has no time to does online shopping all the time, a young lady who just turned 18 (keeping in mind the legal age limit to shop online) etc. what if the UAT group unanimously agrees that the checkout workflow is convoluted and suggest some major changes. Now the project team is tasked with changing the workflow during the last SDLC phase. This converts into dev phase, through testing phase, lots of lost time and money.

I'm sure by now you are nodding your head and agreeing that testing needs to start early and performed often!

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