Difference between Usability and Functional Testing

Hi

What is the difference between Usability Testing and Functional Testing?
Plz explain......

Functional testing is testing just the functionality of the application whereas system testing is top to bottom or end to end testing; testing the entire system as one entity. It is a high level testing.

Usability testing is a core skill because it is the principal means of finding out whether a system meets its intended purpose.


according to [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usability_testing"]Wikipedia[/URL]..

Usability testing is a means for measuring how well people can use some human-made object (such as a web page, a computer interface, a document, or a device) for its intended purpose, i.e. 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.

If usability testing uncovers difficulties, such as people having difficulty understanding instructions, manipulating parts, or interpreting feedback, then developers should improve the design and test it again. During usability testing, the aim is to observe people using the product in as realistic a situation as possible, to discover errors and areas of improvement. Designers commonly focus excessively on creating designs that look "cool", compromising usability and functionality. This is often caused by pressure from the people in charge, forcing designers to develop systems based on management expectations instead of people's needs. A designers' primary function should be more than appearance, including making things work with people.

Hi,
One of the main aspects in functional testing is data. This is because if data is not good or not proper then functional testing will have bad result. Good data has direct proportion to function testing. So it is essential one take more care in setting up data while doing function testing and the following are the great benefits one get by concentrating on setting data for functional testing

For achieving correct test results data must be set with proper care
If one takes care in setting data for functional testing then it helps and reduce time
during re-testing
If time and care is taken for setting data for functional testing them it saves lot of time of SDLC
The proper data set helps to have good record maintained for further maintenance
Thus the flexibility of system is increased and so it is essential to set proper data for functional testing

Regards,
Timmy

Hi,
Usability testing as the name implies is the testing done with the end-users of the system. This testing is done to find out how the users could use the system and the feedback is recorded. Thus the main goal of Usability testing is to find the drawbacks the end-users feel about the system ad the main strength the end-users feel about the system. This is a very valuable testing g since end-users are the main users of the system.

Regards,
Janelyn

This is very useful discussion and some points to add from my side about usability testing is
The usability testing process must have a good documentation since it helps the users for maintenance and for future reference
It is wise and good to have a developer with open mind during usability testing. This is because to have note of the drawbacks and also help the users point out about the system with open mind such a developer is needed which makes the usability testing process more efficient and simpler.

If one follows a careful analysis and the steps of testing well by preparing a good test plan, test case so on the usability testing process would not be time consuming and would be simpler and efficient providing satisfaction for end users.

Though there is difference between Usability and Functional Testing as stated above the important point in any testing process is these two testing plays a very vital role and therefore has to be carried out with good care and analysis of results.

functional testing means it is type of testing on anyone of the application.inorder to check that functinality is working for all the reuirements or not.

usability testing is atype of tesing in which a test engineer mainly focus on the user friendly ness of the application

eg: take a tet boz which accepts only +ve integers
functinality testing
give -5,5.2,a123,.....and 51
it gives the error message like please try again only 51 will accepted
in the last we conclude that the functionality is working proper that is forvalid input and it is giving error message for invalid inputs

usability testing:

the customer will come enter a-ve number it will display a error message
that please try again
customer will enter a decimal no again it diplays error message.
again and again he tries it is displaying error message
like please try again means the customer is not knowing what to enter
for userfriendly ness in the usability testing if the error message like
< enter only +ve integer>. automatically he understand and gives the valid input

understood
ask for ore ?s
[email]madhav_sus@yahoo.co.in[/email]

Functional testing (also called requirements testing) covers the following aspects on every functionality of s/w under testing:
1) gui behavior (changes in properties of objects on the screen while its operation).
2) error handling (to prevent wrong operations).
3) input (to prevent incorrect input).
4) manipulations (to ensure correct output).
5) backend (valid impact of operations on database).
6) order of functionality (arrangement of interface screens in the s/w w.r.t. Order of functionality).

Functional testing also includes testing to figure out the extra functionalities in the s/w that are not required according to the srs. They incorporated into the s/w voluntarily by the developers as additional tools (eg. Special calculators, evaluators, games etc..).

Usability testing is a combination of user interface testing and manual support testing.
User interface testing is to test
- easy of use to estimate the understandability of screens.
- look and feel to estimate abstractive-ness of screens.
- easy of access to estimate length of navigations.

Manual support testing is to validate the correctness and completeness of help document also called as user manuals.

Usability testing test the user friendliness of the application.How simple it is to understand and use.

Functionality testing test how application is behaving when user works on it.

Can any one please explain usability testing with an example? not definition?

What is Functionality testing?

Functionality testing - Testing of all features and functions of a system [software, hardware, etc.] to ensure requirements and specifications are met.

It is testing that ignores the internal mechanism of a system or component and focuses solely on the outputs generated in response to selected inputs and execution conditions. :)