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Usability Testing at the University of Nebraska

Test Early, Test Often

User-Centric Design

Designing user-centric Web sites is part of UNL’s Communications and Information Technology’s strategic plan. We believe our users know what they want and need from our Web sites and our job is to create and build sites so they can accomplish their goals. Surveys, feedback panels and usability testing aid us in this process. Our goal is to design Web sites that allow our users to easily, efficiently and effectively find the content they need.

What is Usability?

Usability is making sure whatever you design is easy to use and allows someone to successfully complete whatever task they set out to do. In our case, it is the ease with which viewers find specific information on our Web sites. It is part of a process or approach to creating Web systems; building a site for usability is part of user-centered or user-centric design.

Usability can make the difference between performing a task accurately and completely, or not at all, and the difference between enjoying the process or being frustrated.

What is Usability Testing?

Usability testing is watching representatives of the target audience of a site attempt to complete tasks, see how many problems they have using the site, what the problems are and why, and how to fix them.

  • Testing measures how unusable something is – how many problems people have using something, what the problems are and why.
  • Usability testing is NOT analytical research data. It is only meant to show errors so you can fix them, or discover things that users cannot perform or find, in order to improve function.
  • Usability testing is a research tool, with its roots in classical experimental methodology. The emphasis here is on tests designed for quick turnaround of results in product development environments.
  • Usability research approach is more of an informal, iterative approach to testing, albeit with experimental rigor at its core.
  • The central notion of user centric design is to design a product to fit users' needs rather than having users change their behaviors to use the product. Results from usability testing help us achieve this goal.

Usability Key to Success or Failure

  • Every time there is a flaw in Web design, people get stuck.
  •  Usability makes explicit how the designs need to work.
  •  User behavior is studied to tweak design to fit user behavior because people’s behaviors won’t change.
  •  Usability, not visual design, is what determines the success or failure of a Web site.

Many think usability gets in the way of designers and creativity. But think of it like the relationship between a writer and an editor. The editor makes the writing better. Usability makes the design better.