Anybody Can Do Usability
My hero in the usability world has published yet another post, called Anybody Can Do Usability. Mr. Nielsen is really driving home the point that anyone can practice simplified usability (e.g., testing 5 users) which is inexpensive and goes on to actually recommend it over elaborate and expensive testing.
Usability is like cooking: everybody needs the results, anybody can do it reasonably well with a bit of training, and yet it takes a master to produce a gourmet outcome.
If your business owner you may be asking your self why usability is important and how it can help your business. The answer is simple. ROI.
Nielsen states that if you’ve never done any testing, you can typically double your conversion rate or other key business metrics. With that kind of return how can a business afford not to do simple usability testing?
Timeline
It takes only 3 days to complete a small usability project:
- Day 1: Plan the study and write the test tasks.
- Day 2: Test 5 users for about 1 hour each (cleaning up between sessions).
- Day 3: Analyze the findings and write up the top recommended design improvements.
If you have any experiences in usability testing please share your experiences in the comment section below.
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