How Much Usability Testing is Important for Your Products
It is a common practice for companies or businesses to overlook the importance of usability testing. What many fail to understand is that the product they are about to launch is meant for the people. And who would be a better judge of the service or the product to be launched than the target market? For example, if Frontier decides to introduce Frontier bundles, the company will have to carry out some market research. This will help the company to see if the people will have a positive response towards the offer.
Usability testing is an important aspect. Here’s why:
Importance of Usability Testing
To see if the Product Meets the User’s Expectations
You might think that the product that you are about to offer meets the expectations of the users. But the truth is that you cannot get the answer to this unless the users actually use the product. You cannot just make an assumption on your own. Because let’s face it, every individual is different from another. And you cannot always guess what is going on in the mind of an individual. You might think that the same demographics means that every individual will have the same response too. However, it is more complex than you can imagine. Therefore, it is essential for you to carry out a usability test to see if the product will actually meet the expectations of users.
Removes Flaws
Usability testing helps you to remove the flaws in your products before you even introduce them to the market. This is because when you are going to carry out the usability testing, you will receive all types of feedback. And the ones that you have to look and analyze very closely are the ones that suggest you on how to improve the product. In other words, people will tell you about the flaws that exist in the product and you will be able to fix them. This should and will be a blessing in disguise. Because you won’t have to waste money on introducing a product in the market that still has flaws. Therefore, it is essential that you do not ignore usability testing.
User Reaction and Feedback
As discussed earlier, usability testing helps you to see individual reactions and get honest feedback. This cannot happen once you launch the product. Although you might think that improvement is an ongoing process. And you keep acting upon the feedback that you receive. But you also need to realize that the money that you will end up wasting after you introduce the product that is not welcomed by the users is going to be a huge amount.
To save yourself from this loss, you should spend some money before the launch of the product. Have a look at the reactions and the feedback that you receive. Pay close attention to all of these, to begin with. Because when you are a new business or an old business introducing a new item, you need to know how the people would react to the whole idea. Hence, making usability testing an integral part of the pre-launch rituals.
Having talked about the importance of the usability testing for your products, now let’s have a look at the different ways that you can do so.
How to Carry Out Usability Testing
Pilot Session
You need to conduct a pilot session before you carry out an original session with the participants. This will help you to see if you have prepared the questions well. Or if you have drafted the questions well enough for the participants to understand easily. The pilot session will also help you to see the time that you would need to conduct a session. In that case, you can inform the participants as well. The session will also help you to see if the record sheets you created are useful or not.
Pre Session Interview
This is basically an ice-breaking session. You introduce yourself to the participants during this session and vice versa. You then ask the participants how often do they use your product or your website. The participants will also share their general experience with you then as well. This will give you a chance to analyze what is going on in the mind of the participants or the potential target market.
Test Session
When you are about to carry out the test session after all the steps above, you have to ensure that the environment is friendly enough to welcome the participant. The friendlier the environment, the more comfortable will the participant feel. The better will it is for you as well. Because the participants will then give you a more honest opinion.
If you successfully carry out the above-mentioned tasks, you will be able to get a very honest and true opinion. But you need to find the right participants to be a part of the study. For example, you cannot afford to ask a two-year kid about the Frontier FiOS packages. You need to make a very comprehensive choice.
