Usability Views Article Details  home | timeline | recent | popular | e-reports | userati | books | about  Authentic Behavior in User Testing (14 Feb 2005) It's a miracle that user testing works: You bring people into a room where they're surrounded by strangers, monitored by cameras, and asked to perform difficult tasks with miserable websites. Often, there's even an intimidating one-way mirror dominating one wall. Under these conditions, how can anybody accomplish anything? In fact, all experience shows that people can and do use websites and other user interfaces during test sessions, and that many valuable usability findings emerge from such studies. Why? Two main reasons: the power of engagement and the suspension of disbelief. Article URL: http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20050214.html Read 355 more articles from Jakob Nielsen sorted by date, popularity, or title. Next Article: Feature: An Interview with Tom Erickson     This site is a labour of love built by Chris McEvoy