Usability Views Article Details  home | timeline | recent | popular | e-reports | userati | books | about  The Return on Usability Testing (16 May 2005) Usability testing is the qualitative measurement of user experience with a product or service, such as a website. Usability testing is for anyone who wants to make his website, software, device, etc. easier to use. Whether you employ thousands of people such as Microsoft or fall into the small business category, usability testing can play a significant role in giving you direct feedback from your customers. In a typical usability test, users representative of the target demographic interact with the design as one or more people observe and take notes. The goal is generally to identify any obstacles the user may encounter by measuring task completion rates, problem areas, and user satisfaction. Usability has been a buzzword of the past few years; however, not everyone has jumped on the bandwagon. For many companies, one of the reasons for not performing usability testing is the cost. One-way mirrors, cognitive psychologists and usability experts --these things can add up quickly to a big number on the debit side of the balance sheet. But is there a way to measure return on usability testing? Article URL: http://www.gotomedia.com/gotoreport/may2005/news_0505_roi.html Read 15 more articles from gotomedia sorted by date, popularity, or title. Next Article: The Usable Consultant: Interactive Prototyping     This site is a labour of love built by Chris McEvoy