Self Reflection

Lessons Learned and
Final Thoughts on Usability Testing

The process of conducting website usability testing is composed of multiple components. Each component of the process lays the foundation for the subsequent component. The beginning component, heuristic evaluation, produces sufficient qualitative data to construct plausible actor scenarios which serve as a basis for task-based usability testing. During usability testing, quantitative data can be collected and analyzed to produce website improvements recommendations. This mixed method approach is, however, limited.

The ability to detect all website usability issues during a single iteration of testing is unlikely. Although an initial iteration will involve both heuristics evaluations and participants usability testing, later iterations could focus on usability testing only to identify areas of a website which produce poor user experiences. Iterations which include website improvements should continue until results are mostly positive.

While website testing is somewhat complex, very good returns are possible when a proven process is followed, a process which should include contributions from all levels of an organization from stakeholders to developers.