Usability testing

Usability testing is a software quality assurance technique focused on evaluating how easily and intuitively real users can interact with an application.

Rather than checking for functional correctness or internal logic, usability testing assesses the overall user-friendliness of a system – examining factors such as learnability, efficiency, navigability, and user satisfaction.

The goal is to identify friction points, confusing workflows, or design decisions that might impede a user’s ability to accomplish their goals effectively.

A closely related concept is [user interface testing], which merely tests that a UI works how it is expected to work. Usability testing takes this further, and examines whether an application’s interface is sufficiently self-explanatory that users can operate it without assistance from support staff or referring to user manuals.

Usability testing is typically conducted with representative end users, rather than developers or testers. Observational studies, think-aloud protocols, and task-completion metrics are common methods and tools of this practice.