Agile Glossary

Usability Testing

What is Usability Testing?

Usability testing is a long-established, empirical, and exploratory technique to answer questions such as “how would an end user response to our software under realistic conditions?”

It consists of observing a representative end-user interacting with the product, given a goal to reach but no specific instructions for using the product. (For instance, a goal for usability testing of a furniture retailer’s Web site might be “You’ve just moved and need to do something about your two boxes of books; use the site to find a solution.”)

Members of the team (possibly including usability specialists) observe the user’s actions without intervening, recording what transpires (either informally, e.g. taking notes, or more comprehensively, using video, eye-tracking, screen captures, or specialized software). The post-test analysis will focus on any difficulties encountered by the user, illustrating differences between the team’s assumptions and actual behavior.

Origins

Usability testing is not strictly speaking an Agile practice, but has attracted much attention since 2008 and is representative of a trend to incorporate into Agile practice ideas from the “UX” community (user experience design).

  • 1983: a wide range of “human factors testing” techniques foreshadowing usability testing, used at the Xerox PARC during the design of the Xerox Star, are described in the CHI conference proceedings
  • 2008: the Agile 2008 conference features a stage dedicated to discussion of “User Experience” practices, such as usability testing, personas, or paper prototyping.
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Additional Agile Glossary Terms

An acceptance test is a formal description of the behavior of a software product, generally expressed as an example or a usage scenario. A number of different notations and approaches have been proposed for such examples or scenarios.
Test-driven development (TDD) is a style of programming where coding, testing, and design are tightly interwoven. Benefits include reduction in defect rates.
The team meets regularly to reflect on the most significant events that occurred since the previous such meeting, and identify opportunities for improvement.
A product backlog is a list of the new features, changes to existing features, bug fixes, infrastructure changes or other activities that a team may deliver in order to achieve a specific outcome.
An acceptance test is a formal description of the behavior of a software product, generally expressed as an example or a usage scenario. A number of different notations and approaches have been proposed for such examples or scenarios.
Test-driven development (TDD) is a style of programming where coding, testing, and design are tightly interwoven. Benefits include reduction in defect rates.
The team meets regularly to reflect on the most significant events that occurred since the previous such meeting, and identify opportunities for improvement.

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