Felicia Chong and Tammy Rice-Bailey
Volume 6
Chapter Description
This chapter provides an introduction to core concepts, tools, and processes associated with usability and usability testing. The objective of the chapter is to help you better understand what is involved in these activities. Throughout this essay, we explain the importance of understanding users and provide basic guidelines for designing and piloting a test plan, recruiting participants, preparing test materials and environment, conducting the test, analyzing the findings, and developing recommendations. We provide examples of both a simple, think-aloud protocol usability test (that includes qualitative data) and a more extensive usability test (that includes both qualitative and quantitative data). In summary, usability testing is a crucial tool to add to your skillset as a technical communicator, and it is important to solicit as much user input and as often as possible during the product development process.
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