"Octopuses are incredibly intelligent animals able to adapt to changing environments. They have both short and long term memories and are able to problem solve effectively. Octopuses can identify patters, shapes, sizes and colors and have the ability to learn from their environment. They learn through observation and by using tools and playing with objects."
Usability testing can be thought of as evaluating the software by testing it with representative users. In the past, a common approach was to ask a group of people to use the software and were observed to see what issues and feedback they had. Today, a more efficient usability testing approach has been adopted to use end-user personas(also known as user testing). This works by a professional tester working through the software's workflows, features and functionality using different personas. Examples of personas would be users who have little technical knowledge, malicious users, users with disabilities etc. The use of personas combined with the skills of a professional tester can uncover a wealth of usability-related issues.
Usability Testing is typically performed after the functional testing. So at this stage, as many features and functionality are working correctly as possible. Usability testing is effective at testing entire end-to-end workflows and so all supporting components to a feature under test should be available. For testing users with little/no technical knowledge, any assistance within the software should also be available, such as tooltips, field validation, help pages etc.
Our QA team will provide you with ongoing communication every step of the way, ensuring that the usability testing and/or user testing is efficient and effective. The process diagram below will give you an idea of how it would typically work. If you have any questions at all, just let us know!
