{"id":5003340,"date":"2015-12-17T00:17:01","date_gmt":"2015-12-17T08:17:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aadev22.local\/?post_type=aa_glossary&#038;p=5003340"},"modified":"2023-03-08T15:41:37","modified_gmt":"2023-03-08T23:41:37","slug":"usability-testing","status":"publish","type":"aa_glossary","link":"https:\/\/agilealliance.org\/glossary\/usability-testing\/","title":{"rendered":"Usability Testing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Usability testing is a long-established, empirical, and exploratory technique to answer questions such as \u201chow would an end user response to our software under realistic conditions?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>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\u2019s Web site might be \u201cYou\u2019ve just moved and need to do something about your two boxes of books; use the site to find a solution.\u201d)<\/p>\n<p>Members of the team (possibly including usability specialists) observe the user\u2019s 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\u2019s assumptions and actual behavior.<\/p>\n<h2>Origins<\/h2>\n<p>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 \u201cUX\u201d community (user experience design).<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>1983: a wide range of \u201chuman factors testing\u201d techniques foreshadowing usability testing, used at the Xerox PARC during the design of the Xerox Star, are&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/billverplank.com\/bewley83.pdf\">described<\/a>&nbsp;in the CHI conference proceedings<\/li>\n<li>2008: the&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/agile2008.agilealliance.org\/\">Agile 2008 conference<\/a> features a stage dedicated to discussion of \u201cUser Experience\u201d practices, such as usability testing, personas, or paper prototyping.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Usability testing is an empirical, exploratory technique to answer questions such as &#8220;how would an end user respond to our software under realistic conditions?&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8027401,"featured_media":8067461,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","categories":[904],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5003340","aa_glossary","type-aa_glossary","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/agilealliance.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/aa_glossary\/5003340","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/agilealliance.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/aa_glossary"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/agilealliance.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/aa_glossary"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agilealliance.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8027401"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agilealliance.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5003340"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/agilealliance.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/aa_glossary\/5003340\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agilealliance.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8067461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/agilealliance.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5003340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agilealliance.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5003340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agilealliance.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5003340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}