Have an online business roadmap in mind? How do you plan to verify its usability degree before going live? Usability Testing is a smart way to test a mobile application on users and gain feedback against potential flaws. Even a stunning website interface won’t work if the significant user experience is missing and that’s the whole idea of including Usability Testing in mainstream QA practices.
Here’s how Usability Testing can foster your application performance.
Gives clarity about what may not work for the user and why
Here’s a use case! Say, you have an e-commerce store and you see there’s a good deal of traffic attracted to the website but the number of purchases is less. You can know where they give it up! Maybe, the payment page is a bit arcane for them. The problem can be fixed. So, releasing a prototype for tests on a handful of users can go a long way, thus saving time and money.
Increases your revenue and hence the market share
Understanding a user’s needs and your application’s approach at it contributes to the brand repute and ultimately to the ROI you generate. Usability Testing brings such clarity! Products with highly unnecessary features or a flawed interaction system are likely to face high abandonment rate. A product with a beautiful user interface interaction will spread soon, for a user might return to it along with referrals to their friends or relatives. Moreover, nothing publicizes a product more effectively than a positive word of mouth. Thus, understanding what they need will turn the tables towards you, generating revenues for you.
Reduces bounces and abandonment, thus building repute
A recent survey claims that 79% of the users visiting your web application are more likely to fetch alternatives than try harder to understand a confusing web interface. Moreover, 40% of these may even block you forever for a sluggish response. Not to miss, negative reviews of any sort are the least you had wanted. So, proper usability testing can go a long way, reducing such plausible hindrances.
Avoids project failure, for the redesign that may be costly
Project failure risks are big ones. Taking the user interaction and response to certain UIs can help you determine what the fate of your project can be. So, investing in a project that is highly user -friendly can be an effective business strategy. Subsequently, taking these tests prior to launch can be the best way to keep the balloon flying. This can save time and money too, saving 25% rework and bug fixing post-launch.
Delivers Competitive edge
While average products don’t survive in cut-throat competition, acquiring new customers can get more difficult if timely updates aren’t executed. You can make efforts in marketing strategies to attract new customers but luring them to stay will require a very good user experience. So, usability tests can go a long way as and when you deliver an outstanding experience to the users.
Dana Chisnell says,” If you want your users to fall in love with your design, you need to fall in love with your users.”
Prevents spending large sums on acquiring customers by publicizing
A good user experience is priceless. It is the best advertisement your business can have. If a good number of people use a web application or a website, a lot of people must be using it. There is nothing better than a user who has experienced a website or an application spreading a word about it. When the number of people bouncing from your website decrease and the number of them coming to your website increases, either based on good customer reviews or other positive effects based on your outstanding UI, you can save your time and money that you’d otherwise spend on advertising and stuff.
Identifies issues that are beneath the surface
The surface is the User Interface. It is a myth that usability testing is related to the user interface but when your website or application undergoes usability testing, but there tends to be more what meets the eye. There might be a case when the customers won’t trust your website with their bank credentials for making transactions when your web address is not HTTP Secure. This can be a benefit as you got to see beneath those layers.
Decreases the additional costs of customer service supports
If you have done a proper research about how the users would like the UI of your product, you will make it better. After the interface has become better, it will be comprehensible by most of the users and hence, you won’t need to spend a lot of money on customer support executive to help them demystifying the interface. There might be problems for some people but the cost of customer support can be reduced.
Uncovers full potential
Apple was not the first company to invent a Smartphone, nor was Facebook the first social network, but they are still successful! Doesn’t it intrigue you? Can you guess why? The usability and a good user experience have been some of the key ingredients which have proved instrumental in the exponential growth of the companies. Your company can be met by the same great fate with Usability Testing.
Validates Assumptions
When building the UI, the designers make a lot of assumptions regarding the UI and the reactions among the users. This may be right or the company may stumble. So, the assumptions can be put to test and a validation can be done about them. While it is a designer’s right to conduct his/her experiments while designing and let his imagination run wild and free, it can be a very good practice to validate the assumptions by taking usability tests before proceeding further with prototypes.
“Design is not just what it looks and feels like. The design is how it works”, Steve Jobs said once.
It will not matter how bug proof or intelligent your UI is, or how clean or appealing it is, if the customers are not able to figure out how to use your application or website. Usability testing has proven results towards delivering an amazing user experience and that’s exactly what your business needs.
