The designer's challenge should not be taken lightly. If your usability goals are clearly stated up front, you will be able to move forward into the design stage, as noted above, with a clear understanding of the usability required. Once you have done all that, you need to confirm that you've accomplished your goals. This week, Bob Stahl provides some pointers on how to go about confirming that the usability you have designed into the product does indeed meet your desired standards. How to Tell What's Wrong by Bob Stahl, The Testing Center Your web site or application is going to get usability tested - by you, or your users.
Most developers eventually decide that it's best to do the usability testing themselves.
This introduces some interesting challenges. In this article, we'll explore one of them - how to tell what's going on during a test. This is harder than it sounds because you can speak very little, if at all. This is especially true if the usability testers are the developers. It really hurts them to see someone struggling with their brainchild, and they're certain that if the evaluator was just helped over this tiny problem, they'd go on to happily experience the marvels of the system.