Real data tends to make arguments evaporate and meeting schedules shrink. Another good reason is the cost-benefit ratio. However, discount usability methods, in which traditional usability methods are simplified and numbers of test participants are reduced, bring cost-benefit ratios down to manageable levels. Any usability testing is better than none, Nielsen argues, since any usability testing has a positive cost-benefit ratio. This chapter describes some common usability tests.
Some tests are simple, others are more complicated.
Although usability is often seen as a separate discipline managed by a priesthood of human-factors experts, many of the techniques are similar to ones already used in software development firms.