With a little reflection, however, we can group them into a few major categories. The goal of usability testing is simple find out how people use a specific Web site or application. The tests may take place in a formal lab or in a more typical environment like home or work. You can perform usability testing at any phase in the development cycle. Generally, the earlier you test, the greater the cost savings.
Usability testing overall tends to be very task oriented.
Therefore, it may not address all aspects of user experience. Testing for usefulness and satisfaction is as important as testing for ease of use. Best Practices Develop a user experience strategy by testing competitors' sites in addition to your current site early on. Establish benchmarks for the success of your site early in the process and measure against these benchmarks at the end of the project. Don't allow the same firm that developed the site to test it.