Usability is a quality attribute that is defined by the ease with which a product can be used. It is a multi dimensional concept that comprises of aspects like the ability to learn the basic tasks and making it a part of your memory, efficiency with which task is performed, error ratio, ability to resolve the errors with ease and customer satisfaction with the design and look of the product.
Usability is a highly important aspect that has great implications on a business. Whether it is about online presence of a business or some real world business that is using some software to enhance the productivity of the business, usability is the prime concern. Take the example of a website that is just a plethora of information and user gets lost with no clue where he is and where he should be. Won’t he prefer the leave the site? And what a business is without a customer? Now consider a business that deploys some technology or software that it believes will multiply its revenues but the employees who have to use it find it so difficult that the productivity graph takes a downturn instead. This is what makes it a matter of quality practices to spend about 10% of the design budget on usability.
Usability can be increased by working in the light of feedback from those who are going to use the product i.e. user testing. Testing is done by selecting a group of users (that are not a part of the company) and let them use the product and observe the level of difficulty of use without guiding them. This is the best way to learn how user friendly the product is and what areas should be focused to improve the usability aspect. Usability can be enhanced to great extent if a step by step approach is devised:
- Identify the loopholes in the older system and avoid these in the new design
- Review the resembling competitors products
- Conduct field study to get unbiased feedback
- Refine the design using iterative method of testing usability
- Benchmark the usability practices
Depending upon the frequency of usability tests a company can build some usability laboratory or conduct these tests in the conference room or office where users are not distracted or biased by other external factors!
