Technology has made life easier, and this includes websites as a way to access information. If a website is difficult to use then, it’s more or less worthless. As a user, if I can’t find the information that I want to know quickly then I move to another site to access the information. After watching the usability testing in class, I saw that all users are different and they approach things in similar ways and different ways.
Usability testing is all about seeing how users interact with a site and improving the site based on the observations. They ask the users to think aloud so they can understand the thought processes.
In the first test about AR Kids Read, there was trouble finding the manual because the test users didn’t find it where they thought it would be located. This illustrated how the user thinks differently than the creator of the site. When the test users were able to find the organization’s address it was because it was easy and was placed in a location that users thought to look.
In the second site, a user could not find an answer to one of the questions, but it wasn’t because it was hard to find but rather it was user error. The user glanced over it and didn’t see it. Overall, however, people did a fair job of finding the information they were asked to find.
After observing the usability test, I can see how important it is for a web developer. If your website isn’t usable, then there is no point to the site. Usability is the most important aspect of a website.