Glossary » usability testing
usability testing
same as user testing, but emphasizes that it is the property of being usable, not the user, that is being tested.
Usability testing encompasses a range of methods that examine how users in the target audience actually interact with a system, in contrast to analytic techniques such as usability inspection. In a typical approach, a user performs a variety of tasks with the application while an observer records notes on how successful the user is in performing each task: how fast users go, what mistakes they make, where they’re confused, what solution paths they take, how many learning trials are involved, and so forth.
