User Testing vs. Usability Testing: What's The Difference?
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It’s easy to confuse user testing with usability testing; even the most seasoned experts use the terms interchangeably. Both are needed throughout the product lifecycle and when paired together, they give your team an avenue to build digital products that real people want to use. However, user testing and usability testing vary in purpose, scope, and approach.
To clarify any confusion and help you create the best product possible for your end user, we’re delving deep into user testing vs usability testing. Read on to discover the difference between the two and when and how to use them.
The Difference Between User Testing and Usability Testing
What is user testing? What’s the purpose of user testing?
User testing is the process of uncovering what users like and dislike about your product by having them interact with an early version of it. It confirms your product provides value, aligns with user preferences, and solves their problems. Let’s say you’re a startup preparing to launch a digital product or an established company introducing a new service; user testing can help you gauge user interest, establish your product-market fit, and verify the features that are most important to them.
What is usability testing? What’s the purpose of usability testing?
Usability testing is less about opinion and more about function, with designers and developers evaluating how easily users navigate and interact with a product. Using a prototype or a beta version, usability testing assesses how user-friendly and intuitive a digital product is by having users perform a set of tasks and observing their interactions. It’ll help you fix any issues that might make your product hard to use, optimize the navigation and design, and enhance the user experience.
User Testing vs Usability Testing: Audience
To have the right insights, it’s essential to target the right audience. Since a user test can involve learning how a new product or idea fits in the marketplace, user testing groups should include a range of demographics with varying levels of familiarity with your product or similar products. This will help you refine your target audience (the users most likely to use your product after it launches), which is who usability testing focuses on.
Remember that user testing and usability testing require significant time and effort, so be sure to compensate participants accordingly.
User Testing vs Usability Testing: When to Use Them
While there’s a marked difference between user testing and usability testing, both are crucial to the entire product lifecycle and should be done as early and as often as possible. Ideally, you’ll conduct user tests and usability tests throughout every stage of design and development, from the first prototype to the final product after launch.
User testing is the most valuable during the initial development phase, allowing you to validate your idea and its market demand. Collecting feedback from users helps you pinpoint and prioritize the most important features, ensuring a more effective build. Additionally, user testing can reveal unnecessary functionalities, saving time and money in the long run. It often complements user research, giving you a better understanding of your intended audience and their goals, behaviors, and challenges.
It’s best to carry out usability testing when design and development are further along. Testing both low-fidelity and high-fidelity prototypes will help diagnose hidden usability issues and any areas that can be improved. Pre-launch usability testing ensures a product’s usability and functionality, and post-launch testing informs future improvements and potential new features.
User Testing vs Usability Testing: Methods
There are three types of user testing: concept, assessment, and comparative.
Concept testing: This type of testing happens in the exploratory and research phases, focused on validating high-level ideas and solutions before starting the design process.
Assessment testing: This can be likened to beta testing, helping you assess certain features and what users think of an early version of your product.
Comparative testing: Also known as A/B testing or split testing, comparative testing is ideal for comparing designs to see which is more intuitive and effective.
There are three versions of usability testing: moderated, unmoderated, and guerilla.
Moderated testing: A team member walks users through a set of tasks and asks questions about their experience.
Unmoderated testing: This testing process provides a more authentic experience, giving users the freedom to interact with the product and answer questions on their own.
Guerilla testing: Operating like a man-on-the-street interview, this method requires you to publicly poll random people about a design or prototype.
Surveys and interviews are definitely useful in both user testing and usability testing, but session recordings and heat map analyses let you capture data about the experience on a granular level. Both are data visualization tools that chronicle the actions taken by real users as they interact with your product and complete tasks. A/B testing can also reveal how well users perform tasks with slightly varied versions of the same product.
It’s beneficial to create a testing script that briefly introduces users to the product and summarizes the test format before running tests. A testing script also defines all variables and standardize the information participants receive.
Each stage of design and development may call for different testing methods, so use your best judgment to determine which type effectively addresses what you need to test.
User Testing vs Usability Testing: Questions to Ask
No matter the difference between user testing and usability testing, you’ll want to ask both open-ended and close-ended questions when testing your digital product among focus groups. Open-ended questions gather qualitative insights, inviting users to elaborate on their opinions, while close-ended questions compile quantitative data and can clarify specific details when used as follow-ups. During testing sessions, the proctor should stick to the questions at hand in order to avoid influencing participants’ answers.
The goal of user testing is to uncover what users think about your new product or service and whether they’ll use it post-launch, so questions will center around the problem you’re trying to solve. Usability testing assesses how well people can use a product, which means questions will concentrate on the overall experience after users perform a set of tasks.
There are dozens of things you can ask before, during, and after user tests and usability tests. It’s important to screen potential users before you start any type of testing, so you can align with your target audience as early as possible. Demographic information also provides context throughout the testing process, allowing you to interpret results more accurately and reveal patterns that might affect their preferences and behavior.
To make sure you’re collecting relevant insights, we’ve outlined a few questions below.
Questions to Ask Before User Testing and Usability Testing
How old are you?
What’s your gender identity?
What’s your marital status?
What’s your profession?
What’s your household income?
What is the highest level of education you’ve completed?
How familiar are you with this product?
How often do you use these types of products?
Have you ever owned or used a similar product? Do you currently own or use a similar product?
How would you rate your level of knowledge in using these products?
How often do you perform tasks that this product may solve for?
How much time do you spend performing these tasks?
Questions to Ask During User Testing
Does this product solve a current problem or address a specific need for you?
In what situations do you think this product would be the most useful for?
What are some ways you’d use this product?
How easy is this product to use?
Are there any features that you think this product should have? Are there any additional tools you need to complete a specific task?
Did you encounter any problems while using this product? If so, can you explain?
Questions to Ask After User Testing
How would you describe your overall experience?
What do you like and dislike about this product and your experience? Why?
Would you use this product again? How often?
What would prevent you from using this product?
Would you pay for this product if it solved your problem?
Is there anything about the experience that you’d change?
How does this product compare to our competitors’?
Would you recommend this product to anyone you know?
Questions to Ask During Usability Testing
What’s your first impression of this product? Do you find it helpful?
How easy was it for you to navigate the product and complete the tasks? How long did it take you?
What do you think about the steps needed to complete the tasks?
If applicable, what stopped you from completing a task? What prompted you to take action?
Was there anything about the experience that was confusing to you?
Did the product’s functions perform as you expected? Were they easily accessible?
What are your thoughts on the product’s design and the language used?
Questions to Ask After Usability Testing
What’s your overall impression of this product?
What do you like and dislike about this product and your experience? Why?
Is there anything that could be improved or done differently?
What features do you think you’d use the most? What features are the most and least valuable?
How frequently would you use this product?
Would you pay for this product?
On a scale of 1-10, how likely are you to recommend this product to someone you know?
Would you choose a competitor product over this product? Why?
Need insights into your product or service? Let’s get in touch.
FAQs
What are the three types of user testing?
How do you run a user testing session?
Who performs usability testing?
What is the difference between QA and user testing?
