Usability Assessment in the Design Process

As described previously, usability testing is a key part of the design process. Usability assessment should begin early in the development, when you still have the opportunity to make changes. You then incorporate your findings into the design process. As the design progresses, usability assessment continues to provide valuable input for analyzing initial design concepts and, in the later stages of interface design, can be used to test specific tasks. Make sure you allocate adequate time in your schedule to address the issues that may arise from usability review. Don’t assume that the results will always confirm your design. How you respond to what assessment reveals determines its value. When you are working through details of individual features, don’t neglect to evaluate how these integrate into the design. The usability assessment should include all of the interface’s components. Consider the user’s entire experience as part of the usability assessment. To help ensure overall usability, define a list of the top twenty most important and frequent tasks users should be able to do, then test all of these tasks regularly.