Proof of Usability Testing Would Help Both Enterprises and Vendors
July 12, 2010 at 8:59 am 1 comment
Recently, we have been evaluating options for a new website feature, which can either be bought or built. If we decide to buy a solution, we can choose from a number of vendors with considerable, specific expertise in this area. Building it would require us to utilize the general expertise of a web agency to design, develop, and test ourselves. The former option, to buy, will require fewer internal resources, but give us less control over the final product.
Less control is acceptable if a vendor delivers unique value that we could not produce ourselves – outsourced expertise. While there’s a number of considerations, one question that we ask each vendor is “Have you conducted usability testing?”
So far, we’ve received perfunctory assurances that they do so, with generic examples provided. It’s leaving an uneasy, wanting feeling. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a more concrete way to evaluate whether vendors can deliver a better web feature than you could build?
I envision a trusted third-party certification that assures us that the product has been built incorporating satisfactory usability testing – like Truste does for privacy. It would be an easy way to help enterprises make data-driven decisions about resources and costs: “this certificate means they have done x, y, and z – are we willing to make that investment ourselves?”
There are two potential approaches:
- a certification that a website is acceptably usable or
- a certificate that acceptable usability testing has been incorporated into its development.
The former seems more immediately compelling, since it addresses results, not process. But the problem lies with defining which standards are acceptable. For example, is it up to the standards for people with disabilities? What about multi-lingual considerations?
Since there are fewer methods of usability testing than there are different needs of enterprises across the globe, let’s consider the latter: certifying the process. As I said above, this is an easy way for us to judge the costs of building versus buying. Without evidence that a vendor conducts good usability testing, among other practices, I’m more likely to think “Hey! We could do this!” After all, I can judge whether the features meets our needs, especially if I’ve done a good job assembling my requirements. I just want to be confident that our members are going to find these great features we’ve purchased for them and want to repeatedly use them.
How to establish this certification is a separate question, and I acknowledge finding a simple way to do so may be difficult. Who should certify? How much does it cost? How broad or narrow would our standards of acceptable testing be? I’ll leave you with those questions and address in a future post. Meanwhile, I’d love to hear your reactions.
Entry filed under: Recommendations. Tags: data, enterprise, improvements, investments, standards, usability, vendors.
My name is Adam Gross. 
1.
Joshua Lay | July 12, 2010 at 11:01 am
Very interesting idea Adam!
A certification that a website is acceptably usable:
I think there is too much variance in this field though. Each website will have its own desired user base.
Usability testing results in a large part of qualitative results. User preferences from their own experiences and knowledge. Depending on the people taken in on a test you may get varying results.
A certificate that acceptable usability testing has been incorporated into its development:
This would possibly be better to have. Standardise how tests are run to assure people that due process was done.
But in a field that constantly changes, these standards would always shift. Meaning if there’s a new way to do something a new certificate would have to be attained.