Web Usability Blog

Often, we receive requests from clients to include one or two people with disabilities in a round of usability testing. This may be either because they are genuinely interested in improving the accessibility of their website or they want to tick the ‘equality’ box. While one motivation is more noble than the other, neither will produce useful or effective results. Here’s why…

Usability testing, in simple terms, is the process of testing how easy or difficult a website is to use with a representative group of users. It comes in two main forms: 

10th November 2022 was World Usability Day – a day established to promote the values of universal usability and every user's obligation to ask for better experiences from digital services. This year’s theme, ‘Our Health’, considered the “systems that provide healthcare in all its many forms and digital health related solutions”.  

Introduction

We are often asked 'how many testers do we need for usability testing?'. The answer is 'it depends'! Are you trying to:

Research facilitation the ‘Web Usability way’ is grounded in adopting a user led approach. From our experience, the best facilitators are able to explore issues as they arise, probe on why testers do things and their reactions to the site, all while remaining neutral. 

Everyone has a website these days so developing one should be straightforward, right? Then why are so many websites so difficult or frustrating to use.

We believe that developing an effective, usable website is highly achievable. Here are our 7 steps to get you there:

Given the changes to working practices and the focus on remote working since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, it was important for us to adapt our ‘action-oriented approach’ to these new conditions as well.

Firstly, hello! My name is Alice, I joined the Web Usability team at the start of July as the new Recruitment and Marketing Executive. My background is predominantly customer service based so the world of user experience (UX) is completely new to me. With no prior knowledge of UX, what better way to learn than to dive in and watch a week of user research!  

You’ve just launched your new website. Congratulations! You followed all the UX best practice, engaged with users throughout the development process and have ended up with a beautiful, shiny, user-centred result.

A successful website relies on more than just the people in the digital team. Marketing, product, policy and many other departments will have a role to play.