My washing machine had an audio signal as a factory default setting when the wash cycle finished. The feature annoyed me because I found it unnecessary—emptying the washing machine is not exactly a matter of minutes in our household.

I looked up the user manual and found the section explaining which buttons to press to disable the sound. Great, but the audio signal would not turn off, no matter how closely I followed the instructions. The manual did not mention that the washing machine door must be closed when adjusting the audio signal. It did not occur to me.

User friendliness through testing

As a tester, I encounter similar situations when testing a system or application. Something may be confusing. Sometimes it happens that once you grasp the logic, you forget that the same thing may confuse dozens, hundreds, or thousands of other users.

This is where usability testing becomes important. When multiple people voice the same problem, things start to happen — hopefully.

I say hopefully because a project may invest time and money in organizing usability testing, but valuable findings about problem areas in the system or application may fall victim to the project’s tight schedule or budget. The more complex the system, the more time the project spends on defining and implementing challenging components. In the process, usability and user friendliness easily begin to be forgotten. “As long as we get this working first, then we’ll see if there’s time to refine that part”—this mindset is common.

Users should be Involved in evaluating usability already during the design phase

When usability tests are well planned, honest feedback from users is collected, and problem areas are reported and prioritized, findings that need to be addressed within a specific timeframe are documented. Only then can the findings from usability testing alleviate the daily mental burden on dozens, hundreds, and thousands of people.

Even if usability testing is not conducted through a specialized service provider, it is advisable to evaluate usability during other testing activities and highlight findings about problem areas. It is important that when developing something new, the users of the system or application are involved in evaluating usability as early as possible. The information and feedback received from them is valuable.

Good usability is like a mental map in terrain, guiding us in the right direction as we proceed. Psychology has extensively studied how humans perceive the world under the fields of cognitive psychology and perceptual psychology. Although we as individuals perceive the world in our own unique ways, fortunately there are common and general ways of interpreting the surrounding world. This knowledge is utilized in UX design to achieve user friendliness.

Does the usability of a product or system delight or frustrate? We quality assurance professionals get to be part of this interpretation of the surrounding world and systems, even when encountering something as mundane as a washing machine.