How to use usability testing?

Which small companies invest the most in usability testing? Do small companies use testing at all?

• Answer:

  Many small companies invest in usability testing. We conduct remote usability tests and other "guerrilla" usability activities for small, medium and large website projects. With remote and low-cost usability tactics, it's quite affordable and even cost effective to test a prototype design with 5-8 users. We validate site organization and navigation and test the top tasks for a site on almost every site we create. There's a wide variety of affordable usability testing tools (Optimal Workshop, Silverback, Usabilla) that allow us to conduct tests remotely. These tools typically use the test participant's own equipment, browser, and can be conducted in their own home or wherever they would normally access the website. In this way, these tactics result in more insights than a more artificial setup in a traditional usability lab.