Regardless of your website or application’s ultimate purpose, you know that providing your customers with a good experience on your platform is just as important as your platform’s usability. However, many people don’t realize that there is a distinct difference between the two categories, and that while both are vital to your product’s success, creating a usable interface is just one of the many elements involved in quality User Experience design.
Throughout the development of any product or interface, businesses should conduct separate tests for usability and the overall user experience. To understand the difference, take a look below.
UX vs. Usability: A General Review
Usability refers to the functionality, flexibility, learnability and overall efficiency of an interactive platform or interface. Designers want to provide their customers with a website or app that is easy to use and devoid of roadblocks. If users can complete their desired task without a hitch and without first needing instructions, the interface can be classified as “usable.”
The User Experience, meanwhile, includes usability in its multifaceted definition. The field of UX Design spans a broad scope of components, including branding awareness, the psychological state of the user base, information architecture, and strategic content placement that follows a detailed journey map. In short, good UX Design requires that businesses get to know their customers and then create their online platform for these users. Users should feel comfortable and emotionally satisfied as they navigate a site, all the while feeling that the experience is meaningful and adds value to their lives in some form.
Testing for Good Usability
Usability tests measure a product’s functionality and ease of use. Marketing teams and researchers observe as a select panel of users engage with the product, typically after having been given realistic tasks or scenarios to complete on the interface. Product designers and usability experts then look for particular segways or cues that confuse or hinder users throughout the journey. This helps the company pinpoint design flaws before carrying on with the next stage of development.
It’s important that observers perform these tests with real customers so that they can garner honest feedback. The end goal of a usability test is efficiency, above all else, and to use the observations to adjust parts of the platform where users encountered problems.
Testing for a Good User Experience
User experience testing, on the other hand, is a far broader investigative endeavor. Measuring a user’s experience requires researchers to understand the intimate emotions and psychological reactions a customer has as they engage with an interface every step of the way.
In order to conduct a successful UX test, the business or brand needs to be aware of the specific demographics and desires of both their current user base and their target consumers, if these two groups differ. They then must create a panel of users to go through every aspect of their platform, noting their verbal commentary, physical reactions, first-click destinations, and scrolling journey along the way.
At the end of the test, the brand or businesses should have a better sense of their design successes and failures and what emotions those create in their users. These categories include visual cues, the learnability of the interface, and the overall appeal of the website, application, or product.
In summary, usability fits into the user experience as an important piece of the overall puzzle, but the two are not one and the same. Whether you are a product manager, an engineer, a marketing agent, or an IT professional, both categories matter to the success of your brand. If your interested in more information about our thoughts on UX Design, take a look at these articles below:
