Very Short Blog Posts (16): Usability Problems Are Probably Testability Problems Too

Want to add ooomph to your reports of usability problems in your product? Consider that usability problems also tend to be testability problems, and vice versa.

The design of the product may make it frustrating, inconsistent, slow, or difficult to learn. Poor affordances may conceal useful features and shortcuts. Missing help files could fail to address confusion; self-contradictory or misleading help files could add to it. All of these things may threaten the value of the product for the intended users.

Bad as they might be, problems like this may also represent issues for testing. A product with a slick and speedy user interface is more likely to be pleasure to test. Clumsy or demotivating user interfaces present issues that may make testing harder or slower—and issues give bugs more time and more opportunity to hide.

Now: consider that the opposite applies too. If you’re having a hard time testing your product, what does that say about people’s experiences when they try to use it?

Related post: You’ve Got Issues

(This post was updated 2020-12-10.)