Student-run usability testing

Usability testing is performed by software development companies to determine whether their software systems are usable. Not only development companies but also end-user companies run usability studies. Given the importance of usability testing in industry, it seems equally important to teach students the basic elements of usability testing. Usability testing can be incorporated into a capstone course. Students can learn about user-centered design and what makes software usable by running usability tests. Usability testing consists of three phases-preparing for the resting, running the actual test, and analyzing test results. Each phase is described in detail in this article, which also contains a description of how usability testing can be incorporated as an assignment in a capstone course or a software engineering sequence.