Usability Testing for Survey Research

Chapter 1

Usability and Usability Testing

Abstract

This chapter provides a brief history of usability and explain the key components of usability testing—the product, the users of the product, users’ goals, the context of use, and the metrics of evaluation. We explain what these usability components mean when evaluating the usability of surveys. We discuss the importance of usability testing as a pretesting method, but note that it does not replace good questionnaire design. We conclude with a brief overview of the usability testing process as applied to survey research.

Keywords

Usability; usability testing; product; users; goals; key components of usability; context of use; usability metrics; accuracy; efficiency; satisfaction; pilot testing; cognitive ...