The following sections of this BookRags Literature Study Guide is offprint from Gale's For Students Series: Presenting Analysis, Context, and Criticism on Commonly Studied Works: Introduction, Author Biography, Plot Summary, Characters, Themes, Style, Historical Context, Critical Overview, Criticism and Critical Essays, Media Adaptations, Topics for Further Study, Compare & Contrast, What Do I Read Next?, For Further Study, and Sources.
(c)1998-2002; (c)2002 by Gale. Gale is an imprint of The Gale Group, Inc., a division of Thomson Learning, Inc. Gale and Design and Thomson Learning are trademarks used herein under license.
The following sections, if they exist, are offprint from Beacham's Encyclopedia of Popular Fiction: "Social Concerns", "Thematic Overview", "Techniques", "Literary Precedents", "Key Questions", "Related Titles", "Adaptations", "Related Web Sites". (c)1994-2005, by Walton Beacham.
The following sections, if they exist, are offprint from Beacham's Guide to Literature for Young Adults: "About the Author", "Overview", "Setting", "Literary Qualities", "Social Sensitivity", "Topics for Discussion", "Ideas for Reports and Papers". (c)1994-2005, by Walton Beacham.
All other sections in this Literature Study Guide are owned and copyrighted by BookRags, Inc.
Usability testing consists of a series of test methods used to measure a product's performance with respect to its audience. This testing allows the examiner to determine if the product satisfies the audience's needs, it also measures the product's ease of use.
This method of testing can be used to measure the performance of software applications, web applications, web pages, hardware or IT related instructions. The examiner or tester is usually called the designer, developer or software tester.
Although usability testing is used in different fields in the IT industry, it always requires the same preparation questions.
These questions must be answered to conduct a good usability test. Then, it becomes the tester's responsibility to determine which test method or methods will best answer these questions and then design the test. In the usability test process the tester must identify the audience, determine the test design, determine the criteria for testing the audience and determine the tasks that the test audience will perform. The tester must acquire all materials needed to set up the test, obtain a sample audience, and either assign a person to run the test or observers to conduct data gathering.
These test methods, also refered to as experiments, include prototype testing, thinking-out-loud protocol, questionnaires, observation testing, clustering and labeling exercises, and focus groups.