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Nearly every business with a market-facing product can benefit from usability testing, ranging from software to industrial design companies. In general, any company whose products interface directly with consumers is a strong candidate for usability testing.

Even the most well-thought-out products can have unforeseen design flaws, which can only be fixed after direct consumer testing of the product. Different from traditional market research, usability testing relies upon controlled experiments which, potentially, can be costly. If you are a small business or a larger firm on a tight budget, then you’ll want to consider the most effective way of testing the efficiency of your product’s design.

It is commonly assumed that a large sample size is needed to capture differences across segments of potential users. Recent research has suggested, however, that only a relatively small sample size of needed in order to capture the necessary usability data (see Usability Sample Size Research.) In fact, the research shows that effective usability testing can be carried out with as few as three subjects through proper experimental design, which is much more beneficial than running a less effective experiment with more participants. Therefore, whether you can designing your experiments in-house or working with a consultant, ensure that you limit the scope of the participants, which can save you on costs.

Rather than just deciding to invest in usability testing, the entire experiment should be designed with ROI factors in mind – after all, that is the essential reason for performing the tests in the first place.
These ROI factors can be directly traced to improved outcomes in terms of training and support expenditures, employee productivity, improved sales conversion rates and improvement in the release cycle for future releases (see ROI White Paper.) Since experimental costs can be estimated in advance, a strict budget should be set, along with a range of acceptable returns on the investment. In particular, companies have to factor in the costs of implementing the experimental recommendations, in addition to the costs of performing the test itself.

When seeking out a usability testing firm or consultant, be clear about your budgetary restrictions, along with your expected return on investment. You may have to limit the scope of your project, but, in the end, the results will allow you to scale and grow in the future. Additionally, you may consider more limited in-house tests using software packages, which will give you some initial data before you invest in a more comprehensive usability testing review.

This article was submitted by Maya Richard, who currently writes about dial up internet.