Usability Testing (UT):
  Testing the User friendliness of an application is k.a., UT.

User friendliness: Effort needed to learn the s/w or application is k.a., User friendliness

In UT we don't use the term test cases. Instead we use the term "CheckList".

Sample UT check Lists:
1. The look & feel should be good
2. All images should have alt tag
3. Page should not have big horizontal OR vertical scrolls instead it should have pagination.
4. All pages should have bread scrumb.
5. All the features should be accessed thorugh keyboard shortcuts
6. TAB order should work fine.
7. The text used should be very simple.
8. All pages should have Back & Next button
9. The clicked link colour should get change.
10. All the important features should be located within 3rd depth
11. Text format & size should be uniform across the application
12. All the important links should be located in the left side.
13. Cursor should blink in the user name field
14. Logout link should be visible.


Different ways of performing UT:
1) Done by end user
2) Done by Usability experts
3) Done by QA


1) Done by end user:
 Most of the time the gaming OR retail s/w undergoes UT. We invite the trusted end user to the company premises & ask them to perform UT. We can capture the user actions with the help of few tools viz., Camptasia, Jing, webEx etc.
  The end user will perform testing, after testing he will share his findings OR defects to developer.

  
2) Done by Usability experts:
    Usability experts are the certified people in UT. When they have to perform UT, they will call all the end users and ask them to use the s/w (Especially gaming s/w). During usage, If people faces any issues, they will report to Usability Experts. Usability experts picks up the actual defects and ask dev to fix it.

	
3) Done by QA:
   It is not recommended. But if situaltion demands the QA can also perform UT. When QA has to do UT they need to follow "Usability Life Cycle".

Usability Life Cycle:

1. Identify the need for UT
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2. Get customer approval
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3. Derived/Write the Checklist
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4. Checklist reviews
     (a) internal review (BA, Dev, PEER etc)
     (b) External review (Customer/ end user)
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5. Fix all the review comments given by the reviwer. Baseline the checklist doc & store them in repository (Its a centralized place where all the project artifacts are stores. Ex: ALM, PC, SVN, Sharepoint etc.)
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6. Whenever build comes select the checklist and execute them against the each pages. During testing If any issues found, it should be reported to dev.
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7. Prepare consolidated test execution report 


Note: 
1. Not all the application requires UT. Its done only If there is a ROI
2. Not all the pages requires UT. Its done only If there is a ROI
3. The application used by end user must undergo UT.

Tools used for UT:
Optimizely
Qualaroo
Crazy Egg
Click Heat