Have you ever wondered what the difference is between user testing vs usability testing? Although there is a big difference between the two, a lot of people use these terms interchangeably.

Knowing how these two types of testing differ will help you deliver a better user experience by ensuring that you employ the appropriate techniques when they are needed.

Discover more by reading on.

User Testing Vs Usability Testing: the Differences

The distinctions are related to the method, phases of use, meaning, and objective, as we have already stated. Let’s see them all.

The Meaning

Doing User Testing means understanding the needs of the user and validate the idea (which can be an app, a service, a product, etc.). It is useful to comprehend how people currently satiate that need and whether and how they might use a substitute. The user persona or buyer persona can be understood through user testing.

To understand if your users or potential customers are able to use your service or product, you can perform Usability Testing. For instance, you could test an eCommerce site to make sure users don’t get stuck in the process and give up.

User testing therefore focuses on functionality, whereas usability testing focuses on user behavior.

The Goal

As you can tell from the meaning of the two tests and the image above, User Testing is about understanding whether or not people need the solution you’re thinking about (or already working on). It also enables you to start figuring out who your product or service’s intended audience is. Let’s summarize the objectives:

• understand the user’s needs
• validate ideas
• produce concepts

Usability Testing, on the other hand, is about understanding whether the solution is usable in practice or not. For example, in a restaurant booking app (think of TheFork), if users can make a reservation and understand that it has been sent and confirmed. This test helps you identify product flaws and is very helpful in enhancing the product’s functionality. Again, let’s summarize the objectives:

• evaluate the product or service
• improve the functionality
• validate the solution against user expectations

The Use Phase

The use phase is now also fairly intuitive. User testing is clearly the first stage of the product life cycle because it is used to determine whether people need that solution. To simplify, we can say that User Testing is undertaken as soon as you have an idea for a product.

It is necessary to have a draft in order to determine whether the solution is appropriate, in fact, usable. The Usability Testing therefore is being carried out since a prototype or a design is made.

The Method

User participation is crucial for both user testing and usability testing.

In the case of User Testing, it is common to use focus groups and interviews, since we need to try to give an answer to questions like:

How do you handle this issue at the moment?

A better solution has ever crossed your mind, haven’t they?

What are your thoughts on this solution?

Would you pay to employ this remedy?

The purpose of the focus group is to evaluate the opinions of a testing group in order to ascertain what the target audience actually desires from the proposed solution. Through an interview you can investigate users’ habits and how they solve or would be happy to solve a problem.

Things get more interesting with Usability Testing, since you already have a draft of the solution in hand and there comes an exciting time to find out if users can use it. This test focuses on how the user actually interacts with the product and whether the experience is simple, immediate and functional to the user’s goals.

In this case, the questions to be answered are different, for example:

Can you complete this service’s one-minute registration process?

How would you log in?

Qualitative, quantitative, remote, or in-person usability testing are all options.

Why Do We Do User Testing and Usability Testing?

User testing is the best way to map out and optimize the user journey. You must comprehend how your customers think if you want to satisfy them.

User testing is a method for fully comprehending the preferences, peculiarities, and motivations of your target users. They are the ideal augmentation to your personas. These personas can be more useful with the help of the user testing data.

The reason for usability testing is more straightforward: to identify problematic areas that inhibit usage. Testing frequently is recommended to address issues as soon as possible, as we’ll cover below.

Also Read: Three Types of User Testing

Conclusion on User Testing Vs Usability Testing

So what’s the difference between user testing and usability testing?

By being aware of the differences between these two testing types, you can use the appropriate techniques when it’s appropriate to provide a better user experience.

However, usability testing is a more official assessment that gauges how simple it is for users to carry out particular tasks on your website.