It's Called Usability Testing, not User Testing

I've been hearing people misuse a common UCD term, saying User Testing when they mean Usability Testing. Semantics, you say? Not so.

The term User Testing would imply that the user is being tested, when in fact, it's the prototype and its usability that is being tested. One of the first things explained to participants during usability testing is that the goal is to determine how usable the proposed solution is. Not how well the user has performed. Because it's the 'Usability' of the prototype that is being assessed, the correct term is 'Usability Testing'.

Conversely, the term User Research (a study often done at the earlier stages of a redesign) suggests that users are being researched: who they are, what information they seek, how they interact with the existing site. This takes on many forms: surveys, focus groups, contextual inquiries, interviews, stats analysis, etc. The focus is on the User, and thus the approach is called User Research or Audience Research. To summarize:

• User Research - the focus is on the user and their needs
• Usability Testing - the focus is on the usability of the solution or prototype
• User Testing - is a misnomer

Search our blog for additional posts on usability testing. (Thank you to MH and Todd Zazelenchuk for his UCD stencils)