Usability Testing
Usability testing evaluates how easy and intuitive a product is to use by observing real or representative users attempting real tasks, rather than checking whether features work correctly. It measures user experience directly — confusion, hesitation, and failed attempts are as much a "finding" as a functional bug.
A typical usability test session gives a participant a realistic task ("find and buy a pair of running shoes under $50") with no guidance, and observes where they hesitate, misclick, or give up — the goal is discovering friction, not verifying a pass/fail checklist.
Unlike most other testing types, usability testing is fundamentally qualitative and can't be fully automated — it needs real human judgment and real human behavior, though techniques like session recording, heatmaps, and structured think-aloud protocols make the observations more rigorous and repeatable.
