User Testing

User testing is a really handy tool for designers in all areas of creative work. It offers an invaluable glance at your creation through somebody else's eyes. You can objectively analyse your work from a purely functional basis without any prior knowledge of the product by allowing someone with no prior connection to it access. 

Companies and designers will do this throughout the design process at multiple stages. It is a powerful process that can shape the path that a design will take. 

"Usability testing is a technique used in user-centered interaction design to evaluate a product by testing it on users. This can be seen as an irreplaceable usability practice, since it gives direct input on how real users use the system." Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usability_testing

It forms an integral component of user-centric design as it allows you to ensure your design is accurate and functional. You can gather opinions and outside viewpoints before any unnecessary time is put into an idea or path that may end up being redundant or counterintuitive. 

It would have been a great component to have incorporated into this project for me however, time escaped me. One problem with my theme ended up deleting the foundations of my site and corrupting it for three days. This meant I was stranded and without any way of continuing on with any work. Because of this set back and a load of other smaller issues dotted throughout the project it was tight enough just to get the site built.

The user-testing process should also really be started a lot earlier in the process as it will shape the outcome but the brief was quite specific in what had to be included and how so it seemed kind of redundant there too.

Obviously if this was a real brief for a client then user-testing would be obligatory. It is an important and imperative step in shaping every aspect of a site. There are certain aspects of the design and structure that do not usually change but certain specific exclusions and ordering of items are important to consider and user-testing helps to ensure that those decisions are correct and recommended by people who fit the target audience for the project or possibly even end users themselves.