Usability Test Plan Template Writing A Usability Test Plan: Fill & Download for Free

Hi there!Usability testing is the process of getting real people to use your product, service, web/mobile app, etc.. in order to assess how they use it, interact with it, and complete tasks within it. This is done with the aim to observe how usable the product is.I recently read an article that has really given me some good insight on this. It is a compilation of several usability testing checklists that were used by some of the leading digital businesses out there to help test their own products' UX and range from planning lists to scripts to and compiling and reporting results for better data analysis.One of the templates included in the list is the usability test plan by Usability.gov. It is a text-heavy plan centred on moderated usability testing proposal. You can use this template and fill in your information as you go. It completely breaks down for you how to run a usability test.It also contains an outline on how to better assign the right research roles and defining usability goals to fine-tune the template and tailor it to your product's unique needs. This template is a pre-testing document that will serve a better purpose in making sure everyone who is involved in the usability testing project is aware of their roles and responsibilities as well as the testing parameters and goals you are trying to achieve.Another template on the list is a template for writing better usability testing tasks by UserZoom, a leading UX insight testing company that has worked with companies such as Google and Oracle. The template is good if you want a more personalized approach and wants to totally own your usability template.

Shortest possible, with visuals but long enough to not omit any essential info. Layered info. should be managed with layered docs. I am not a believer that the size of a spec for a given software can vary much with the actual knowledge level of the actual members of the team.The biggest omission (despite standard templates etc.) that causes most problems is when exclusions/boundaries are not captured at the functional requirements level. Most users know what they do and what needs to happen in the normal flow, which eventually get documented but the exceptions are discovered painfully and gradually as they occur during different phases of testing, involving back and forth with the original spec-givers.For business applications that undergo formal rounds of testing, one idea is to write the final detailed test plan in place of requirements or functional specification documents. I recall reading this idea in a paper from the 1970s or early 1980s. I always thought this was a brilliant, usable idea but never got to verify if it works.

A general approach that works for me:1- Find the 5 W's: When, Where, Who, Why, What that apply to this project.Examples of the top of my head:When - when will this software be used? what are the project important dates?Where - will it be used on phone? on the plane? in spotty network?Who - understand your customer and how they will use the software.Why - why are we creating this software? what problem is this software solving? this helps find requirements bugs. Eg: your product manager might not be aware of a technical limitation or she may have missed an important user case.What - what objects are involved? what kind of data? what security mechanism?This will give you enough context to properly scope the testing effort.2- Determine the testing categories that apply to this project based on the answer to (1) above. Eg: is mobile testing required? Will it support multiple language? What kind of authentication? Is it an existing system where we need to do upgrade testing? What SLA is there for the service availability? What are the speed requirements for page load time?Here are a few categories to think about, the ones you need to care about depend on your project:Unit testingFunctionalBoundaryNegative/Error scenariosPerformanceStress and ReliabilityFault toleranceSecurityPrivacyLocalizationInternationalizationUpgradeMobile device matrixBrowser matrixOS MatrixDocumentationAd-hoc/manual/exploratoryDogfoodingA/B testingConfiguration testingMonitoring & InstrumentationLoggingDebuggability/TraceabilityDeployment & rollbackBackward/Forward compatibilityInteroperability/compatibility with other softwareUsability and User experience[Insert other applicable categories here]3- Pick the categories that apply, scope and prioritize the categories. What categories apply? What needs automation? What other quality processes do we need (code review, code coverage, design reviews...etc)?For any interesting software you're probably working with a team. Put your project management hat on in order to ensure the project is delivered on time.Eg1: a security flaw found late in the game can derail the entire project. Its a good practice to do a security review early on to determine if a big design is needed. Once the design is vetted, the rest of security testing can happen later in the project cycle.Eg2: writing automation sometimes requires a special framework or library, those should be thought about and prioritized high so they don't block later work4- Flesh out the test cases based on the applicable categories by going through each one and listing all the test cases that apply. A good template will include info such as: TestName, Priority, Description, Owner,Comments.5- Review with the team and add missing coverage.Now you have a good test plan with hopefully no glaring gaps. Use that as a guide for implementing the tests and for a short term reference (long-term test plans tend to get out of date and become of very little utility).Happy testing!