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Continued from The Usability Testing Lab

What does all this effort accomplish? Which features of the software you now use work as they do because of usability testing? The answers are: quite a bit, and quite a few. Again, the focus here is on Microsoft products, but from these specifics you can get a sense of how significant usability testing is. At Microsoft, that significance multiplies internally, because development teams are billed for support calls for their products. An unusable product can have a serious effect on the budget.

According to Microsoft, early prototypes of Windows 95 fell flat, with people finding it extremely difficult to make the conceptual switch from Windows 3.x. Participants had a great deal of trouble with seemingly simple tasks such as finding and opening Write (in the Accessories group). Testing revealed that people didn't actually work with the operating system, but rather with applications, and the Start button concept emerged from that realization.

Windows 95 usability testing resulted in enhancements in Windows 98 as well. The installation screen draws from these tests, offering more and better information about what's occurring at each stage. Also changed is the placement of the hardware recognition process, moved to the end of the installation to make freezes less frightening and easier to recover from. Win98's Maintenance Wizard is also in part the result of this testing. Testing also resulted in the decision to turn off the single-click Web-style interface as the default for Microsoft Internet Explorer 4 and Win98. The final version installs with this option off (unless it's installed atop a Win95 that has it turned on), because participants found the change too jarring.

Office 97 usability testing was and continues to be extensive. Most obviously, the Office Assistant concept resulted in part from this testing, because of the desire of users to have easy and constant access to the help system. Apparently the majority of Office 97 users keep the Assistant running at all times, and usability testing and user feedback has determined that the Assistant gives the right answer about the right topic about 80% of the time. Excel underwent extensive usability testing resulting in significant developments in such features as charting. Mail Merge in Microsoft Word also changed as a result of testing. Also tested extensively was the ability of users to find features; in many cases, the features they wanted were already in the product, but they couldn't easily get to them. This problem continues to receive usability attention.

Other usability-initiated changes to Microsoft products have included the interface to MSN 2.5 and Money 98. Microsoft changed MSN 2.0's large animated graphic at the top because it confused people, and the company added mouse-over information about specific shows. Money 98 was changed to allow users to switch easily between accounts and to turn off the auto-fill suggestion.

Next: The Good and the Bad of Usability Testing

Published as Tutor in the 10/6/98 issue of PC Magazine.