How are you reading this page? Are you at work? At home? Are you checking your phone or email as you read? Are you eating? Are pets or family members nearby?
Although we rarely interact with websites or software in isolation, without distractions, for decades when we spoke of usability testing, we pictured a quiet room with a two-way mirror hiding the observers, who communicated via a voice-of-god microphone.
The lab was expensive, the equipment was expensive, and the method was time-consuming. It’s no surprise that usability testing lay in the domain of deep-pocketed corporations like IBM or Bell Labs. It was like a scene out of Stanley Milgram’s lab. “Act naturally, and pay no attention to the men in blue suits behind the glass curtain.”
