Over the last 10 years the internet as a medium became one of the, if not the most important marketing and sales channel. For profit and non-profit organizations alike. As competition grew, organizations became aware of the usability of their websites as an important factor for success. Therefore, in concurrence with the rise of the web, usability testing as a practice, which had been around since the eighties, exploded in the first decade of this century.
At the start of the decade, for most organizations the internet and the technology around it was still a big and somewhat scary mystery. The creation and maintenance of websites was often outsourced. Teams responsible for an organization’s internet presence had little knowledge about the internet itself let alone usability testing. This created an opportunity for companies who specialized in usability testing.
These usability companies have the means to perform tests. They often have their own database of test participants and have a lab were tests can be carries out and observed. They prepare tests, conduct tests and report on tests. These reports can than be used by a company’s web team itself, or it’s web agency, to improve their website.
Company web teams however have become more knowledgeable about the internet as a business. Teams grow and team members become more specialized. A companies internet strategy is now often defined in-house rather than by an agency. Projects are frequently initialized, planned, designed and managed in-house. Pure development is still regularly outsourced, but sometimes even this is done in-house.
Over the last years testing has become more and more important and more frequent. At the same time the speed in which internet projects are being realized has greatly improved. The demand for frequent and more focussed and specialized testing is growing. Therefore the in-house knowledge on usability – more often dubbed user experience – is also rising. The question is how long it will take for companies to start doing testing in-house as well.
The benefits of outsourcing usability testing are access to knowledge, technology and facilities unavailable in-house. The disadvantage of outsourcing are the costs in money and time. Outsourcing is costly and will take somewhat longer than doing your own testing.
When testing becomes more and more regular it will become beneficial for web teams to start learning how to do a test themselves. Maybe even attract a team member fully focussed on testing. As pointed out by Steve Krug in his new book “Rocket Surgery Made Easy” usability testing isn’t rocket science or brain surgery. Benefits of doing test in-house are an increase in flexibility and decrease in costs. The disadvantage of in-house testing is that it’s limited to your own website. This could limit the ability to gain general knowledge on web usability. Moreover, being aware of limitations could get in the way of thinking out of the box.
Companies will reach a threshold where it will become more advantageous to do in-house testing. Some companies have already started. If the number of companies doing in-house testing will grow, what would this mean for usability testing as a business? Do companies specialized in usability testing need to alter their business model? And if so, in what direction?