Remote synchronous usability testing as a strategy to integrate usability evaluations in the software development process: A field study

Although Human-Computer Interaction techniques, as usability evaluations, are considered strategic in software development, there are diverse economic and practical constraints in their application. The integration of these tests into software projects must consider practical and cost-effective methods such as, the remote synchronous testing method. This paper presents results from a field study designed to compare this method with the classic laboratory-based think-aloud method in a realistic software development context. Our interest in this study was to explore the performance of the remote synchronous testing method in a realistic context and its effectiveness to provide an integration method of usability evaluations into the software development process. The results demonstrate that the remote synchronous testing method allows the identification of a similar number of usability problems achieved by conventional methods at a usability lab. Additionally, the time spent using remote synchronous testing is significantly less. Results obtained in this study also allowed us to infer that when using the remote synchronous testing method, it is possible to handle some practical constraints that limit the integration of usability evaluations into software development projects. In this sense, the relevance of the paper is based on the positive impact that remote synchronous testing could have in the digital accessibility of the software, by allowing the extensive use of usability evaluation practices in software development projects.