Today at Sage Summit, I had the opportunity to venture to one corner of the conference center I had never been before — the Usability Labs. My conversation today with Sage’s Larry Ritter piqued my interest about the usability testing that Sage does in developing new releases of its software. So, I moseyed on down to the labs and met with Dean Barker, the head of the Sage User Experience Group.

Barker ushered me into a partitioned cubicle where we spied on a Sage customer taking a usability test (this is starting to sound shady — I promise it’s not!). On Barker’s laptop was essentially the same screen as the woman taking the usability test. Barker could see her mouse placement and things she was clicking on. At the top of the screen was a video showing the testee’s face as she went through the steps.

Facial expressions are important part of the testing, Barker said. Although a user might not say aloud that’s she’s confused, her facial expression could relay that. Let’s backtrack a little…

Sage Summit is one time and place where the company brings in users to help with usability research. This week, Sage will test 13 users on the Sage SalesLogix product. Users come in at an assigned time, log on to a laptop, and are taken through common tasks. They are encouraged to narrate along the way and give as much feedback as possible. Barker’s job is to observe the users interacting with the software. He also collects data — quantitative and audio and video — that he will sift through when returning back to the office next week.

User activity and feedback is measured and collected in a variety of areas:

• Qualitative: Users expressing that they can’t find functions or buttons or toolbars. Sage also collects customer quotes.
• Subjective/Objective: Satisfaction surveys are given, asking how satisfied customers are with certain functions and tools.
• Time to complete tasks.

The customer experience team does usability testing several times a year — at Summit, Sage Insights, product boot camp events, and in advance to product releases. According to Sage, usability testing has become more rigorous in recent years –as evident in the release of Act! 2010 with its use of Keystroke Modeling. “This is the only way to get real feedback,” Barker said.