Usability testing is a fact of life

Look, no matter what you're making, the reason you're making whatever it is that you're making is for some user's happiness. In more formal economic speak, you wouldn't be doing what you're doing right now if it didn't provide you some marginal utility over your one nanosecond ago past state, with that marginal utility factoring in anticipated difference in possible utilities gained.

Citing this self-evident fact, usability testing is essential in software development. There is no point to a creation if the reason for creation was for it to be used, but the creation is not usable.

Up to this point I've spoken in the most generalist of terms. Usability testing means making sure your product is optimized for your user. It means avoiding glaring blind-spot stupid design faux pas by checking in with reality, then avoiding more subtle design mistakes, and then making sure your product works really really well. Designing these tests isn't a 1-2-3 easy matter though.

Or maybe it is. Let's see the most basic pattern of basic test creation processes:

1. Ask then answer: "What do I want to have happen?"
2. Ask then answer: "How do I know what I want to happen is actually happening?"
3. Make a test based on your answer to step two.
4. Make sure your input to your test makes sense.
5. Run your test.
6. Make sense of your test results.

So six steps - about double the essence of simplicity. Even then, the dependency involved in all of those steps hinges on the subject of matter in step one: what are you testing? This is a classic case of "the more thou knowest thyself, the more effect thou wilt be."

That is your bi-weekly dose of wisdom.