Mis-usability: on the uses and misuses of usability testing

Usability has become so popular that its value is being threatened by misuse of the term and by misunderstandings about important distinctions between usability studies and empirical usability testing, between usability and verification tests, between ease of use and usefulness, and concerning how we interpret statistics. This paper examines these problems and encourages academicians and practitioners to work toward mitigating them.