Rolf Molich has been exploring the reproducibility of usability testing for several years, now. In a profile of Molich in UPA Voice, he discusses the various experiments he has run over the years to compare results when several usability experts test or review the same site.
One conclusion he has reached is that very often, there are so many problems with a site, some of which are non-compliance with well-known standards and conventions, it is not surprising each researcher finds different issues.
Developers appear to have no knowledge of heuristics, Molich concludes. If they did the problems would never appear on the site.
So, is usability testing useless? No, Moclich says.
"“I still think usability testing is a very important method, but not to find usability problems. Its most important role is to make people understand the need for the prevention of usability problems. Usability tests are a very, very important political instrument. It’s an absolutely unique method for convincing product team members that usability problems exist in their product. Your baby is ugly, and something needs to be done about it. But the method is much too expensive to eradicate all usability problems or even just all serious usability problems.”
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