How to demonstrate the value of Usability Testing ...
"This article documents the authors’ attempt to develop a quick, inexpensive, and reliable method for demonstrating user testing to an audience. The resulting method, Usability@90mph, is simple enough to be conducted at minimal expense, fast enough to be completed in only thirty minutes, comprehensible enough to be presented to audiences numbering in the hundreds, and yet sophisticated enough to produce relevant design recommendations, thereby illustrating for the audience the potential value of user testing in general. In this article, the authors present their user testing demonstration method in detail, analyze results from 44 trials of the method in practice, and discuss lessons learned for demonstrating user testing in front of an audience.
This article, therefore, addresses the following research question: Can a high–speed user testing demonstration method be developed that will help audience members understand the value of user testing quickly, yet without sacrificing the inherent "realism" of user testing by relying solely on simulations? To answer this question, the authors developed a new method capable of demonstrating an entire user test from start to finish in 30 minutes, and tested this method by evaluating Web sites in front of large audiences at several different national and international conferences. Developing this method was challenging, as it had to be general enough to reach audience members with varying levels of technical expertise from almost any discipline, yet specific enough to generate relevant and useful (i.e., not simulated) design recommendations that could potentially improve the usability of the interfaces being tested.
The resulting method, which we call Usability@90mph, is simple enough to be conducted at minimal expense, fast enough to be completed in only 30 minutes, comprehensible enough to be presented to audiences numbering in the hundreds, and yet sophisticated enough to produce relevant and useful design recommendations, thereby illustrating for an audience the potential value of user testing in general. Over the past four years, we have tested this method 44 times by demonstrating it to audiences at six different national and international conferences for museum professionals. Each demonstration was conducted on a different museum Web site, and each test resulted in design recommendations that, if implemented, would likely improve the usability of those Web sites (for examples, see Marty and Twidale, 2004). Of greater significance for this article, however, is that the results of our tests clearly indicate that this demonstration method has the potential to introduce diverse audiences to the power, value, and benefits of user testing, quickly, cheaply, and reliably."
continued ... (Via First Monday) 
Usability the fast way.
