Usability Testing Then, Now and Tomorrow
http://www.stc.org/ConfProceed/2005/PDFs/0068.pdf

Jarrett, Caroline, Dana E. Chisnell and Jeff Johnson
STC Proceedings
2005

Abstract:

What is current practice in usability testing? How has it changed? What is essential for a good test and what is optional? We compare typical usability testing practice in the past (10+ years ago) with what we find is typical today. Then we look forward to predict what may happen in the future. We predict trends towards testing as a purchasable commodity, more remote testing, as technology makes it easier to ‘observe’ users over the Internet and more ‘mass market’ testing as businesses like Amazon try out their design ideas by micro-launching variants of their web site to see which one plays best with their customers.