Usability testing requires a significant commitment of staff time. Personnel are needed to serve in five roles:

• Designer or design team: Designs the UI. Contributes primary goals, design questions, and possibly design options to the usability test plan. Reviews the tasks to be tested. Observes test sessions. Often takes the lead in solving usability problems.
• Test designer and administrator: Takes the lead in designing, organizing, and conducting a usability test. Also analyzes and reports the results. Facilitates the use of test results to improve the UI design. This role is commonly filled by a usability specialist, but may also be performed by other product team members.
• Simulation developer: Constructs UI simulations that support the enactment of tasks. This role may be filled by a developer, a designer, a graphics specialist, or a usability specialist. Also, technical documentation or training specialists may contribute information units.
• Recruiter: Identifies potential test participants and recruits them. In the context of the University of Washington (UW), this role may be filled by a usability specialist or by product team members who are in contact with the user base.
• Participants: Attempts tasks with a user interface simulation. Participants should be representative of a user role or user audience appropriate to the designated tasks. Note that UW staff cannot be given material incentives to participate in usability tests during normal working hours, but such incentives may be helpful for recruiting students.