The purpose of the usability testing
Usability testing or usability testing is a way to uncover flaws or barriers in your product or service that often prevent your customers from achieving their goal, such as purchasing a product, filling out a form, obtaining information, downloading a document, etc.UX testing, of course, does not stop at just finding errors. With the right testing approach, you can identify inspirations and tips for new features from user interviews that are missing from your website and are positively rated by the user, for example, when testing competitive products or services.
Usability testing is the way to reveal any imperfections of your product or service that might keep your customers from completing the task they want to do, whether it’s a purchase of a product, completion of a form, obtaining information or file download.
UX testing, however, does go beyond revealing flaws. By choosing the right testing model, a basic conversation with a user will help you identify exactly the features that competitors’ products and services have but your own ones do not.
How it works
The actual process is really simple - the user is observed and asked questions while interacting with and using your product or service. Based on conversations with some of your customers, it is possible to come up with suggestions for design changes that could minimise barriers which slow down higher conversion rates on your website or application.
Your customers think differently
Testing will enable you to have a direct insight into how your real customers use your service or product. No matter how much effort you put into designing your product or service by following the latest UX trends and standards, copying more successful competition, only seeing your customers using your product can tell you what really needs to be done. You need to realise that you are not the user. However don’t hesitate to include them into creation and development of your products and services.
We at ui42 have been into testing since 2008. We set up our own usability laboratory in 2010 and we have done more than 100 tests and got insight from more than 800 users. One of the perks of UX lab testing is that both the evaluator and the client can observe direct interaction between the user and the website/application, their mimics and gesticulation, which are an indirect way of telling how easy it is for user to use the given website or application.
Have a look at one of our lab tests in the short video below.
When to use UX testing?
You can test a product or a service at any stage of its development. By including testing and users into the process of website or application development you will save the extra costs and effort of eliminating errors at the end of the process.
At ui42, we test design in its various development stages. It is important to take customer’s view into consideration when changing design, whether it’s testing the current solution, designed prototype or programmed version of your new website.
Remote testing
No matter how much we love our lab, there are times when remote testing is definitely the best solution. During remote testing, you connect with the user through a video-conference tool, which enables you to share the screens and record the interaction for other people in our team.
Thanks to this type of testing, we were able to continue developing products and services for some of our clients and receive customers’ feedback even during the corona crisis.
However, the remote testing should not be the last option in a case of emergency. There are several good reasons to start using this type of testing more often:
- remote testing is a good choice whenever you need to test a specific target group which might be not easily accessible, e.g. due to its geographic location.
- remote testing enables you to test your target group despite the geographical differences and make up for the regional differences.
- this type of testing is also more efficient and less taxing regarding coordination and logistics.
UX testing gives you an ability to design your product or service better. If you would like to learn more about how to use this type of testing, do not hesitate to contact us. We will be delighted to discuss all the details over a cup of coffee.
Contact us in case of questions regarding UX testing:
Andrej Kajan
CEO
