Website user testing allows you to see your website through the eyes of your user. As owners, designers, or developers of a website, we quickly get to the point where we can’t actually see or experience our website as a first-time user does. We become so familiar with what we have created that we just can’t see aspects of the flow or contents that might be confusing or misunderstood.
Upon running their first website user test, new researchers invariably have several “aha” moments when a user stumbles upon a glaringly confusing aspect of their site that they were previously blind to.
Top 5 benefits of user testing
User testing is an invaluable practice that involves observing and gathering feedback from real users as they interact with a product or service. Conducting user testing opens your eyes to insights you would never have had on your own.
It offers several significant benefits that contribute to the overall success of a project:
- Identifying usability issues:
User testing allows you to uncover usability problems and friction points that may not be apparent during the design and development stages. By observing users navigating through your product, you can discover areas where they struggle, get confused, or encounter obstacles. This insight enables you to make informed refinements and improvements to enhance the user experience. - Validating design decisions:
User testing helps validate your design choices by providing real-world feedback. It allows you to assess whether the product meets users’ needs, expectations, and preferences. Through their interactions, users can provide valuable insights on what works well, what needs improvement, and what may be missing, allowing you to refine your design accordingly. - Enhancing user satisfaction:
By involving users early on and considering their feedback throughout the development process, you can create a product that aligns more closely with their desires and requirements. This leads to increased user satisfaction, as the final product is more likely to meet their expectations and provide a seamless experience. Higher user satisfaction often translates into better user retention, increased engagement, and positive word-of-mouth recommendations. - Reducing development costs:
User testing can save significant time and resources by catching potential issues early. By identifying and addressing usability problems before a product is launched or undergoes major revisions, you can avoid costly rework and redesign later on. It helps mitigate risks associated with poor user experiences, reducing the likelihood of negative customer feedback, refunds, or loss of user trust. - Driving innovation & differentiation:
User testing enables you to uncover insights and gather new ideas from users’ perspectives. By actively involving users in the development process, you can gain fresh insights into their needs, desires, and pain points. This knowledge can fuel innovation, allowing you to develop unique features or solutions that differentiate your product from competitors, ultimately improving its marketability and adoption.
In summary, user testing is a valuable tool for enhancing the usability, satisfaction, and success of a product or service. By involving real users and listening to their feedback, you can uncover issues, validate design decisions, increase user satisfaction, reduce costs, and drive innovation.
Ultimately, user testing helps you create a product that meets users’ needs and delights them throughout their journey.
Advantages of remote user testing vs on-site moderated user testing
Remote user testing in particular has several benefits when compared to on-site user testing, in which you recruit users in your geographic area, invite them to your own premises, and facilitate user test sessions with them in person.
Access to a very large pool of diverse users
With remote user testing you have access to a very large pool of users all over the country and in fact all over the world. You are not limited to users in your local geographic area. For areas where start-ups are often founded like Silicon Valley, it is helpful to be able to watch users who might not be so familiar with technology using your product or service.
Watch users on their own devices in their own home
On-site moderated user testing is somewhat artificial in that you are putting users in an unfamiliar environment on your computer rather than theirs. Physically watching over the users is unnatural as well.
With remote unmoderated user testing you get to see users as they really are in their home environment. You get to see how your website performs on their computer and browser with all its quirky settings.
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No moderation is better than amateur moderation
Moderating an on-site user test is very hard to do, especially if you are close to the product being tested. The key to professionally moderating usability testing is to keep your mouth shut most of the time. You must be able to let the user stumble around and find his way without jumping in to save him. This is often very difficult to do for owners, developers, or designers of a website.
Also, with in-person user testing there is a strong tendency for the user to want to please the moderator and do and say the right thing.
Remote unmoderated user testing avoids these problems entirely. You simply have to write a good test and unleash users on it. You don’t have to worry about leading the witness and spoiling the test like when you are face to face with the user. You can also easily modify a test and try it on additional users. In this way you can evolve your test script systematically and get objective results.
Remote unmoderated user testing is much less expensive
Recruiting users to visit your premises is a time-consuming and expensive process. Even done as cheaply as possible, in-person user testing can cost several hundred dollars per user. Moreover there is always the possibility that you get one or more testers who don’t work out for one reason or another.
Remote user testing software like Trymata costs as little as $35 per test; and your tests are guaranteed to be good, or you get your money back.
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User testing prototypes & wireframes
Current agile development methodologies advocate getting your product and ideas validated in front of customers as early and often as possible.
Trymata remote user testing allows you to do that easily and cheaply with settings for prototype usability testing and wireframe user testing. Users are alerted to the fact that the site is not completely functional and are instructed to give impressions as they work around the missing functionalities.
Built-in free impression testing (“5-second test”)
Website user testing with Trymata provides a built-in free impression test. You simply click a checkbox when you order your test and users will be shown your website for a brief period, then asked to answer some questions from memory. After the impression test they go on to complete the remaining tasks on your website.
Why not take advantage of the fact that Trymata provides user who have never seen your site before to collect critical information on their first impressions!
User testing videos indexed by task
Trymata provides tests that are indexed by task. Quickly jump to the point in each video that you are most interested in reviewing. Trymata user tests also come with built in task timing so you can get quantitative information on how long it took users to complete various tasks as well as qualitative usability information.
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