User testing with your own users - Trymata
A user on her computer

Testing your designs with people in your target audience is important for getting useful, relevant feedback. TryMyUI offers researchers more than one way of doing that.

The usual way is to test with our pool of demographically curated testers, who span a wide range of social, economic, and geographic groupings. The other way is to test with people your organization has recruited.


Read more: What can user testing do?


 

What’s the advantage of using my own testers?

Our tester pool is large and diverse, but some target markets can be hard to reach even for us. Some examples would be highly specialized professionals like doctors or lawyers; people dealing with uncommon medical conditions; or people in countries with low internet penetration.

In cases like these, if your organization is connected with people who match your target audience, you can send your TryMyUI usability test directly to them to collect feedback instead of using our pool.

 

Then why use TryMyUI at all?

True, you could wrangle a mix-and-match testing solution with available voice capture, screen recording, and task display software, but TryMyUI provides all of that so you don’t have to. Our specialized user testing tools also help you collect quantitative data like system usability scores, task usability scores, task completion rates and duration times.

After you collect your videos, we provide tools for quickly analyzing and sharing your findings, like tagged video annotations and highlight reels.

 

How does it work?

Testing with your own users is a feature available on the Team and Enterprise monthly plans. On Team, you can use 10 of your own users each month; on Enterprise, you get unlimited testing with your own users. After upgrading, here’s how it will work:

While setting up your test, you’ll choose what kind of testers you want to use in Step 2. Just select the option stating, “My own testers” (see below).

 

Screenshot from Step 2 of creating your test, with "My own users" selected

 

The other thing you’ll need to do is write a test title for your users to see. This will be shown on the very first page they land on to let them know they’re in the right place. You’ll want to choose something your users will recognize and understand.

Once you’re done setting up your test, TryMyUI generates a URL where your users can go to take it. You’ll see this URL in a popup as soon as you finish, or to the right of the test title on your main dashboard.

 

Popup for copying the test URL and instructions for your own users

 

Just send the URL to the people who you want to take the test, and we’ll take care of the rest.

 

What’s required of the testers?

When your testers visit the URL, they will enter their name and email so that you can identify who has provided each result. We’ll explain how the process works and give them some tips on taking the test.

They will need to download and install the “TryMyUIRecorder” desktop application, a lightweight program that is used to facilitate the test and record the user’s screen, voice, and actions. They will also download the test file, a unique file that contains the scenario, tasks, and surveys for your specific test. (The test file opens with the TryMyUIRecorder program.)

All of these steps will be provided and explained to your users on our website after they arrive at the test URL – you don’t need to have them do these things yourself.


Read more: User testing surveys


 

Can I preview the test flow?

To see how this flow will look and what the experience will be like for your users, just go to the test URL in an incognito window and follow the instructions. It won’t count as one of your 10 results for the month as long as you don’t hit the “Finish recording” button and upload a video.

 

If you’re looking to run a usability test with users that you’ve recruited, check out our Team and Enterprise plans:

Get Started button

 



By Tim Rotolo

Tim Rotolo is a co-founder at Trymata, and the company's Chief Growth Officer. He is a born researcher whose diverse interests include design, architecture, history, psychology, biology, and more. Tim holds a Bachelor's Degree in International Relations from Claremont McKenna College in southern California. You can reach him on Linkedin at linkedin.com/in/trotolo/ or on Twitter at @timoroto