Mobile app testing is crucial in today’s digital landscape, where there are 2.3 million apps on the Google Play Store and 2 million on the Apple App Store.
And this number is only increasing day by day as per this Statista research. To stand out in this sea of digital products, your app or website must solve the user’s problems more effectively and intuitively than the competition.
But no matter how meticulously you write your code or how extensively you’ve researched the market, the inevitable question in every app designer’s mind is: “How do I know if your users will like what I’ve created?”
That’s where usability testing comes in.
It focuses on observing and understanding how your end users interact with your app or website to determine what they’re looking for and whether your product provides that.
In this blog post, we’ll provide a brief overview of usability testing, how it works, and why it’s so integral to your product’s success.
What is Usability Testing?
Usability testing is the process of evaluating a user’s experience with your website, app, or digital product and determining whether it intuitively meets the user’s needs.
It typically involves a user group interacting with your product through a series of usability tasks to identify issues that your developers might have missed.
A usability testing example could involve recruiting a group of eCommerce shopping enthusiasts to test the usability and performance of a new hands-free shopping app that operates on voice search.
What Usability Testing is Not
While we define usability testing, we want to clarify what it’s not—especially since several terms like usability testing, user testing, or A/B testing are often used interchangeably. The fact is, they’re all distinct concepts. Let’s take a closer look.
1. A/B testing
This is a popular testing method in which you offer two different versions of a product, website, or app navigation flow to the same user group and gather their insights on which one they prefer. This is important for quantitatively determining user preferences.
However, usability testing also provides qualitative insights based on user behavior.
2. User testing
This refers to testing your products with real users and getting their feedback on what they like and don’t like.
Again, this gives you quantitative data only, which means you need a round of usability testing after the user testing to understand the qualitative side. For instance, user testing can tell you which steps in the navigation users struggle with.
However, It give you insights into the why behind those struggles.
3. User research
This is an umbrella term for gathering user insights and using them to tweak your product or website. A/B testing, user testing, and usability testing are all different types of user research.
Elements of Usability Testing
Usability testing methods come in all shapes and forms, but the three elements common to them all are the facilitator, the participant, and the tasks:
1. Facilitator
The facilitator guides the participant throughout the testing process, answering any questions that come up while ensuring that they don’t influence the participant’s responses to the test in any way.
2. Participant
The participant is chosen from a user group that actually uses the product in their daily lives or from a group with similar tastes and behaviors as the user group (indicating that they might become users of the product).
Care should be taken to recruit as diverse a group of participants as possible to get a full spectrum of perspectives.
3. Tasks
These are realistic activities that the end user might perform in their daily lives in the context of the product being tested.
The task questions might be specific or open-ended, but care should be taken to word them as clearly as possible so there are no misunderstandings about what the participant needs to do.
Types of usability testing
There are two main categories of usability test types:
1. Quantitative vs qualitative
Quantitative usability testing involves collecting quantitative data about the user experience, such as the time taken to complete tasks and the task success rate.
Qualitative testing focuses on insights about the how and why of user interactions with the product to understand what motivates the user and what problems they might be facing.
As we’ve indicated above, its qualitative aspect sets it apart from other types of user research, such as user testing or A/B testing.
For this reason, most website usability testing involves qualitative questions about what features make sense, what pathways are the easiest to navigate, what extra features might improve the user experience, and so on.
2. Remote vs in-person
Remote testing, as is perhaps evident, involves connecting virtually with your participants for the testing. It’s often less expensive than in-person testing and lets you reach a much broader group of participants. There are two subtypes of remote testing:
Moderated: Moderated testing features a facilitator who interacts with the participants and oversees the test in real time from a remote location. Typically, this involves the use of some screen-sharing software.
Unmoderated: Unmoderated testing uses an online remote testing tool that delivers the questions to the participant, who completes them in their own time. The tool records and provides their responses to the researcher, including insights on task success.
In-person testing involves the facilitator and the participant being present in the same location. It is ideal for tests where observing the user’s behavior, such as their facial expressions or eye movements, is critical.
What is the Cost of Usability Testing?
Contrary to what you might think, usability testing doesn’t have to be expensive. When you’re just starting out, you can conduct the test in your own living room or office space, recruit a small group of participants, and run the testing process yourself.
In this case, the significant cost is the incentive you’ll be paying your participants. As you expand and your product becomes more complex, you will likely need to conduct more elaborate (and more expensive) tests.
Extras that will increase your budget include a bigger participant group, more extensive tests that continue over several days, connecting with user groups in other geographies, and equipment like eye trackers or polygraphs.
When Do You Need Usability Testing?
Usability tests have the advantage of being easy to conduct at any stage of the development process, letting you collect and act on feedback iteratively. For best results, we recommend conducting usability tests at four main time points:
1. While designing the prototype
This helps you ensure that your product is usable, useful, and intuitive right from the blueprint stage, avoiding costly fundamental changes later on.
2. Before you launch
This lets you make those critical final tweaks for optimum usability before you go live.
3. Before releasing an upgrade
This is key to helping you understand exactly what went wrong with the previous version of your product and what improvements your end users would like to see.
4. At periodic intervals after launch
These “maintenance” tests help you upgrade your UX according to user tastes and preferences changes over time.
Key Benefits of Usability Testing
As is perhaps evident from our discussion so far, usability testing gives you crucial insights into the behavior, motivations, and preferences of your target users:
1. Products tailored to users
Perhaps the most obvious benefit is that it lets you design products that truly make sense to your users.
General market research will tell you what user preferences look like, but it takes the qualitative angle of usability testing to tell you why they like certain features or designs. This lets you create products that solve their problems more effectively.
2. Combating cognitive biases
We often make decisions based on assumptions or faulty inferences without even realizing it.
In product design, for instance, there’s something called the “false consensus effect,” in which we assume that our personal views or preferences regarding a product reflect those of the people around us as well.
With usability testing, you get objective feedback from real people, allowing you to design products that your end users will actually want to pay for.
3. Lower developmental costs
From a practical standpoint, testing your product with users and identifying functional or other issues early is much more cost-effective. Otherwise, you might need to recall your product after launch, which inflates costs and creates a bad impression.
4. Greater accessibility
Complying with accessibility standards is just one part of the picture. To design products that are truly accessible to those with physical, cognitive, or mental limitations, you need to conduct usability testing with user groups from those populations.
Having that direct feedback lets you make the exact tweaks your product needs to be helpful to those user groups.
5. Improved brand reputation
With usability testing, you can vet your product for user relevance before you release it, reducing the likelihood of receiving it poorly. This helps you put out consistent quality and positions you as a brand that cares about what its users want.
Phases of Usability Testing
It should typically be performed in the following order:
1. Planning
First, create specific objectives for your usability testing.
Which key functionalities do you want to check?
What system objectives do you want to achieve?
Ensure your activities align with the overall project vision, and choose the correct test format accordingly.
2. Recruit participants
The success of usability testing depends on finding the right participants.
Therefore, assemble a sample group of relevant people representing your target audience. Consider a wide array of demographic factors and professional backgrounds. Keep a mix of people who can relate to the test app or website.
3. Prepare materials
Conduct usability tests early in the software development lifecycle to identify potential challenges or necessary changes before they become costly. Specify functionalities and features that must perform effectively.
4. Conduct tests
Whether your tests are moderated or unmoderated, focus on collecting unbiased data. Avoid leading questions or giving opinions that might influence participants’ responses. Let participants interact with the product naturally to get authentic feedback.
5. Analyze data
Work with your team to sift through the test results. Identify patterns, generate hypotheses, and turn findings into actionable recommendations. Be open to unexpected insights—they often reveal crucial areas for improvement.
6. Report results
Summarize key takeaways and present them to stakeholders. Your report should highlight usability issues, offer clear recommendations, and provide a roadmap for improvements. The goal is to guide the next steps in enhancing the user experience.
7. Implement changes
Use the findings to make necessary updates. Usability testing isn’t just about gathering data—it’s about applying what you’ve learned to create a better, more user-friendly product.
Best Tools for Usability Testing
Research shows that the usability testing tools market is expected to be valued at $5 billion by 2031. One of the major factors driving growth is the increased customer demand for user-centric products, which can only be built through usability testing.
Let’s review the top tools for usability testing.
1. User Testing
UserTesting is an experience research platform.
It quickly and easily collects quality customer feedback—capturing high-quality, diverse perspectives from the UserTesting Network, partner networks, and your own network. All you need to do is define your audience and choose your sample size.
It’s an excellent tool that supports prototype testing, enabling you to evaluate early design concepts.
2. Maze
Maze is a user research solution dedicated to user-centric product discovery. It offers design and product teams the techniques and frameworks to gather and utilize insights through development.
You can find the right audience with a marketplace of top-tier panelists or target your curated community of users on the platform. Build better with automated reports that drive decisions and influence based on actual user insights.
3. Lookback
Lookback is usability testing and user interview software built for qualitative research. It allows you to capture participants’ screens, faces, and voices as they engage with your digital products and iterate accordingly.
It allows multiple users to add notes to videos in real time, provides project folders for easy organization, and enables highlight snippets.
4. Hotjar
Hotjar is a website heatmaps and behavior analytics tool. It captures users’ live experiences on an app or website to understand which elements are buggy or unpopular and must be fixed. It visualizes user behavior through heatmaps, recordings, and surveys.
You can even benchmark pages to find the top pain points. In addition, share user insights with relevant stakeholders using a public link, @mention them in comments, or export an MP4 or PNG.
Final Words
Investigating usability testing methods is vital to designing products that place the user front and center. It lets you validate your assumptions, understand user POVs, identify improvement opportunities, and manage your production budget.
Several tools can help you streamline your interactions with and feedback collection from users, regardless of your industry.
Source: This blog was originally published at testgrid.io.
Top comments (0)