Usability testing is a market research method that helps you determine if your product or service meets the needs of your target audience. The goal of usability testing is to reveal how easy it is for participants to complete tasks and whether their expectations are met. This can be done through interviews, observations, task completion times, and questionnaires. Usability testing can be used for many different types of products or services, including websites, mobile apps, software applications, hardware devices, and even consumer goods. 

User experience (UX) testing can be completed utilizing a market research online community (MROC), where researchers can access a pool of participants on demand. In fact, an MROC is one of the best places to perform UX. Let’s look at UX testing, how it’s done, the benefits, and tools that streamline the process.

What Is Usability Testing?

Usability testing is done via UX research, which focuses on the end user’s perspective to inform the design process. This type of research testing can be qualitative or quantitative. 

Qualitative research, also known as “soft” research, is used to answer questions like “why didn’t people see X” and “what else did people notice on the page or app?” It typically takes the form of one-on-one interviews or conversations.

Quantitative research can be used to identify the likelihood of events, such as how many people will click on a particular link or button. It answers questions such as “how many people did X” or “what percentage of users can find X.”

How To Conduct UX Testing In A Community Setting

Moderated Usability Testing

The best way to learn how your users will interact with your design is by observing them. User testing lets you see how they’ll use the product in their natural environment, which can help you make decisions about the product.

You might notice that users don’t find what they are looking for on a specific page, some formatting issues with text fields and buttons, or some elements aren’t intuitively organized and could be moved around more effectively. This information helps us improve the user experience by making it easier for people to complete tasks on our website or app without guessing how things work.

Moderated usability tests are the most traditional type of test.

They can happen in person or via screen share and video in the case of an MROC. Moderators are trained to guide participants through tasks and ask probing questions about their thoughts and feelings as they go through the task.

Unmoderated UX

Unmoderated usability testing is conducted online at the user’s convenience. The tasks and instructions are delivered via video or recorded audio, and the user clicks a button to begin the test and record their screen and audio. 

Like in the moderated test, users are encouraged to speak their thoughts aloud, though there is no facilitator to ask follow-up questions. 

Benefits Of Usability Testing

User experience (UX) research is a critical step in the product design process. UX research aims to understand users’ needs and behavior so that products can be designed to meet them. Research helps us answer questions like:

  • Who are our users?
  • What do they need and want?
  • How do they interact with our products?
  • How can we make improvements?

Research saves time and money by helping you avoid building features or products that are not needed or wanted by users. It also improves the quality of your product by ensuring that it is easy to use and solves real problems for people.

The benefits of user experience research include the following:

1. Better User Experience

The ultimate goal of user experience research is to learn how users interact with your product and to understand their experiences. This can be achieved by observing them in real life, asking them questions, and engaging them in conversations.

2. Better Business Decisions

User experience research is an excellent tool for making better business decisions because it helps you understand who your customers are and what they want from your business. It also helps you understand how your competitors are doing, which can help you improve your product or service offerings, pricing, and marketing strategies.

3. Improved Productivity

User experience research helps businesses increase productivity by revealing hidden problems within the user interface or other digital products or services. You will also know whether these problems impact productivity or not before releasing a new version of your product or service, which means that you will be able to fix them before they become a problem for users.

4. Increased Customer Retention Rate

The more satisfied users are with your products or services, the more likely they will come back again and again. Satisfied users may also refer their friends to you, growing your market share.

UserZoom From Fuel Cycle

It’s a given that any brand or enterprise today has a digital presence. The UX delivered through digital interfaces is critical to your business – how customers interact with your brand for the majority of the time, what your employees rely on to provide the best customer experience, and an essential factor for the success of any digital transformation strategy. To put it in perspective, 74% of visitors will return to your site if it has good mobile UX.

Fuel Cycle’s UserZoom features a powerful research suite to gather reliable business-critical UX insights. It combines your community of readily available customers and target audiences with our best-in-class tools.

Features include:

  • A powerful UX research suite
  • The right participants every time
  • Secure directory with integration
  • Automated reporting and analytics

User experience research is an essential part of any product development process. It provides valuable insights into how users interact with your product or service, which helps you build a better user experience.

Click here to learn more about UserZoom today.