User testing and collecting actionable feedback

User testing is the practice of understanding your users’ needs and goals and determining how well your product or service helps meet them.

Because of its broad scope, when you start delving into the subject of user testing you’ll likely encounter lots of similar-sounding terms. Some of them are used almost interchangeably, but there are subtle yet important differences to be aware of. When someone mentions user testing, they might really mean:

- User experience. - User research. - Usability testing.

Whether you employ it at the first stages of idea generation or when you’re revamping a much-loved hero product, user testing brings plenty of benefits.

Reduce cost and risk: User testing can generate valuable insights at the early stages of product development before more substantial investment is made. Those insights could be the difference between starting full-scale production based on an untested set of assumptions – which turn out to be wrong – or launching a product you know your real users want and need.

Validate assumptions and design decisions: User testing helps validate assumptions made during the design process by providing real-time feedback on whether the design decisions meet user expectations, needs and preferences – ultimately helping to ensure that the product or service is aligned with user requirements and goals.

Identify usability issues before they cause problems: Product sales and income are one thing, but brand equity is something much more difficult to achieve. Usability issues with your products and services can create negative experiences for users that result in lost loyalty and even create detractors. Thorough usability testing allows you to discover these pitfalls before they do widespread damage to your brand.

Improve user satisfaction: By involving users in the testing process, you can gather their feedback and opinions, understand their frustrations and address their needs. Doing this will help you create a more user-centered experience that increases user satisfaction and engagement.

Gain competitive advantage: Conducting user testing and incorporating user feedback into the design process gives you a competitive edge. By delivering a superior user experience, you can differentiate your product from competitors and attract and retain more users.

Below are the most common types of user testing and it’s strengths, and limitations:

Surveys are one of the most common tools for user testing, allowing researchers to efficiently gather quantitative data and valuable insights from a large number of users.

By gathering data on key focus areas like satisfaction, ease of use, preferences and behaviours, surveys complement other qualitative research methods to help shape data-driven decisions for enhancing the user experience.

When to use: Surveys are versatile and so can be used at really any stage of the product development lifecycle, and focus on almost any topic.

Strengths: With surveys you can efficiently reach a large number of users – and do so remotely.

Limitations: Survey results can lack contextual information and offer a limited depth of understanding.

A method that’s grown in popularity alongside the tech sector, first-click testing is a method that aims to assess the intuitiveness and effectiveness of digital products or services by tracking a user’s clicks as they complete tasks.

The test subject is commonly presented with a design or wireframe and asked to click on what they believe to be the correct element to complete the given task or move to the next stage of the flow. Results are often visualised as heatmaps, allowing researchers to quickly see what is drawing users’ attention.

When to use: First-click testing is most effective towards the beginning of the UX design process – helping to validate information architecture, assess navigation effectiveness and identify potential user confusion.

Strengths: First-click testing is great for evaluating website usability, observing the initial interactions of users with a digital product. It’s a method that’s quick and easy to implement, provides actionable insights and requires minimal user commitment.

Limitations: By focusing on first interactions as a specialty, first-click testing only captures a fraction of the overall user experience and therefore has limited scope. Because of its nature, it may also miss deeper usability issues. Care should also be taken to interpret its results in the right context.

A/B testing – or split testing – involves presenting users with two different versions of a webpage, interface or feature, and measuring their engagement or behaviours to determine which variation performs better. It’s a very popular method that allows researchers to test hypotheses and make informed decisions based on concrete user data, optimizing metrics like conversion rate and determining the impact of design changes. A/B testing is often quantitative but can be used as a qualitative method as well.

When to use: A/B testing is best for when you need to compare two or more variations of a digital product to evaluate which performs better. It’s particularly useful for testing design changes, features or content iterations.

Strengths: It’s a research method that can be used either quantitatively or qualitatively, allowing for hypothesis testing that leads to a conclusive result. It’s very effective at measuring the impact of a specific change or point of difference.

Limitations: Because of its specific nature, A/B testing is limited to evaluating specific changes. It also requires careful planning and a large user base to gain results that are of statistical significance.

Finding engaged and willing test participants can often be the most trying task when you conduct user testing.

Here are a few common methods to help you recruit test subjects.

Your web/app platform

surveys can be placed on your website or within your mobile app, allowing you to reach a large pool of test participants who are already engaged with your product and brand. Because the survey is within your owned channels, you have control over who sees it – enabling you to target specific user segments or behaviours, and helping you recruit participants who closely align with your testing goals.

Customers emails

Customer email lists consist of individuals who have already engaged with your brand and willingly shared their contact information. This makes this route a good one for recruiting participants who are familiar with your product and potentially more motivated to participate.

Third party online panels

Third-party online panels provide access to a larger and more diverse pool of potential participants, including both customers and non-customers. Because of their expanded scope, many third-party panels allow you to select individuals based on specific demographics or characteristics that align with your testing requirements.