While most marketers and developers would agree usability testing is extremely important, very few websites are tested before launch (by someone other than the developer or other staff member). I think the main reason is because there is a stigma that usability testing is difficult, time consuming, and expensive. I hope to dispel all of those rumors below.
I’ve put together a list of five different usability testing solutions that you can put in place immediately.
UserTesting.com
UserTesting.com is a unique crowdsourcing project that pays reviewers to review websites based on criteria you set. You can choose basic demographics such as age and income ranges, and give specific instructions for users.
The reviewer records their screen and voice comments, and writes a brief summary of their thoughts as well. I tried the service and found the review very enlightening and actually uncovered a few fairly annoying usability issues with my own website!
The service costs $29 per review ($10 is paid to the reviewer) but there are quantity discounts available.
CrazyEgg
CrazyEgg.com is a web service that shows you where users click on your website. You might think to yourself, “I can get that information by just looking at my website stats” but you’d be wrong. CrazyEgg uses JavaScript to determine exactly where users click, even if it’s not a link! You’d be surprised how many users try to click things that aren’t links, and how they completely ignore links you thought were prominent.
The service allows you to pinpoint problem areas such as banners that don’t appear to be clickable or website elements that appear clickable but aren’t actually links. It offers several viewing options such as an overlay, heatmap and “confetti” view. Plans start at $9/month.
Google Analytics
Google Analytics has a wealth of usability information, but few people know how to coax the data out of the service. Below are important metrics to track related to the usability of your website:
- Top Exit Pages – If you see any concentration of visitors leaving on any particular page or section of your website, that should alert you to potential usability (or technical) problems with that area.
- Goal Funnels – Once setup, goal funnels can tell you at what point in the sales or lead-generation process your visitors are getting frustrated and leaving. With that information in hand, you can conduct further tests (such as CrazyEgg heatmap or a UserTesting.com review)
- Site Overlay – A feature similar to CrazyEgg’s heatmap, but it only shows clicks on links (and can only track the link source, so if you have multiple links to the same page such as in the header and footer, they’ll both show total clicks for both links).
Silverback
New on the scene, Silverback is a new usability testing application for Macs that has made in-house usability testing both simple and affordable. The application records both the user’s screen and video from either a built-in camera or an attached webcam. The video files are then saved together as a collage so you can see what the user is doing, and their facial expressions (including sound/dialog).
At only $49.95 per license, Silverback makes it affordable enough for any web development team to start doing usability testing in-house.
Morae
Morae is the grandaddy of usability testing software. It’s been around for a while, is expensive, and is complicated. But it’s packed with features and is what a lot of the “big boys” use. The entire software bundle costs $1,500, but is worth considering if the solutions above don’t meet your needs.
