Until the world arrived in the 21st century, a successful business was attributed to one or more of the following things: making a great product, mass production, excessive marketing, efficient distribution- making sure your product had a pervasive market presence, good customer service, etc. The end of the last century and the last 19 years of this century have brought radical changes in almost all aspects of the world. Digital Transformation on a massive scale has sent the likes of Kodak packing, and new giants like Amazon, Google have emerged.

The key factor that distinguishes a great business from an average one isn’t marketing or cheap production, but User Experience i.e. UX. New generation customers have become well aware of their needs and various alternatives in the market. Companies have started paying serious attention to this metric, which is why UX has started to gain significance.

What is UX Testing?

UX Testing, also called Usability Testing is a process, where target end-users of a product use it and evaluate it based on preset parameters of user experience. The most important among these are:

• Ease of Use
• Whether the product functions as originally intended
• Its adaptability in managing controls.

Elements of UX Testing

1. Planning

At this stage, we decide what we exactly want from the product. This helps us identify the exact parameters of the test. We decide what constitutes a successful test. Make sure that you know what possible outcomes of the test area and what they imply. Other aspects are the Usability Testing technique, the format of the test report, test demographics, etc.

2. Focus Groups

Focus groups are widely used in UX testing. A focus group is a group of people (say 5-10) whose job is to sit together and discuss a product in detail, its pros, and cons, and report them to the company. A moderator conducts the session and guides them to the relevant areas of study. Focus groups are important because they represent the target user. They give us a firsthand experience of the potential user and let us grasp the true magnitude of the product’s effect on them. The important thing to remember is that one focus group is not representative enough, so at least a few of them should be used. In the mobile app market, focus groups can be, and should be used to find out what an average user wants from the app, and how well does the app satisfy them.

3. Tree Testing

Tree Testing is a wonderful technique that guides you and the UX designer to see how well users collaborate and discover products or components in the website model. Because of it, we can see what went wrong and how to fix it. It also tells us how close/far are we from the product in our vision. The methodology determines whether your data design structure is understood by the user or not.

4. Prototype testing

This type of testing can be utilized for a product on a pre-development basis. Its entire working journey is captured and tested in this phase. This is known as the primary testing phase. A UX designer makes the prototype and structure work processes. Design prototype testing helps us get a clear picture of the product’s usability. This helps us in the next phase, i.e. product development. The following are some points to be observed:

• Characterize the objectives and budget for the testing process
• Work hard on the beginning phase tests to uncover particular zones that may require upgrades
• Choose the appropriate prototyping tool
• Use a measuring device for the prototype to accumulate analytics from the users

Moderated Usability Testing

Moderated usability testing is used to get comments on the product from actual customers. In such a test, moderators- the test conductors interact with test participants. They are in continuous contact with them, guide them about the product, and note their responses, queries. This helps us understand what the customers want. Live interaction with the test participants ensures real-time observation, query-solving, and it can’t be effectively substituted by other methods. This type of testing is used when the product is at the stage of designing.

Moderated Usability Test is run to find out the potential flaws of the concerned product. The data acquired by conducting this test is used to evaluate the level of competence and readiness of the product. It enables us to manage the risk of investing huge amounts of resources in the project.

Un-moderated Usability Testing

This technique is used when we need a large sample for testing. The test is usually led through a platform or a website that records the session, tracks the metrics, and randomizes groups and tasks. A portion of the accessible tools can get you results in a few hours so that you can keep the development procedure continuous.

Maintaining live records

Maintaining live records, by taking notes at regular intervals, is necessary to learn from the test. It may help us in the future.

It helps to note as much as we can: what the participant is doing, what they say, where they go, what they do etc. One more important thing to remember is to record timestamps and quotes in the case of important events. We should also look for verbal signs and facial prompts if we’re physically present. The note-taker may be tempted to classify problematic and non-problematic areas right there during the test. However, this might make them prone to biases, so it should be avoided.

Tools available for UX Testing

UX testing or Usability Testing is a continuously improving area. Which means its scope is also constantly evolving. With ever more complex apps coming to the market everyday, it’s become necessary to have some usability testing tools at our disposal. Here are 5 of the best tools that are in the market for UX Testing.

1. Microsoft Inclusive Design

This is a software focusing on inclusive design, as the name suggests. Their plus point is that designing for individuals with inabilities results in structures that are useful for people across the globe. The software has comprehensive design standards to follow such as learning from diversity, activity cards describing case studies and tools, videos showing the inclusive design in action, among others.

2. IDEO Design Kit

This is another amazing software from IDEO. It contains ‘Mindsets,’ which have models for design strategies, sketch main design standards, and case studies indicating how ‘human-centered design’ has driven actual outcomes. IDEO focuses more on human-centered design than on user-centered design.

3. Design Practice Methods

The Design Practice Methods focuses on Human-centered design techniques, alongside more great design techniques, for example, material testing and mood boards. Methods can be searched by category such as Creative and Analytical and with a little classification and models presented for every strategy.

4. Crazy Egg

It has a Heatmap that helps the website find out where every user has tapped on the site. The Confetti provides insights concerning search terms and visitor sources. And, the Overlay that will analyze the number of clicks per page component. The Scrollmap – demonstrates how far down on the page a guest has frequently looked over.

5. Usabilla

This tool has a wide range of features to be employed by UX testers, making it a very exhaustive ordeal bundle. A couple of the elements that can be actuated are: mobile feedback, exit reviews, click heatmaps, directed feedback forms, and feedback widgets that assemble information through emails. Any user can give it a shot on a 14-day free trial mode otherwise they have a month to month, a yearly pricing structure.

Conclusion

In a world where user experience has become THE buzzword, UX Testing is very important to ensure that your app or site or product fulfills the customers’ needs. Before spending huge amounts of money, getting the prototype tested is a smart thing to do. As said earlier, this a constantly evolving field, making testing very complicated. Which is why getting help from experts becomes very important.

How VTEST can help:

VTEST has ample experience in the field of UX Testing. We understand the important role played by user experience in the making of a successful software development company. Whatever your product is, we’ll help you achieve your goal.

VTEST it!

About VTEST

VTEST is an independent software testing company catering to product and service teams across the globe. We are a team of software testers who are passionate about quality and love to test. We develop an in-depth understanding of the applications under test and include software testing services strategies that deliver quantifiable results.

In short, we help in building incredible software.