If you want to turn potential customers into loyal users, you need to ensure your products are of exceptional quality. One of the best ways to do that is to conduct a variety of usability tests.
The thing is that there are so many different types of tests that you can conduct. That’s why, in today’s guide, we’ll cover a wealth of usability testing examples. By the end of this guide, you’ll know every common usability testing method and their respective benefits.
What Is Usability Testing?
Usability testing is a crucial part of the UX design process. During such tests, UX designers assess how users interact with their products to determine how easy they are to use.
As you can imagine, designers don’t just choose the participants for these tests on a whim. Their participants must represent the real users of their product. Designers select their participants this way to ensure they can derive accurate and relevant insights from their feedback.
From user feedback, designers can identify areas of refinement within their product and make the necessary adjustments. Given how vital the usability testing process is to the user experience, it is, of course, an iterative process.
Every UX designer starts conducting usability tests during the prototyping stage and continues until they have a polished, high-fidelity prototype.
Ultimately, conducting usability tests is the only way to be sure that your product meets users’ needs and expectations.
The Different Approaches to Usability Testing
Not every usability testing method will yield the same type of data. So, it’s essential that you know the direct approaches you can take when conducting your usability tests.
1. The Quantitative Approach
Quantitative usability tests are ideal when you need to acquire feedback from a large pool of participants. This is largely because the data you’ll attain from quantitative tests is always numerical in nature.
Designers who conduct quantitative tests aim to understand what happens during users’ interactions with their products. For that reason, you can run quantitative tests to determine metrics like completion rates, error rates, and time on task.
The benefit of quantitative testing is that it allows you to validate your hypotheses about your product’s usability issues. The drawback is that you won’t understand why you have a particular usability issue by conducting quantitative tests alone. That’s where qualitative testing enters the picture.
2. The Qualitative Approach
Qualitative usability tests contextualize the data that you would acquire during your quantitative tests. They explain why certain things happen during the users’ interactions with your products.
Qualitative data will reveal insights into the users’ behaviors, thoughts, and feelings. This is why you can’t relay qualitative data through numbers and statistics.
To acquire this data, you need to observe the users as they use your product. You need to note their reviews, comments, facial expressions, and body language — qualitative data relies on your interpretations.
The immediate benefit of qualitative testing is that it helps you understand more about users’ behaviors. With this understanding, you can design a better experience for users. The downside of qualitative testing is that it is time-consuming and, therefore, not suitable for large participant pools.
Most of the time, it’s not a matter of qualitative vs quantitative testing. It’s more about using them together to produce the most actionable results.
3. The Moderated Approach
Needless to say, moderated usability tests require the moderator and the participant to be in the same room.
The moderator guides the participants through the test and briefs them on their in-product task scenarios. The moderator then usually asks follow-up usability testing questions to determine why the participant took a specific action.
As easy as it is to make this mistake, you should avoid over-instructing your participants or asking them leading questions. Moderated testing is a form of lab usability testing, meaning that your participants aren’t interacting with the product naturally anyway.
You don’t want to make their interactions with your product any less natural with leading questions or too specific instructions. Undoubtedly, this will make your test data virtually unusable.
That said, the controlled testing environment you’ll use to conduct your moderated tests has benefits. In such an environment, you won’t have to worry about environmental factors distracting your participant from their tasks.
However, planning, organizing, and running moderated tests is a huge strain on your resources, time, and budget.
4. The Unmoderated Approach
If you want to conduct unmoderated usability testing, you won’t need the moderator that we discussed earlier.
To run an unmoderated testing session, you’ll explain the task that the participant needs to complete prior to the test. The participant will then complete the task, determining the time and place in which they do so themselves.
If you want to test a large group of participants in a more natural environment, unmoderated tests will prove beneficial. The thing is that since no moderators are present during these tests, you won’t attain the most accurate qualitative data.
5. The Remote Approach
Remote usability testing revolves around the idea that the participant and the tester are in separate locations. The great thing about remote usability tests is that you get to observe the participant in their natural setting.
Whether moderated or unmoderated, remote tests allow you to contextualize the user’s experience and environment more than other testing methods. The problem with remote testing is that you could face limitations when it comes to in-depth user feedback.
6. The In-Person Approach
To conduct in-person usability tests, the tester and the participant are face-to-face with one another in a lab. Being able to monitor the users’ actions and reactions in real time will undoubtedly yield more accurate test data.
However, like moderated tests, in-person testing sessions can take up a lot of time, money, and resources. You also need to be especially careful not to influence your participants with your instructions or biases.
Types of Usability Testing Methods
Now, it’s time to look at every popular usability testing example that every designer uses to acquire valuable user data.
1. Card Sorting Sessions
Card sorting is a means of assessing how intuitive your product’s structure is. During card sorting sessions, you provide your participants with a group of cards. You’ll label these cards using your product’s content and features.
Then, you’ll ask your participants to organize the cards in a way that makes logical sense to them. At the end of the test, you’ll be able to align your product’s information architecture with your users’ mental models.
2. A/B Testing
A/B tests involve comparing two different iterations of one of your product’s user interfaces. The goal of A/B testing is to ascertain which version of your product appeals to your users the most.
The data you’ll get from your A/B tests plays a large role in increasing user engagement and conversion rates.
3. Concurrent Thinking Aloud
The concurrent think aloud (CTA) method is a form of qualitative usability testing. During this test, the tester will ask the participant to think aloud as they work through their tasks.
With CTA, you know the participant’s memory won’t affect their responses since they are providing you with insights in real-time. The drawback to CTA, however, is that it compromises your time on task metrics.
4. Retrospective Thinking Aloud
An alternative to CTA is RTA, or the retrospective thinking aloud method. With RTA, you show a participant a recording of their test after it’s over. This recording will help participants recall what they thought and felt during the session.
The tester will then ask the participant to recount their experience with the product. This way, you won’t have to worry about compromising your time on task metrics. However, at the same time, you risk diminishing the accuracy of your qualitative data if your participants can’t remember.
5. Guerilla Testing
Guerilla usability tests are one of the quickest and most inexpensive usability tests you could conduct. Instead of recruiting participants conventionally, you’ll approach passerbys in public places and request that they test your products.
The casual atmosphere that comes with guerilla testing can make your participants feel more comfortable during their tests. In turn, this informal manner of testing will likely encourage your participants to be more honest about your designs.
Of course, the downside is that not all of your participants will reflect your target users.
6. Five-Second Testing
In a five-second usability test, you’ll show your participants an image of one of your product’s interfaces for five seconds. After these five seconds, you’ll ask them questions about what they saw to understand your product’s first impressions.
Your goal should be to determine how effectively your designs can communicate its message upon the user’s first glance.
This method of testing is efficient, easy to conduct, and it yields unbiased, honest feedback. That said, the data you can acquire goes no further than that initial impression, making them unsuitable for complex designs.
Examples of Usability Testing Methods in Action
By now, you know how valuable usability tests are to both design and product teams. But to truly understand their impact on the design process, you need to see real-world usability tests in action.
1. Zara
In 2017, product designer and Medium user with the username William Ng wrote an article about Zara’s less-than-ideal mobile app. He set out to determine if other users were encountering the same problems, and so he began creating user personas.
After contextualizing his fellow Zara users, William decided to conduct guerilla tests in malls with Zara stores. His participant pool was comprised of seven online shoppers who had to imagine how they would perform specific tasks on Zara’s app.
From his tests, William was able to draw up affinity maps and start the app redesign process. Once the redesign and testing process were complete, the task success rate of in-cart editing increased from 33% to 100%.
This goes to show that, even without the latest usability testing tools, you can drastically improve a design.
2. Bannersnack
Our second usability test example relates to Bannersnack, a banner-maker tool. Despite their use of web analytics, the designers at Bannersnack didn’t know what their users were doing on their site.
Needless to say, this made it incredibly difficult for Bannersnack’s designers and developers to improve their product. To rectify this issue, the design team turned to Hotjar, making use of its well-regarded heatmap feature.
After learning what their users were doing, Bannersnack’s design teams began creating alternative iterations of their landing pages. Bannersnack’s team then ran A/B tests to find out that users weren’t completing desired actions due to its CTAs.
The design team would go on to male a few adjustments to their CTA button’s color and size. The result: their A/B tests allowed them to make the changes that increased their conversion rates by 25%.
3. Parallel HQ & Savage
Our last example concerns UX/UI design agency Parallel HQ and Savage, a fitness-tracking app for Indian women. Savage approached Parallel with the hopes of making their mobile app feel more inclusive and user-centric.
To help, Parallel HQ created multiple designs, some of which celebrated dark color schemes, while others utilized lighter color palettes. These contrasting color schemes caused a division among Parallel’s design team.
To decide on the best color schemes, Parallel’s team conducted five-second tests and asked subsequent follow-up questions. They did this because they wanted the user’s responses to stem from their emotions rather than their logical thought processes.
Their analysis proved that some users felt empowered and energized by the darker color scheme. In contrast, other users claimed that the lighter color palette spoke to feelings of peace and calm. Since Savage wanted their users to feel more energized, they went with the darker color scheme.
Ultimately, the data from Parallel’s five-second tests helped Savage evoke the most appropriate emotional response from their users.
A Usability Testing Report Example
No usability testing process would be complete without a usability testing report. These reports allow you to organize and summarize the key findings and observations from your usability tests.
From this summary, you and your team can craft a well-thought-out action plan for your product’s development and improvement.
Given how helpful usability test reports can be, we’d like to show you a high-quality, comprehensive example. This example comes from UXQB, and it relates to testing the strengths and weaknesses of the U-Haul website.
Immediately, from reading the executive summary, you know what the focus of the test was and why. You also know that the test was qualitative and unmoderated and you can see a summary of its key findings.
From this point on, the report went into great detail about the website’s various usability issues. But what’s great about this report is that it goes one step further to propose actionable recommendations for each issue.
Colorful legends accompany each issue, too, so you know the severity of each issue in the report. Overall, this contributes to the report’s logical and easy-to-follow structure and helpful visual aids (images and tables).
The only thing to rival the quality of the report’s presentation is the quality of its in-depth content.
Usability Testing Examples: Enhance Your Designs Through Page Flows
Usability testing is invaluable to the UX design process. Without it, you wouldn’t be able to evaluate and improve upon your designs. Another great way of enhancing your designs is to leverage exceptional user flow inspiration. That’s why you need Page Flows.
With Page Flows, you’ll have access to thousands upon thousands of annotated user flow recordings and screenshots. Within these resources, you’ll find dozens of user-centric and diverse user journeys from well-regarded brands and popular industries.
From logging in to redeeming promo codes, we cover every user interaction, no matter how crucial or minor they are. Best of all, we document mobile flows alongside our desktop flows so you can refine your mobile app interface designs.
Like the usability testing examples we’ve discussed today, you’ll learn a lot from Page Flows. Check out Page Flows to master the art of intuitive in-product navigation!
FAQs
What is usability testing with an example?
Usability testing is a means of evaluating how easy a product is to use. To derive insights from usability tests, designers will observe participants who represent their target users complete pre-defined, in-product tasks. An example of a usability test is a five-second test.
What is an example of a qualitative method of usability testing?
An example of a qualitative usability test is the Concurrent Think Aloud (CTA) method. This method involves asking the participant to think aloud as they interact with your product.
When should I conduct a usability test?
You should conduct a usability testing session during the prototyping phase of the design process. After you have a polished high-fidelity prototype, you should test it again before handing it over to your development team.
