USER TESTING: Meaning, Review, Apps & Guide

All businesses strive to satisfy their consumers’ unique requirements and alleviate their problems. At the base of every customer’s purchase is a need that they want to fulfil, and user testing helps your business ensure that your product is user-friendly and practical. It is a crucial part of software development that helps ensure user acceptance and satisfaction.

Learn more about the meaning of user testing and the acceptance process. Also, provide brief reviews of user testing apps and the skills necessary to participate in usability tests.

What is User Testing

User testing evaluates a product’s usability, functionality, and overall user experience by collecting user feedback. It is a standard part of the design process across the tech industry. Its main goals are to uncover any usability issues with the navigation and core features of the app and to test any assumptions made about the product.

User testing involves recruiting a sample group of users who match the target audience for the product or service and asking them to perform specific tasks while observing their behaviour and collecting feedback.

How to Conduct User Testing

User testing is essential to product development because it helps identify usability issues and improve the overall user experience. To conduct a successful user testing session, here are some practical tips on how to conduct user testing:

Choose a user testing method based on where your product is currently at in the product development cycle, as well as budget, resources, and testing facilities.
Consider using individual in-depth interviews, remote user testing, card-sorting, A/B testing, eye movement tracking, or a focus group.
Segment test participants according to certain characteristics that reflect your perfect user persona, and avoid recruiting fellow employees, their immediate family members, and friends to avoid users’ bias.
Ensure you have established clear selection criteria; around 3-5 users are generally more than enough to identify key issues.
Have an experienced facilitator guide the test and have several observers take notes during the test.
Practice asking the type of questions you will ask, give your users context and remind them to imagine using your app in a real-life situation.
Record the sessions with screen recording software if you’re conducting remote testing, or use a video camera or an audio recorder if you’re in person.
Ask open-ended questions that do not let users gain real insight into their needs, behaviours, goals, and frustrations.

What does User Testing do?

User testing can refer to two things: a process or a website.

User testing is the process of testing a product with real users before its launch in the market. The main goals of user testing are to uncover any usability issues with the navigation and core features of the app and to test any assumptions made about the product. User testing is a standard part of the design process across the tech industry.

UserTesting is also a website that enlists freelancers to review new websites and mobile apps for a payment of $10 per test. The idea is to help the web developer understand the user experience of using a site. The tests take roughly 20 minutes, which equates to a good hourly wage for a work-at-home job. However, tests are not available every hour or even every day.

What Skills Are Required for UserTesting?

User testing is a complex process that requires various skills to achieve accurate results. Some of the essential skills generally required for user testing include organization, observation, empathy, impartiality, and report-taking.

Organization: Organizational skills is crucial in user testing. Altogether, the test session should be well-prepared, and the tasks must be arranged logically. This helps to ensure that the users’ behaviour and actions accurately represent how they would behave in real-world situations.
Observation: The test users must be observed closely to capture the most subtle and essential information. Sometimes, users may not explicitly state their thoughts or feelings about a particular task or feature, so watching their facial expressions and other non-verbal cues is important.
Empathy: User testing is about understanding the users’ motivations and translating their actions and thoughts into usable information. Therefore, empathy is a critical skill that helps researchers understand why users behave as they do.
Impartiality: User testing teams must remain objective and avoid influencing the users’ responses. Leading questions should be avoided, and the number of times the team instructs or directs the users should be limited to minimize the effect of variation on testing results.
Report-taking: The notes taken during user testing sessions should be well-organized, make sense, and tell a story of what happened in each session. This ensures that the insights gained at the time are not lost in translation.
Communication skills: Good written and verbal communication skills are essential for tracking, troubleshooting, and reporting defects and errors.

User Testing App

User testing is a crucial part of the development process, as it helps identify issues and areas for improvement in your app or website. Numerous user-testing apps/tools are available, each with its own features and benefits. They include:

Loop 11

Usability testing for websites, wireframes, prototyping, and accessibility
Real-time reporting, heatmaps, clickstream analysis, and session videos
Integrates with prototyping tools like Axure, JustInMind, and InVision

Userbrain

Watch videos of real people interacting with your website.
Access to an extensive pool of testers

Userlytics

Records users’ interactions with a website, mobile app, or prototype
Captures facial expressions and audio commentary for a complete picture of user reactions

UsabilityHub

Five different test suites to capture and analyze user preferences
Heatmaps, navigational tests, and surveys for user feedback

Lookback

Record the user experience on a computer or mobile device.
Join live testing sessions and speak to users in real-time

TryMyUI

Custom tests with specific tasks for users
Real-time information on user interactions with your website

UserTesting

This website for user testing records videos of users interacting with your website or app
Test on desktop, tablet, or mobile devices.
supports iOS, Android, and TestFlight links

Optimizely

A/B testing and multivariate testing
Target specific audiences, URLs, browsers, and geographic regions.

UserZoom

This user testing app gives enterprise-level user experience research and analytics platform
Test websites and prototypes, remotely record user tests, and perform market research.
Dashboard with insightful reports, heatmaps, and click information

To make an informed app or website design decisions, you must analyze the collected data for patterns and trends after using these user testing tools.

User Testing Acceptance

User acceptance testing (UAT) is a critical phase of software development or the change request lifecycle before go-live. Its primary purpose is to assess how efficiently the software can provide the intended solutions to the target audience. Testing puts user needs at the center of software development and release.

User acceptance testing ensures that changes will not disrupt business. Business users are essential to the testing process and prove that the business can function post-change. UAT ensures that new code in each virtual deployment model works in a natural environment and for flawed software products. When done right, it accurately reflects user requirements and finds issues that integration or unit testing would miss.

You must carefully plan and execute user acceptance testing. UAT can be done more efficiently by following these steps:

Set clear UAT goals and objectives.
Identify the right UAT group and testing environment.
Define the test cases and scenarios.
Set up the required testing tools.
Create a proper test environment.
Execute the testing process.
Collect the information and analyze it.

User Acceptance Testing Tools

Setting up the necessary testing tools is necessary before user acceptance testing. You can choose the ones that perform better by researching market-available UAT tools. Some of the available UAT tools include beta testing, alpha testing, functional testing, regression testing, tree testing, etc.

User Acceptance Testing Process

Executing the user acceptance testing process is the most crucial part. A select group does UAT. You’ll need a team leader and manager to organize, gather, and execute. You must inform testers of critical test cases and their required actions. As such, the users will know what steps to take and how to assess the product’s functionalities.

You must also train developers to act on acceptance testing feedback to fix bugs or upgrade your product. Also, don’t forget to facilitate proper communication among the intended teams to ensure the successful execution of testing and development.

After user acceptance testing, you must collect and analyze the output to take the proper steps. UAT should produce a structured report that evaluates critical product features, how effective its key solutions are, its main functionalities, how well it serves end-users, key performance indicators, and others. Analyze system stability, usability, functionality, compliance, and other reports for the best results.

User Testing Review

UserTesting is a usability and customer experience testing platform that gets on-demand feedback about a product or service from its target market, through which companies can protect their brand and eliminate bad user experiences.

G2 Crowd has ranked UserTesting as the top platform for experience research solutions in user research, software testing, and consumer video feedback. However, the platform has received mixed reviews from users. While some users have had positive experiences with UserTesting, others have complained about the qualification process, low pay, and long wait times for payment.

UserTesting is a lucrative side gig. You earn from taking fun, exciting tests. It’s a legit platform with lots of testing opportunities and fast payouts. However, some users have complained that the qualification process is lengthy and that they often don’t qualify for tests even after answering all the screening questions. Some users have reported low pay and long payment delays. UserTesting’s human insight platform helps companies make accurate customer-first decisions at every level, at business speed. It is important to note that while UserTesting may not be suitable for everyone, it can be an excellent option for those looking to make some extra cash.

How Much Do You Make on UserTesting?

The average pay for UserTesting testers is $10 per 20-minute test, with the possibility of earning $30 or $60 for more prolonged, moderated tests. However, the pay for full-time UserTesting employees varies widely, with salaries ranging from $45,553 to $130,258 per year.

How Long Does It Take to Get Approved for UserTesting?

The application procedure to become a contributor for UserTesting typically takes ten to twenty minutes to complete. As part of the procedure, you must take a practice exam. After you’ve submitted your application, a staff member will contact you within a few days. In the event that you are accepted, you will immediately be able to begin taking paid tests.

How Do I Start Earning in UserTesting?

If you want to become a tester on usertesting, you must first complete a sample test, and if that exam passes muster with the panel, you will be enrolled as a tester on the site. You will be given assessments that are tailored to your profile. Then, you will receive a certain amount of money, which will vary depending on the test you complete.

How Long Does UserTesting Take to Pay?

According to usertesting.com, payments for completed tests are sent seven days later. UserTesting does not withhold any taxes from payments. Hence, contributors are responsible for determining any tax liabilities incurred from payments received by UserTesting. The amount paid for each test varies depending on the test type, and the expected payment is displayed on the test feed.

Does UserTesting Do Interviews?

Yes, UserTesting does offer live interviews. User interviews are a form of UX research that helps you gather information about your users on a particular topic. User interviews are more than casual conversations with users. The most successful user interviews are strategically outlined to uncover information about a specific thing.