Today we want to turn the spotlight on another branch of testing, namely usability testing or user based testing, and especially the importance of choosing the perfect target group – not only for testing but for your business in general.
Philipp Benkler, CEO & Co-Founder of Testbirds, was recently in London, putting together some of his vast knowledge about UX testing, quality assurance, selecting the correct target group, and more, in the form of masterclass videos. All this is in cooperation with Business Reporter – a collaborative effort we’re very happy about.
Get a sneak-peek of the video here:
It’s likely you’ve already come across one of our previous blog posts in this series:
Intro: Why We Need Innovative Testing Methods
Part 1: What is QA Testing and Why Do We Need it?
Part 2: 5 Steps to Successful QA Tests
What is Usability Testing?
Usability excels through the effective, efficient, and satisfactory achievement of specific user goals (ISO9241-11). In a UX test, we let the end-users of your product test its usability. The feedback that comes from this sort of test leads to an improvement of the user experience and furthermore to an increase in conversions on your website or online shop. It sounds easy – and it is!
Companies tend to think they know exactly what their customers want, but quite often they haven’t actually asked them. With our Crowd of over 400,000 testers, you can do exactly this. From over 65 criteria, a group of testers can be chosen that matches the respective target group of your product.
Know Your Target Group
A properly defined target group doesn’t only make your business efforts increasingly efficient but also helps you manage your product in the right direction, namely into the relevant set of your target customers. Of course, user based testing has the same effect. If you don’t narrow down the tester group correctly, your test results get distorted and you might end up changing the wrong parts of your digital product.
Define Your Target User
To define a target group, several questions should be asked regarding demographic criteria, such as gender, age, income, place and form of residence, family status, and so on. We could call this sort of criteria the “hard facts” about your customers. However, further information is needed in order to gain knowledge about their shopping behaviour, we need to know the “soft facts” as well. What are your customers’ interests, personal characteristics, values, and needs?
If you don’t know how to find this information, you can start with the following:
- Analyse your existing customers, most suitably your frequent visitors or buyers
- Research your competition
- Examine your product or your service
- Create personas that represent your target group.
The Right Test Script for UX Testing
In usability testing, defining an appropriate test script is just as important as specifying your target group. A test script for UX tests usually consists of two parts: (1) around 10 formulated use cases that serve as guidance of tasks for the testers, and (2) a questionnaire consisting of both qualitative and quantitative questions regarding the usage of the digital product that’s being tested.
The perfect blend between product, a tester group that’s representative of the target customer, and an in-depth test script is a key success factor of every usability test. Only then will you get valuable feedback that helps you improve your KPIs.
Masterclass About UX Testing and the Right Target Group
Do you want to know more about this topic and what type of UX test is most suitable for the different stages of the development cycle of your product? Or how usability tests are classified? Then check out the masterclass with Philipp Benkler!
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Birds flying high, you know how I feel… whenever Regina is not working in the marketing-team for Testbirds, you can find her singing with her Jazz-Trio .
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