Usability and UX Study

What is usability and UX testing?

Usability and UX testing is the most common way to find out how usable your digital product is from a human-centred design framework perspective. The real advantage of this qualitative user experience study is the focus on what users do – not what they say.

Testers might not tell you that they struggled with something because they think it’s their own fault, but you’ll always be able to recognize from their body language if they’re struggling with a task.

The aim is to observe real people’s behaviour and reactions while they interact with your website, app, or any other digital product. UX testing is a smart way to test the usability of your product by watching real users complete pre-defined tasks. Testing is a necessary step on your way to customer loyalty by creating an enjoyable user experience design.

User testing with a UX and usability study helps you find parts of your product that confuses users and will give you vital input on how to improve your overall user experience.

Different types of usability testing

There are different usability testing tools regardless if you’re doing website usability testing, a mobile usability test, or a UX test for any other digital product.

Usability test: Moderated or unmoderated

In moderated tests, there’s always a researcher present in person or remotely, who introduces the test to the participants, answers questions, and has the opportunity to ask testers additional questions. The direct interaction leads to in-depth insights – but of course, makes it more cost- and time-intensive.

In contrast, no one is present to support the testers during unmoderated tests. Most of the time, testers will be performing the assigned tasks at home and on their own devices. That’s why the usability test script and a proper test scenario is crucial here. But this also means unmoderated tests are cheaper and sometimes quicker than moderated ones. Nevertheless, answers also tend to be more superficial and you don’t have the opportunity to ask additional questions.

If you’re more interested in the reasons why users behave in a certain way then a moderated test might be suitable for you. If you want to test a very specific use case or observe behaviour patterns, an unmoderated test could be suitable.

Remote or in-person usability testing

Usability testing can either be done remotely, over the phone or the Internet, or in person, with the researcher being physically present with the tester. The social component of in-person testing shouldn’t be underestimated as researchers get the chance to observe and analyze body language and mannerisms of the testers. But of course, this is more time-consuming than meeting them remotely.

The advantage of remote usability and UX tests definitely lies in the opportunity to have large numbers of testers involved from all over the world – with a significantly low effort. Usually, getting feedback from your target group(s) might be difficult if your product is made for multiple regions or languages. However, testing remotely allows you to query customers from around the world and ensure the usability of your product across all markets.

If you want a deeper understanding of potential usability issues you should consider an in-person setup, but if you prefer a broader set of results or need to test with a variety of target groups, a remote setup might be more appropriate.