Later this month we will be coming out with a special UserZoom How-To about Online Usability Testing and how you can use it to improve your customer’s experience on your website.
In the meantime, to whet your appetite, here’s a quick list of 8 Remote Usability Testing Tips you can use right now to improve and compliment your studies today:
1. Keep the duration of your study between 20-30 minutes. Studies exceeding 30 minutes have higher participant drop-off.
2. We recommend recruiting between 100-200 participants for a typical task-based study. If you are planning to segment your results recruit at least 50per segment.
3. Keep the amount of text within your study to a minimum. Participants are not likely to read lengthy blocks of text.
4. A clear concise welcome page will increase the participation rate for a study. Include a brief description of the participant’s task, study time, and incentive if applicable.
5. When presenting your task to participants, include a simplified task description along with your standard task description. The simplified description acts as a reminder for your participants as they navigate.
6. Enable the Sample Quality Control Filters when possible. These include filters for “speeders”, people who go through the study too quickly, and “cheaters”, people who don’t make a minimum number of clicks on a task. These filters help protect your data from participants that are not making an honest attempt at completing the tasks.
7. Pilot/test your study prior to launch. Previews can be used to check the visual presentation, logic, and tracking.
8. Determine whether your study can benefit from task randomization. Task randomization can be used to counteract learning of a system or ordering biases.
What are you waiting for? Go implement these tips now! Follow us on Twitter for the latest updates for articles and news like this.
Why would you recommend a minimum of 50 users be tested?
See Nielsen – Why You Only Need 5 Users to Test
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20000319.html
thanks
Craig
Hi Craig,
Great question. Please see our How-To piece on Online Usability Testing (Task-Based Surveys)