The following is a difficult situation for everyone that conducts usability tests: You need to do your job, but usability tests on the field have become impossible.
Fortunately, there are great remote usability testing tools on the market.
However, here’s what you want to avoid: Getting stuck with awful remote usability testing tools.
Instead of wasting 6 months on the wrong tool, take 3 minutes of your time and read about the ones that work:
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#1 UserZoom
UserZoom offers different versions of usability testing: remote or in the lab, moderated or unmoderated.
You can interview the user while he uses your app and you can watch interviews and sessions later.
Moreover, if you’ve never done remote usability testing before — or need inspiration — UserZoom offers study templates.
Besides usability testing, UserZoom offers other analytics features such as usability benchmarking, tree testing, card testing and surveys.
#2 Testbirds
Price: starting at 200€ per month
With Testbirds, it’s easy to find the right target group and let it test your mobile app. You can test websites, wearable technology and smart devices.
Apart from qualitative and quantitative remote usability testing tools, Testbirds offers other mobile analysis techniques like competitor analysis, remote evaluation and remote interviews.
To start, define your target group. Based on this, the usability testing tool finds the right testers for you, which test your app and provide extensive qualitative feedback.
Afterward, Testbirds collects and evaluates the feedback and provides you the data and a final report.
#3 UXCam
Website: UXCam
Price: free version, premium & enterprise pricing upon request
Platforms: Android and iOS
UXCam is a qualitative analytics solution that offers a variety of analytics methods for mobile apps only, which means it is not your typical usability testing tool. Don’t worry though, you can still use it for that purpose.
UXCam offers benefits that in-person usability tests do not:
1. Observe real users, no artificial lab environment
2. Save time & money when you plan and execute tests
3. Follow user journeys over weeks, not a day
Besides session recording, with which you can see every interaction of the user, other tools like heatmaps and conversion funnel analysis help to identify usability issues at a glance.
The detailed filter system helps to find specific user groups or sessions with frustration patterns.
UXCam is running in the background of your app without performance impact. Users use the app in their natural environment, which gives you real-world data, rather than data from an artificial lab experiment.
One thing to keep in mind is that you will not be able to conduct interviews on UXCam due to its nature of gathering and observing real-usage data. Instead of testing the usability, you get to see how good it actually is.
You can integrate UXCam into your mobile app in 5 minutes and with 2 lines of code.
#4 UserTesting
Platforms: Android and iOS, mobile and web
UserTesting helps you to “bring customers into every step of the process” (UserTesting.com). UserTesting offers you video, audio and written feedback from users within hours.
The difference with UXCam is that users know that they’re testing an app. You can see and hear what the users think about your app.
#5 Lookback
Price: starting at $49 per month
Platforms: iOS and Android, mobile and web
Lookback is another candidate in our list of remote usability testing tools and offers three different types of usability testing:
- Live and moderated testing: The tests run in real time. You can see the participants and their screens and hear what they think about your app.
- Unmoderated testing: The participants start the test by clicking on a link. Lookback guides them through the test.
- In person: This type of testing can be used when participants use your devices in the lab. It allows you to record everything on the devices without the need for complicated equipment or further software.
Conclusion
The listed usability testing tools are in no particular order. They offer different functionalities and analysis methods.
On the one hand, there are remote usability testing tools like UserTesting.com, where users know that they are testing an app.
This has the advantage that you can ask them questions and record what they say about your app. But it is still a testing situation where users don’t act as they would in real life.
On the other hand, there are tools like UXCam.
UXCam records the users’ behavior in their natural environment. All the captured data is made anonymous. Even though you can’t ask the user any questions, they won’t be in a testing situation and will act naturally.
All in all, you should try different solutions and find out what kind of usability testing tool has the most advantages for you.
P.S. You can start a risk-free trial for UXCam here.
Related Articles
- What is UX Analytics (Part 1)
- Top 10 Analytics Tools for Mobile in 2020 (updated)
- The Complete SDK Map 2020
- Best UX Tools 2021
- Top Analytics SDKs
FAQ
How do you run a usability test on a mobile app?
Your approach should be task based. First, identify the main tasks of your app.
In the next step, you let your test participants perform the task(s). Observe how they behave, how long they need to complete the task and ask for their feedback.
You can also A/B test here and analyze if there is a difference between different versions.
The advantage of session replay software like UXCam is that you don’t need to recruit participants, you can just observe the behavior of real users.
How do you test a website on usability?
If you conduct a usability test, these should be your goals:
1. Uncover issues or
2. Discover unexplored ways to improve the design
You can perform usability tests either in person or remotely.
