Remote Usability Testing

Actionable insights in user behavior across geographies and time zones

Inge De Bleecker, Rebecca Okoroji

• Publisher: Packt Publishing
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN:
  9781788999045
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781788990639
• Topic: Computer Science
• Subtopic: Computer Science General
• Index: Computer Science

Gain actionable insights from qualitative remote studies to improve user experience

Key Features

• Understand the different usability testing methodologies and their strengths and weaknesses
• Master the execution of remote studies
• Learn how to analyze and present study results

Book Description

Usability testing is a subdiscipline of User Experience. Its goal is to ensure that a given product is easy to use and the user's experience with the product is intuitive and satisfying. Usability studies are conducted with study participants who are representative of the target users to gather feedback on a user interface. The feedback is then used to refine and improve the user interface.

Remote studies involve fewer logistics, allow participation regardless of location and are quicker and cheaper to execute compared to in person studies, while delivering valuable insights. The users are not inhibited by being in a new environment under observation; they can act naturally in their familiar environment. Remote unmoderated studies additionally have the advantage of being independent of time zones.

This book will teach you how to conduct qualitative remote usability studies, in particular remote moderated and unmoderated studies. Each chapter provides actionable tips on how to use each methodology and how to compensate for the specific nature of each methodology. The book also provides material to help with planning and executing each study type.

What you will learn

• Choose the most suitable remote study methodology
• Establish a clear goal for the study
• Plan the study execution
• Understand recruitment logistics, expectations and compensation
• Set up and moderate remote studies
• Write good tasks and questions for each methodology
• Analyze and document the study results
• Deliver results that align with the goal for the study

Who this book is for

This book is for user experience (UX) professionals familiar with traditional in-person usability testing methodologies, or for UX designers with no prior exposure to user research and usability testing. Customer experience professionals or product managers who want to understand remote usability testing will also find this book useful. No knowledge of remote usability testing is needed.

Contributors

About the authors

Inge De Bleecker has been designing and testing web, mobile, and voice experiences for more than 20 years. She builds and leads UX teams and evangelizes UX throughout organizations. She is fascinated by the communication between humans and devices. Her mantras are "design for everyone" and "test early and often." Inge has run over 200 remote studies across different industries, languages, and regions. She finds remote studies a powerful and effective way to gather user feedback that would otherwise be difficult to collect.

Rebecca and I would both like to thank Packt Publishing for their encouragement and support throughout this exciting experience. Rebecca, it was a true joy collaborating with you, as always! Thanks also to my husband, Arpit, my son, Kennas, and my parents for their unfailing love, support, and patience.

Rebecca Okoroji has been working in UX since 2000. She is passionate about the need for providing exceptional digital experiences and has since expanded her focus to encompass customer experience. She believes that there is no such thing as a user error, only badly designed interfaces. Customer/user feedback is essential to building a good UX, and remote unmoderated usability testing is a cost-effective and efficient way of collecting this. Rebecca has conducted over 100 such studies in globally dispersed projects for a large variety of industries and has a wealth of experience to draw on.

Inge and I would both like to thank our reviewers for their great feedback, and very especially Nic for the beautiful images she designed. Writing this book with Inge was more fun than I could ever have imagined. Thank you for that, Inge! Additionally, I would like to thank my husband for never doubting that this would be an exhilarating, at times tear-my-hair-out frustrating, but ultimately gratifying adventure.

About the reviewers

UX blogger, auth...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Copyright and Credits
• Dedication
• Packt Upsell
• Contributors
• Preface
• Why Everyone Should Run Remote Usability Studies
• What Not to Forget When Planning Your Study
• How to Effectively Recruit Participants
• Running a Remote Moderated Study
• Running a Remote Unmoderated Study with User Videos
• Running a Remote Unmoderated Study with a Survey
• Running a Remote Unmoderated Study with a Hybrid Approach
• What to Consider When Analyzing and Presenting the Study Results
• Thanks! And What Now?
• Sample Material and Further Reading
• Other Books You May Enjoy