Know What Users are Thinking and Doing on Your Site or App
Many of you are familiar with UserTesting.com - a service that takes the pain out of recruiting users and allows you to see how users interact with your site or application.
At Iteration Group, we think UserTesting.com can be useful if you do a lot of homework upfront. Specifically, you need to understand precisely what you want to learn, set recruiting criteria very closely, and take qualitative opinions with a BIG grain of salt.
Working with UserTesting.com can be great for quick feedback, but it's no substitute for thoughtful, in-depth, contextual inquiry sessions run by trained UX researchers.
For those who do need quick, general feedback, though, we recommend checking out Peek, a new service from UserTesting, that's free.
Just type in the URL or application that you would like to get tested, and within 24 hours you will receive a short 2 to 5 minute video of someone using your site or app.
Creating Products that are (Measurably) Great
We usually recommend a User Experience design process that involves ongoing user testing. We very much believe that we ought to involve users in the design process every step of the way.
Our aim is to prove that we’re designing a great interface by objectively measuring its performance. Not just “wow, the app looks great,” but actual user performance data (fewer clicks, fewer seconds required to complete a task, etc.) that indicates, objectively, that we’re moving in the right direction - that we have significantly improved the user experience for customers.
