Book Image

Remote Usability Testing

By : Inge De Bleecker, Rebecca Okoroji
Book Image

Remote Usability Testing

By: Inge De Bleecker, Rebecca Okoroji

Overview of this book

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.
Table of Contents (18 chapters)
Title Page
Copyright and Credits
Dedication
Packt Upsell
Contributors
Preface
8
What to Consider When Analyzing and Presenting the Study Results
Index

Chapter 7. Running a Remote Unmoderated Study with a Hybrid Approach

As we mentioned in Chapter 1, Why Everyone Should Run Remote Usability Tests, in a remote unmoderated usability study, the UX researcher sets up the UX study and analyzes the results, but unlike a moderated study, the participants complete the session without a moderator present. This allows the study participants to complete the study tasks where and when it is most natural to them. An unmoderated study using the hybrid approach uses a combination of the survey and user video methods that were introduced in the previous chapters. Participants create user videos and answer survey questions.

Hybrid remote unmoderated study

An advantage of this method is that it provides user videos showing what the participant did, as well as self-reported feedback. It is also relatively lightweight and has a quick turnaround.

As with any unmoderated method, the challenges of this method include the inability to ask follow-up questions, as...