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

About the hybrid method


The hybrid method combines the survey method with user videos. It is our preferred method because the survey questions provide in-depth, self-reported feedback while the user videos allow for observation of the users' experiences.

Strengths of the hybrid method

The main advantage of this approach is the combination of user videos and self-reported feedback. This results in richer information than what would have been available in survey-only or video-only studies.

 

 

Self-reported data informed by user videos

Because of the limitations of self-reported data, we often recommend collecting user videos as a secondary source to investigate areas of concern. When reviewing the user videos, the UX researcher can form their own opinion of the user experience. We recently had an instance in a survey-based study where a participant reported that they were able to complete the task and provided no further written feedback. It was debatable whether the task was indeed completed successfully...