Usability Testing On A Budget
I recently participated in a meeting with a client about a homepage redesign. They wanted us to put a pretty face on it hoping that would fix some of their usability issues. Granted a better design may increase usability by a small percent, but the real problem with the site is that nobody once stopped to consider the users when making critical decisions. When I asked them about user testing, and focus groups, their response was typical. It's really expensive. They explained that they had intentions of doing user testing sometime in the future.
It makes more sense to me that you do user testing now, before doing yet another site redesign. Proceeding with a redesign would only be treating the symptom, not the cause of the problem.
Usability testing does not have to be expensive. There is a plethora of tools available nowadays for low cost usability testing that do not require elaborate testing centers or large budgets. In the list below, I have compiled a list of tools that will cost you next to nothing to run. I think of it as guerilla usability testing for those on a shoestring budget.
Index Cards
Costing less than $3.00 and a little bit of your time you can easily run card sorting exercises with some friends or office personnel. I prefer to enlist the help of user that do not have a personal investment in the site. Choose someone like an intern or office secretary. Persons that don't have an agenda in mind, will give you a more accurate test and a better representation of an "average user"
Card sorting is the first step in determining a good structure for your sites navigation system. After all if your sites navigation fails to get visitors to the pages they seek, then the site has failed for them, and they will likely leave.
If you prefer an online card sorting tool, Optimal Sort offers a free online application allowing you to run a free test with up to 10 users, and a max of 30 cards per project. If your testing a small to medium site, this should be all you need!
Crowdsourcing User Feedback
Sometimes getting feedback from users that have absolutely no investment at all in your site can have a significant impact on how you need to look at your website. What if you can stop 10 people on the street, ask them each 5 questions about the site. How valuable would those responses be to you? A dollar each? Probably more if you ask the right question! Feedback Army can provide you with responses from a large number of users for $1 per user. Not to bad if you need to generate responses quickly or in large volumes.
For just a little bit more money, Usertesting.com allows you to crowdsource your user testing, but you have a little more control by specifying the demographic profile of your target audience. You can even choose what tasks you wish for them to perform while on your site. The service costs less than $30 and you get a video screen capture with users talking through their experience as they browse your site. Not a bad option and it's not too expensive.
DIY Screen Capture
Nothing beats being able to watch your test users navigate your site, hear their feedback, AND see their expressions. It's not uncommon for users to experience a problem but not say anything about it chalking it up to their lack of understanding, or confusion about what they are doing. Thats where desktop software like Silverback App (Mac) and Camtasia (Windows) come in handy. Both applications offer a picture in picture format so you can see the screen as the user is navigating it, but you can also see their expressions too. Perfect for discovering the tiniest nuances.
The biggest benefit to using a software based app like Silverback and Camtasia is that you can hand pick your test subjects. My problem here is that your starting to get up into a higher cost per test. I thought it was worth mentioning because if quality testing is what your after, this is definitely a budget minded alternative to an expensive set of tests.
Five Second Test
Finally a site that makes it easy to run five second tests on your designs. Thought it won't let you test your site with users, it will allow you to get feedback on what people remember to be the most prominent elements of your design. This would be critical if you want to determine if people are seeing your calls to action, or some other important page element. It's free to use the basic, with an option to upgrade for more features, like custom instructions, more feedback, and more results in less time.
Another feedback tool useful while your in the design stage is Concept Feedback. It works similar to the Five Second Test Site except it is geared more towards designers and marketers. You get feedback from other designers in the community through a standard set of questions. It also uses a Digg style voting system so users that provide thoughtful and useful feedback are given a higher score allowing you to determine just how reputable they are, and help you to place a value on their feedback.
As you can see there are a ton of tools available for you to use that do not have to cost you an arm and a leg. Usability testing can be done on the cheep, if you just don't have the budget for more advanced tests now. In the end, even just a little bit of guerilla style usability testing can go a long way to improving your site for everyone.
Do you have a tool or resource that you would like to share? Please do so in the comments below. Share the knowledge and lets help make the web a better place for everyone!
Tags: usability · Inspiration
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