Are you looking to create a positive experience for your visitors? User experience (UX), or user experience testing, can be a tool to help you evaluate your website and ensure that your visitors have a positive experience. What is user experience testing?
This page will answer your question and include:
- To audit your UX, you can use user experience tests
- A checklist for user experience testing
- User experience testing best practice
What is User Experience (UX) Testing?
UX testing refers to the process of testing various elements and areas of your website that affect a user’s experience and then determining how best to optimize them for your audience. UX testing allows you to gather all the information necessary to make a website users love.
You can also identify weaknesses and make improvements to your site. Let’s now get to the point about usability testing.
What is the importance of user experience testing?
For two reasons, user experience testing is essential to your business:
Website user experience testing helps build a positive brand impression
Your site’s user experience is a key indicator of how your company is perceived by users. Poor user experience will result in your audience leaving your site. This can lead to lost conversions. They’ll also remember what a bad experience was like and will not feel compelled or obligated to return.
These stats show how bad user experience can have devastating consequences.
- 89% Shop with Competitors after a bad user experience
- 79% of people are less likely than others to purchase from a website after having a bad experience
- 53% of users will abandon a webpage if it takes longer than three seconds to load
- 52% are less likely than others to engage with a company because of a poor mobile experience
Poor user experience can have a lasting impact on your business. Poor user experience can make it less likely for users to visit your website, stay on the site, and buy from your company. UX testing can help to fix this issue.
You can improve the user experience by testing various elements of your website. Your optimizations will help them have a positive user experience which in turn leads to a positive impression about your brand.
Increase sales by testing user experience on websites
User experience testing, as we mentioned in the previous section can help increase your sales. Your audience will be more inclined to purchase if you are constantly testing your website and enhancing it.
Did you know slow-loading websites can lead to a $2.6 million revenue loss each year? This is just one aspect of the user experience!
You can see that how visitors experience your site has a significant impact on whether they convert. A poor user experience can lead to fewer conversions. However, optimizing your site and conducting user experience testing will help you increase your revenue.
Five types of user experience testing are available for websites
Now that you know the definition of user experience (UX), and why it is important, it’s time for you to get started with testing! Now, the question is: How can you do UX testing? These are the five most common ways you can test user experience on your website.
1. Moderated user testing
Moderated user testing allows you to have a group using your site, and a moderator who guides a discussion about their experiences with your site. The moderator responds to questions and guides the participants through the site. The pros: It helps you identify areas of confusion and help you improve them. The cons: If the moderator isn’t completely objective, the conversation could become biased.
2. Testing by unmoderated users
Unmoderated user testing is another option to conduct user experience testing on websites. Participants work independently through tasks and scenarios — usually in a remote location like their home. Participants can follow the steps provided and then report back about their experience.
The pros: More genuine responses, as they are on their own and not influenced or influenced by others’ opinions. Cons Can’t navigate the steps without guidance and it can be difficult to follow up with responses in real-time.
3. Sorting cards
Card sorting allows you to better understand how visitors find information on your website. These cards can be either digital or physical and contain various components of your website, such as “Clothes,” women’s boots, or jewelry. Users then sort the cards based on their meaning. This allows you to get inside the minds of your audience and see how they group topics and products.
The user experience test can be used to determine how visitors navigate your website so that you can make it easier for them to find the information they need. This strategy allows you to swap cards to create a navigation system that is logical for your audience. This is how participants might sort categories if they owned a clothing shop.
| CATEGORY I: SHOES | CATEGORY 2: ACTIVEWEAR | CATEGORY #3: FORMAL WEAR |
| Card 1 – Women’s Boots | Card 1 – Activewear tops | Card 1 – Men’s Dress Shirts |
| Card 2 – Women’s Sandals | Card 2 – Activewear Bottoms | Card 2 Men’s Dress Pants |
| Card 3 – Men’s Flip Flops | Card 3 – Activewear Bras | Card 3 – Men’s Dress Shoes |
| Card 4 – Men’s Boots | Card 4: Running Shoes | Card 4 – Men’s Belts |
If this were your company, you may have thought it best to keep all your shoes in the same category for your navigation.
Card sorting reveals that people often wear running shoes with their activewear, and dress shoes with their formal wear. This information would be useful to your business as it would allow you to see what your audience expects from your site’s navigation and site architecture. The pros: Allows you to adapt your site to the way that users navigate through it The cons: Limited to evaluating site architecture
4. Polling/surveying
A survey or poll is another great way to test user experience on websites. You can ask people about their experiences and get instant feedback with polls and surveys. This is a great way for you to collect a large sample of responses that will help you identify what’s working and what’s not.
The pros: You can get a lot of data and focus on certain aspects of your site The cons: It may be difficult to get responses from your audience, so you may not take the survey seriously.
5. A/B Testing
A/B Testing is one of the most popular types of testing companies use to analyze their website. You can test two versions of the same element on your website with A/B testing. This allows you to determine which element offers a better user experience.
Lush could, for example, test their CTA buttons to determine if a white button performs better than one of a yellow or another color.
They can then compare the effects of changing the color of the button on conversions and clicks. The advantages of Allows you to compare and see the improvements. The cons: Only one element can be tested at a given time (time-consuming), and focuses mainly on aesthetics.
Checklist for user experience testing: How to conduct a successful test
Ready to dive into testing? These are the top practices for UX testing success.
Identify your goals It is important to understand your UX testing goals.
As a goal, many businesses emphasize increasing sales.
You might want to encourage more people to download your guides or sign up for your email newsletter. To understand how UX testing can help you achieve your specific goals, you must first establish your UX testing goals.
Select the best method for your goals. This is one of the most important user experience testing best practices.
You need to determine which tests work best when you are testing your site.
You can use your goals to help you decide what tests to run. There are many tests that you can run. It is important to choose the ones that will help you reach your goals while still fitting within your budget. You may not be able to afford moderated user testing but still, need direct feedback.
You may choose unmoderated user testing, which provides direct feedback and is more cost-friendly.
Make a plan. To ensure that your testing is successful, you must make a plan. Your plan will outline everything you need to do for your test.
- What you are going to try
- It’s going to be tested!
- How will you conduct your test?
- Who is taking part in your test?
- How to measure the results
- Which metrics should you be focusing on in your test?
This information will help you set yourself up for success in your test and get better results.
Analyze the results. This is one of the most important user experience testing best practices. It is not worth the effort to run all the tests without an analysis. You won’t be able to know how to improve your site’s performance or what needs to be fixed. The tests used and the measurements you are looking for will determine how the results are analyzed.
Moderated results may be based on the common responses of all participants. A/B testing may place more emphasis on metrics such as clickthrough rate (CTR), dwell time, and other important metrics. Google Analytics is a great tool to monitor key metrics and analyze how your campaign is performing.
Test the user experience on your website today
We answered some important questions in this post:
- What is User Experience (UX) Testing?
- What are the benefits of user experience testing?
- What are the types of UX tests available?
- What are the best practices in UX testing?
Now, the most important question is: Can I do my UX testing? No! No!
Our user-experience analysis services will help you to analyze your site and determine where you can improve your UX. Call us today for a strategist!
