Usability testing
Usability testing involves measuring the ease with which users can complete common tasks on your website. The results of the analysis are a huge eye-opener and their implementation often leads to:
- Increased sales and task completion and a high rate of return site visitors
- A greatly improved understanding of your customers' needs
- A significant reduction in call centre workload
- A much more user-focused in-house development team
Webcredible carried out usability testing for us across two countries. It was an eye-opening experience, particularly being able to watch the testing live in Webcredible's usability lab. The way the tests were conducted was to the highest calibre.
Simret Dhillon, World Health Organization (see more testimonials)
Usability testing is truly an eye-opening experience. You'll have the opportunity to witness your site visitors struggle to complete what you perceive to be the easiest and most intuitive of tasks.
Deliverables from the usability testing
Implementation brainstorm workshop
Before writing up the report, we'll spend half a day with you discussing potential recommendations for website issues, brainstorming solutions together. The workshop will take place immediately after we perform our expert analysis of the issues that arose from the usability testing.
The workshop can be very effective because:
- Potential changes that can't be made due to technical or organisational constraints can be identified and won't be explored
- Sometimes there can be more than one way of solving a problem so the workshop is a great environment to come up with the best (and most innovative) solutions for your website
- It's a great way of getting buy-in into proposed changes
(To reduce documentation, and indeed costs, the implementation workshop could take the form of the final deliverable. We would therefore not write up a report so you'd need to take thorough notes during the workshop.)
Written report & presentation of usability testing findings
The usability testing report is very much recommendation-led and highlights the problem areas of the site from the usability testing. For each highlighted problem, clear recommendations are provided for how to remedy it and improve the site's usability. Recommendations are defined as critical, important, and nice-to-haves, as appropriate.
The usability testing report also highlights the positive usability aspects of the site, in order to ensure you don't remove these! It's written in layman's terms with all relevant issues explained thoroughly and appropriate illustrative screenshots included. You can download a brief extract from a sample report.
Once the usability testing report is completed, Webcredible will make a short presentation of the main findings from the usability testing. We'll shows video clips during the presentation to highlight some of the main points.
DVDs of usability testing
We'll provide you with a DVD featuring all of the usability testing videos, as well as a DVD showing some of the main highlights from the usability testing. The highlights DVD is a great way to quickly show the usability testing to colleagues who were unable to watch the testing live.
Our usability testing facilities
Why we're different
Webcredible does things slightly differently to (and much better than) our competitors:
- We know more than just usability and accessibility
- We're experts in what we do
- We're passionate about our work
- We don't have 'project managers'
- You'll enjoy working with us
- We believe in knowledge sharing so you'll learn a lot from us
Find out in more detail about why we're different.
Take a 360° virtual tour of our usability lab
The usability testing takes place in our purpose-built usability lab, complete with microphones and cameras. Using state-of-the-art software we're able to capture what the user is doing on-screen, together with audio commentary and a video of the user carrying out the test. There's an observation room next door with a large one-way mirror between the two rooms so you can see the testing live, in real time.
Additionally, a 32 inch plasma TV is mounted in the corner of the observation room. A screenshot of the participant's computer along with a picture of their face is displayed in real-time on the TV, allowing you to get a full picture of what's going on in the usability lab next door:
We strongly advise you come watch the usability testing live from the observation room - it's truly an eye-opening experience. The observation room is a big airy room with a large table and a number of comfortable chairs, and overlooks the Webcredible garden. You also get exclusive access to our break out area, where you can relax on our comfy sofa between sessions and during lunchtime. Refreshments are provided throughout your time here.
Take a 360° virtual tour of our usability lab
During the usability testing
During the usability testing participants are instructed to think aloud at all times. If they ever fall silent for more than a few seconds they're encouraged to keep talking. Our usability testers are expertly trained to ask questions and elicit thoughts in a non-biased and neutral manner. Throughout the sessions an experienced Webcredible moderator will sit with each participant and prompt for feedback.
At the beginning of the usability testing users are shown your website, asked some general questions about it and allowed to freely roam around it, always talking about what they're doing and why they're doing it. Following this, they're then assigned specific tasks to carry out and their ability to complete these tasks is monitored. After the testing is carried out we conduct a brief interview with each user.
Before the usability testing
Before the usability testing is carried out we work closely with you to identify your exact needs and goals for the website and the usability testing. Together, we identify the different demographic groups your site visitors fall into (sometimes there's only one demographic group) and source a number of individuals from each group for testing.
We can additionally offer accessibility testing with a variety of users with special needs, such as visually impaired users utilising screen readers and screen magnifiers.
We then design and prepare a list of tasks for participants so that users will be completing realistic journeys on your site. The activities will be based on the most common tasks your site visitors regularly undertake. As standard, we run a pilot testing session before launching into the full usability testing.
International usability testing capabilities
Webcredible has partnered with a number of usability companies across Europe, to be able to offer a truly global usability testing solution. The testing is fully coordinated by Webcredible (you'll only deal with us) and you'll receive one cohesive report covering all the usability testing.
If the usability testing is conducted in a foreign language an interpreter will translate everything that's being said. As such, you're able to watch and listen to the usability testing live, from the viewing room. You'll also receive a DVD showing all the usability testing, with the English translation on top of what the participant is saying.
What next?
Please contact us by phone on 0870 242 6095 or by e-mail at usability at webcredible.co.uk. We'll discuss your usability testing needs and requirements with no pushy sales pitch and no obligation to you.
Specialist usability testing services
Other usability services
Read our article, 8 guidelines for usability testing and learn about usability testing right now!