Usability testing is often viewed as time consuming and expensive.  While this may be true in some instances, it doesn’t have to be.  It’s like any other part of web design, the more time and effort that is spent on it, the better the result should be.

You will never completely eliminate the time consuming aspect of testing.  A tester has to assume the mantle of a user at varying skill levels, performing different activities within the site.  Allowing them time to do this, then provide feedback and results, then analyzing those results does take time, but it should be viewed as an investment, not just a cost.

There is nothing more important that having a new design tested purely from the users perspective.  The site has been designed for them after all.  We have been staring at the site and working our way round it for days, if not weeks so we can’t test it ourselves.

Three useful ways of getting inexpensive, reliable user testing is by using the online tools Userfly, UserTesting.com and ClickTale.  All three use real users to test your site and provide feedback on the experience.

Userfly is only suitable for smaller, simpler sites as it has problems with playing back the review in an iFrame which doesn’t match the element of the site they are using.  If the design is simple and it’s pretty obvious what action was taken and when, this isn’t a problem.

UserTesting.com is a much more thorough and reliable testing system, albeit more expensive.  The site allows you to specify the demographic of the testers, how many you need and what you want them to do on your site.  They arrange for the testing and provide a video so you can see exactly what the users did, and listen to an audio commentary the user made while doing it.  They then provide a written summary of the testing including what elements the testers did or didn’t like.

ClickTale is similar to UserTesting.com but slightly cheaper for some of the options.  It also records user behavior and provides a video and written summary of feedback for you to use as you see fit.  The testing also includes a heat map generated during testing for you to analyze hot spots on each page.  This is great for refining navigation or page content.

These aren’t the only three user testing tools out there.  We have found them to be the most reliable and who provide the best kind of data and feedback.  Detailed information on how end users utilize the new site is essential in making the most of the design and ensuring its success.  Using impartial, user oriented testers is by far the best way of achieving this, which is why we suggest using this method of user testing.