Best Practices for Optimizing Your User Tests

It's important to understand how visitors interact with your website in order to make it more user-friendly, efficient, and ready to convert. This is called user testing. It involves observing how visitors interact with certain parts of your website.

You can test your website by inviting a group of people to visit it, then observing how they interact with it. This data can be used to identify problems, improve your website, and determine how it affects conversions. Although user testing might seem easy, there are important things to remember before you get started.

1. Employ a task-oriented approach

Do not expect users to click around your site and then tell you what they think. Instead, give them specific tasks to gauge how easy it is for them to navigate your site, such as "Find this specific product" or "Tell us how many products are available under this category/subcategory." This will provide more insight into how customers move through specific areas of your site, which will give you insight into new actions and improvements that should be made.

2. Correctly frame the tasks

After you have created your task list, choose a wording that isn't too obvious. If you say, "Find our About Us Page", users will only need to look for the link "About Us" at your homepage and click it. It's possible to make it more complicated by saying, "Tell me where you expect to find general information about this business and the steps you took to get there." This will give you two things: a) whether users were able find it, and b), how easy it was for them to find it. You might consider linking the page elsewhere if many people took multiple steps to locate it.

3. Choose the right audience for testing

It is important to test people who fit the target audience of your product. If your target audience is primarily seniors, then you won't want to hire teenagers to test your site. Although you might still be able to get useful information, it will not be relevant to the people who will be using your site. You can ensure that your target audience is being served by testers who fit their needs.

4. Recognize the importance of a sufficient sample size

It would not make sense to get feedback from two people, then make major changes based on that feedback. To identify common themes, you will need to gather enough users to test your site. This will allow you to narrow down the issues that most affect your test participants so that your efforts are focused on the first and not on one viewpoint that might not be shared by everyone.

5. First, do a dry run

Although it is a good idea to include more people in your final test, it is best to start with a smaller test so you can ensure you get the best results. Ask five to six people to complete a user test following your instructions. This will allow you to identify any problems with your test and determine if your questions are being asked correctly. It will also let you know if you have any urgent issues that can be resolved quickly so you don't distract your sample group.

6. Take action on the changes that you have identified

It's simple to collect this information and then nod your head. But, unless you actually make changes based on the new information, you won't get any useful results. Once you find strong patterns in your responses, you should have a plan for making changes to your website. These are the issues most web visitors will have problems with.

Conclusion

It's easy to design your website according to what the business owner thinks looks good. Your customers are your priority. You must make your website easy to navigate and provide the information they require quickly. Your conversions could suffer if customers abandon your site and go to a competitor.