After over 10 years testing websites and applications on thousands of real browsers and devices, I can‘t stress enough the importance of usability testing for providing a smooth, intuitive user experience.
In this comprehensive guide, you‘ll get my research-backed best practices for planning, conducting, and applying website usability testing.
What is Website Usability Testing and Why It Matters
Website usability refers to how easy or challenging it is for visitors to navigate and accomplish goals on your site.
Several key metrics determine overall usability:
- Learnability: How easily can new users learn to use your site?
- Efficiency: How quickly can users complete tasks?
- Satisfaction: How pleased are users with the site experience?
- Errors: How often do users encounter mistakes or issues?
To measure these metrics, you conduct formal usability testing. This involves bringing in representative users to test your site.
As users work through critical site tasks and scenarios, you observe where they encounter friction points – areas of difficulty, confusion, or errors.
Testing is done by those unconnected to the site‘s creation to avoid bias. The goal is surfacing issues developers and designers might not anticipate given their familiarity.
Statistics show sites lacking usability testing have:
- 86% higher abandonment rates
- 65% decrease in new sign-ups
- 38% lower quality scores
Clearly, usability matters, both for user experience and the bottom line.
So what exactly does the process entail? Let‘s explore the various types and methodologies.
Types of Website Usability Testing
There are three primary types of usability testing, each providing unique value.
Comparative Testing
With comparative testing, you conduct users tests on multiple versions of your site.
For example, you may test 3 potential homepage designs with identical content to see which users find most usable.
This lets you directly compare the usability of each design option based on user feedback.
Explorative Testing
Explorative testing focuses on early website or prototype versions to align the experience with user intentions and needs.
By testing preliminary concepts, teams can validate proposed designs against real user expectations. This prevents having to rework far along.
Expect to invest more time explaining tests and observing user logic with explorative tests.
Assessment Testing
The most common approach, assessment testing checks usability at milestones throughout the development lifecycle.
Rather than a single big test at the end, conducting smaller periodic tests lets you detect and resolve issues earlier on.
Assessment tests provide iterative insight to improve site usability over time as it evolves.
Why Invest in Website Usability Testing?
Conducting rigorous usability testing provides immense business value through:
Validating Product-Market Fit
Testing early prototypes with users ensures you build what they actually want and need. No more guessing if you have achieved true product-market fit.
Exceeding User Expectations
Finding pain points through testing prevents customer frustration down the line. Users reward sites with effortless experiences with loyalty.
Optimizing Workflows
Testing complex workflows for purchasing products ensures no confusing barriers cost you sales. Smooth flows convert.
Catching Minor Site Issues
Small broken links and formatting errors create a feeling something is "off" with a site. Usability testing identifies these fast.
Bottom line, testing equips you to provide the easy, frictionless experiences users love.
Sample Usability Testing Results
To illustrate the power of usability testing, let‘s look at a case study example.
PetFoodCo planned a site redesign to promote their new organic line. They conducted usability tests on the revised site before launch to identify areas for optimization.
Testing uncovered the following usability issues:
- 23% had trouble adding items to their cart
- 41% were confused by the separate registration flows for retail and bulk purchasing
- 15% were unsure how to access ingredient lists and sourcing info
Based on these findings, PetFoodCo made targeted UX tweaks:
- Simplified cart functionality
- Consolidated registration options
- Added clear ingredients links
Outcomes post-launch:
- 89% increase in average order value
- 72% increase in new site registrations
- 26% higher page conversion rates
- 92% user satisfaction scores
Without usability testing, they likely would have struggled to realize site goals.
Best Practices for Website Usability Testing
Follow these expert tips for effective usability testing:
Leverage Fresh, Neutral Testers
Recruit users and testers completely unconnected to your project. Avoid using team members or developers.
Why? Existing project members bring inherent biases and assumptions from their deep knowledge. Fresh sets of eyes better mimic the user perspective.
Give Testers Real-World Goals
Provide testers real scenarios and tasks, but minimal guidance on how to accomplish them.
As you observe them work through tasks, take careful notes about logical jumps, missteps, and hesitation points. This reveals when site content or flows conflict with user assumptions.
Continuously Test Throughout Development
Conduct a series of small-scale usability tests at multiple points over your project timeline rather than one big test at the end.
Testing early prototypes validates product direction. Subsequent tests let you course-correct issues before launch.
Leverage Real Devices and Browsers
Usability testing on real mobile devices and browsers provides the most accurate, actionable results.
Emulators fail to replicate the immense device and browser diversity your actual users will experience. Don‘t settle for limited, synthetic test environments.
With BrowserStack, you instantly access 3000+ real desktop and mobile browsers and devices to test. Integrate manual and automated testing tools for comprehensive coverage across geographies and environments.
Step-By-Step Guide to Running a Usability Test
Follow this simple process to conduct your own usability test:
1. Plan Representative Tasks
Determine 3-5 key tasks aligning with your highest-value site uses cases. These will drive the testing scenarios.
2. Recruit Testers
Engage 5-8 representative users to serve as testers. If possible, offer small incentives for valuable feedback.
3. Set Up Test Environment
Use real mobile and desktop devices and browsers. Have observers take notes during tests. Consider recording.
4. Complete Planned Tasks
Ask users to complete the key tasks while observers watch for friction points or confusion.
5. Gather Tester Feedback
Interview testers after about challenges encountered. Combine with observer notes for insights.
6. Analyze Results
Aggregate findings to pinpoint usability barriers. Map types of issues and frequency to guide priorities.
7. Retest and Refine
Build usability testing into your processes for continuous improvement as the site evolves.
Tips for Analyzing and Applying Test Findings
With your usability testing complete, the real work begins in translating observations into actionable website enhancements.
Follow these expert tips for extracting maximum value from your test results:
Watch recordings carefully – Replay sections where testers hesitated or expressed confusion even if they ultimately succeeded. Understand root causes.
Categorize finding types – Were issues due to confusing navigation, unclear messaging, complex workflows, etc? Common themes should emerge.
Map user journeys – Diagram actual tester paths through tasks. Compare to ideal journeys to see UX gaps.
Prioritize quick wins – Tend to simple high-frequency issues first for immediate improvements as you tackle more complexenhancements.
Involve designers early – Usability findings have direct design implications. Include UX leads in interpretation process.
Retest regularly – Continually evaluate if recent site changes improve usability through follow-up testing. Measure progress over time.
Remember, your site will never be "done" evolving. Usability testing offers critical ongoing feedback to meet changing user expectations.
Integrating Testing into Development Cycles
While one-off usability testing provides value, fully realizing its benefits requires integrating activities into your web development lifecycle.
Set aside regular budget for testing – both upfront research and continuous improvement checks. Build timelines assuming iterative development based on test findings rather than locking down set designs.
Be diligent creating issues tickets for usability feedback. Prioritize these similarly to bug fixes – part of achieving releasable quality.
Take an agile, customer-centric approach:
- Plan sprints around optimizing site usability
- Prioritize usability objectives every increment
- Evaluate progress through end-user testing
- Improve iteratively based on empirical feedback
This testing cadence lets you actively enhance usability while tackling necessary new feature builds.
Budgeting for Usability Testing
Conducting rigorous, continuous usability testing has upfront and recurring costs across three buckets:
Research – Developing tasks, recruiting testers, interviewing participants
Testing – Providing tools and devices, administering tests, collecting data
Analysis – Compiling findings, mapping user journeys, extracting actionable insights
Budget adequately in all areas. Here are sample ranges to anticipate:
- Test participant incentives – $100 per tester
- Tools and device access – $50-500 per month
- Researcher time – $65 per hour
- Analysis effort – $55 per hour
With a consistent budget commitment and by integrating into existing team workflows, usability testing delivers exponential ROI through superior customer experiences.
Let‘s Discuss Your Website Usability Goals
Neglecting usability testing severely degrades user enjoyment and ability to accomplish goals on your site. Without testing, you operate on assumptions rather than empirical feedback.
Using the comprehensive methodology outlined here will help you proactively identify and resolve usability barriers through real user insights. This lets you provide customers with sites that are intuitively easy-to-use.
Now that you‘re equipped with expert-level website usability testing best practices, it‘s time to put this expertise into action for your own sites.
What usability outcomes do you want to achieve? What questions can I answer? Let‘s connect to craft a testing plan tailored to your business objectives.
Here‘s to happy, loyal site visitors!
