We use UserTesting for conducting qualitative research with both our customers and non-customers. We run moderated and unmoderated interviews, usability tests and surveys to test prototype designs, get user feedback on their experiences with our products, and understand our customer pain points in order to improve our product offerings and services. By using this tool, we are able to quickly create the test or surveys and gather insights almost instantly once we get feedback which helps with our turnaround time for our projects.
Pros
Scheduling automation
AI insights
Session metrics and breakdown
Cons
Including the option to add and manage multiple calendar syncs for scheduling
Likelihood to Recommend
If you are looking to run moderated interviews, usability testing or just gathering quick survey results, UserTesting would be a good fit whether you are a beginner company or a well established one. I think all companies should conduct research to better their products and services and to understand their consumers and UserTesting makes it very easy to do so. They also provide lots of resources to learn and personal help if needed.
VU
Verified User
Employee in Research & Development (Education Management company, 501-1000 employees)
User Testing is a tool used for conducting user research, used primarily within the Customer Experience team, where we identify usability issues and potential improvements for a website or app during different phases of the website development. Business problem: conduct tests, recruit participants for testing, research management, etc. Scope: unmoderated usability testing, moderated testing (interview), survey, participant recruitment.
Pros
Unmoderated usability testing.
Interview
Survey
Cons
The video snippet feature is not as user friendly.
Need to improve the way of saving participants in the a saved network.
Allow editing/removing screener filter after launching a test.
Likelihood to Recommend
UserTesting saves us lots of time recruiting participants from the User Testing panel; it has a large number of participants you could recruit from and usually gets filled very quickly. Sometimes, for some, short tests took less than half a day to fill, which we highly appreciated. Hopefully, in the future, the video snippets and analysis feature will be easier to use.
VU
Verified User
Employee in Marketing (Education Management company, 5001-10,000 employees)
We use UserTesting as users and product marketers to AB and beta test our products. This helps us understand how users perceive our product, allowing us to go beyond the basic requirements and create a good UX. Our suite of over 400 products undergoes rigorous testing before being made live, and UT has a critical impact on ensuring delivery quality.
Pros
Great platform to find verifiable users who'd actually provide actionable feedback.
Great place to earn a side buck for curious souls.
The matching algorithm works well, and one can usually accurately align the product sellers and testers.
Cons
A centralized platform to recommend products and use cases would be handy so that users can suggest what they could use more of.
Integration with newer payment methods and gift card services could expand the user base.
Some products are business-critical and thus require sophisticated testing. This service could be added.
Likelihood to Recommend
UT is best suited for launching new apps in the marketplace, where users can test it end to end to check features. It's not suited for minor releases since we need not get the same users with the same context to retest the changes.
We mainly use UserTesting for two things: 1. Product discovery (generative research) on customer insights to find pain points and evaluate high-level product/feature ideas or terminology feedback, and 2. Evaluative research, such as doing usability evaluations of clickable prototypes to test for intuitiveness or to get feedback on feature ideas shown through text descriptions and/or mocked-up screenshots.
Pros
Has a large bank of survey respondents.
Has many different test methodology options.
Summarizes results automatically.
Cons
The seat license cost is very high.
The in-test UI for testers could be improved.
Likelihood to Recommend
It's the grand-daddy of user testing tools, especially since it acquired some competitors, so it has lots of functionality and is pretty easy to use. It has a massive bank of test subjects that you can use (at a cost), which means even if you need to screen for specific attributes, you can still find testers and get results very fast (usually a few hours). The main downside to the product is the per-seat license cost, which is the only reason I don't recommend it higher.
VU
Verified User
Contributor in Product Management (E-Learning company, 1001-5000 employees)
We conducted over 800 usability tests on the platform to make crucial decisions on design implementations. This really helped us in achieving good results with our design changes. What I liked about it, was that the results came in so quickly and within an hour you had already a lot of responses. It made things much easier to understand where pain points were and how to make better choices.
Pros
Quick Results
Intuitive Platform
Large pool of users
Cons
Sales Team
Cost
Analysis features
Likelihood to Recommend
For usability testing, it's perfect. It allows a variety of type of questions and the unlimited plan allows you to test everything, which is nice because you don't have to choose what to test. It was promoted as a "test everything" tool, but once we wanted to renew, the sales team did not like our power usage and was very unfriendly in making offers.
I use UserTesting multiple times per week. I am Director of User Research at my company, and conduct multiple kinds of research using UT. I use it for unmoderated usability testing (click through prototypes, etc), moderated in-depth interviews, to test surveys, and get feedback on new product concepts.
Pros
Unmoderated usability testing
Recruiting
Moderated user interviews
Cons
Quotas for different test types would be extremely helpful
Ability to search across workspaces, and improved search in general
A more consistent user interface across the platform (functions behave differently in certain places, for instance)
Improved ability to manage contact lists
Improved scheduling features
Likelihood to Recommend
I love UT for quick usability testing, or to test a survey, for instance. Recruiting is fast and easy as long as your audience is well-represented. It is less useful for niche audiences like some of the ones we recruit for.
VU
Verified User
Director in Research & Development (E-Learning company, 201-500 employees)
UserTesting allows me to create moderated and non-moderated usability tests quickly and easily. I don't need to worry about recruiting participants as they have a very wide range of participants available.
Pros
Recruitment
Setting up usability tests
Transcritpion
Cons
Using better AI for transcription
Sometimes it's buggy when setting up a test
It doesn't really work as a repository
Likelihood to Recommend
UserTesting solves the problem of recruitment. Thanks to UserTesting I can recruit participants from different countries around the world with the characteristics I need. Recruitment is a very difficult process for a small research team and I sometimes still struggle with that; for example, when recruiting minors for research. But not having to do the whole recruitment and reward process is a huge benefit.
Evaluating new product features with real users: UserTesting helps us gather feedback on new product features before they are released to the general public. We create tests for specific user flows and invite participants to provide feedback on their experience using the feature. This allows us to identify any issues or pain points early on and make necessary adjustments before releasing the feature.
Pros
easy setup of ux testing
recording of videos
Cons
Testers quality has degraded over time and they could benefit from acquiring more motivated testers
Make it easier to distribute mobile app builds
Tester sometimes don't answer screener questions truthfully creating unnecessary work for our team
Likelihood to Recommend
Well-suited scenarios
Basic and quick user testing for general user segments: UserTesting is great for getting quick and basic feedback on general user segments. It is easy to set up and can provide valuable insights into the user experience of a product.Testing specific features or user flows: UserTesting can be effective in evaluating the usability of specific features or user flows. This can help identify any issues or pain points that need to be addressed.
Less appropriate scenarios
Requiring specific user segments: If you require testers from a specific demographic or with certain qualifications, UserTesting may not be the best option. In my experience, relying on UserTesting to recruit specific user segments often resulted in low quality testers and unreliable feedback.In-depth research: UserTesting may not be suitable for conducting in-depth research. If you need more detailed feedback or want to conduct more complex studies, it may be better to use other research methods or tools.
VU
Verified User
C-Level Executive in Engineering (E-Learning company, 11-50 employees)
I have used UserTesting as both a user and a company working with users. From the user side, it is an easy process to find relevant tests to take that match my skill set. As a company I have used UserTesting to review landing pages on my website to get feedback from potential customers on design, readability, and easy of use. The problem I wanted to fix was on page time for users and clicked through to sign up for a demo upon getting the feedback I discovered that I needed to change my header section to be more clear and more concise.
Pros
Matches you with potential users that are relevant to your customer base
Allows you set up a very detailed process to get amazing feedback on your site
Provides video reviews from users so you can easily walk through their process
Cons
Improving the live walkthrough feature if users can review in real-time via live streaming
Likelihood to Recommend
UserTesting is perfect for landing page reviews, product comparisons, copy editing and focus group work. I set up a multi-varied landing page sequence and had users walk through the different versions of the pages to see which one was the easiest to understand. Hearing feedback on the title copy which was clear to me but not clear to the user helped me realize how I could clarify and simplify my page copy to make sure users can navigate the site knowing what to expect upon signing up.
In marketing, we utilize UserTesting to better understand our prospective students and their needs, as well as understand how different concepts, designs and messages might appeal to them.
Pros
Qualitative data from our target audience
The "why" behind users' actions
Deep insights into our customers' mindset
Exploration - finding new points of view, bringing in VOC
Cons
Onboarding is hard without a qualitative background
Likelihood to Recommend
UserTesting is qualitative. So, if you are looking for qualitative (the "why") insights, UserTesting is amazing. If you want quantitative data, UserTesting will not be the best resource.
Some examples: Use UserTesting for: concept tests to understand how users react to concepts. Gain feedback from target audience similar to a focus group. Ask participants questions and even have conversations with them about your idea or product.
UserTesting would not be as helpful for: AB testing, or gaining a statistically significant winning option. Gaining quantitative data. For this, an AB testing platform or survey tool would be better.
VU
Verified User
Manager in Marketing (E-Learning company, 5001-10,000 employees)
