UserTesting is empowering our organization to give users a voice. We are integrating their voice into our strategic priorities and it's helping us shape decisions that affect them. I conduct a variety of tests including persona development interviews, prototyping tests, IA (information architecture) tests like card sorting, or generative research where we just want to talk to users and understand their world.
Pros
Panelist recruitment and diversity of panelists.
Flexible incentive structure.
Breadth of testing modes from simple to complex.
Cons
Navigation and site structure is confusing.
Managing test folders is cumbersome.
Questionable user consent and privacy policies.
Likelihood to Recommend
UserTesting's strengths are its panelists, flexible incentive structure, and breadth of testing modes. I like that they push for the latest and greatest features that users are asking for. As the platform has changed to adopt user preferences, the navigation and site structure has diminished. It can be difficult to know where to find tools, there are inconsistencies in test organization/folder structure, and some features are just buried behind a "clean" UI. The tool suits power users well and I'd like to have easier access to powerful features.
Our organization uses UserTesting to find and test people remotely and capture their interactions with our app and website. UserTesting allows us to find and reach audiences that would be difficult to find on our own. Our product is a family history / genealogical product that needs to reach an international audience so testing people from all over the world is necessary. We use UserTesting to understand friction and pain points in our experiences by creating prototypes, using UserTesting to target our audience and capture video of their use of the prototype and audio of them talking through the test.
Pros
Audience targeting
Video transcription and tagging
AI insights and metrics
Sharing clips with others
Cons
AI insights can be partial and not tell give full insights.
Some testers are trying to make a quick buck and rush the tests.
It can take time to find testers matching the criteria I define. Sometimes hours.
Likelihood to Recommend
Testing Figma prototypes, websites, mobile apps works well. Testing remotely or in person works well. If the product is not completely prototyped or give extensive instruction, then the user can get stuck and abandon the test. When in person, it is easy to fix the problem, however if a test is remotely conducted, then when something goes wrong it might crash the entire test and a new test is then needed.
VU
Verified User
Contributor in Engineering (Consumer Services company, 501-1000 employees)
We use it to validate our result when we survey our staff members for any events we have. And that helps us make a decision if to continue with events or cut down on events that are low. We usually see what kits are working for them and which don't. It helps me assure myself that my work is being done correctly.
Pros
It tells me where our community gets frustrated.
It allows me to inform me how we are doing with our charities
It helps me create senarios and put them afloat
Cons
The dashboard can be something that can be done more personalized
Likelihood to Recommend
We used it with in our company and send out a test to see how we could improve our annual event. It was so fast, and we got the responses quickly to be able to adapt what we needed to this year's annual, and it was a total success our percentage of happy staff went up by almost 75 percent which was a win for us. It was amazing
We utilize UserTesting.com to run qualitative tests on our workflows to ensure that users can complete a task successfully. We have been using UserTesting.com for about 3 years as a OneWorld recipient. It has helped us immensely in testing our mobile app builds, InVision prototypes, and live code on our website.
Pros
Selecting users to take our tests that fit our demographics
Offer templates and questions that relate to the data we want to collect
Parse out transcripts of users feedback
Cons
Provide resources for small teams vs. large corporations that have many user research members
Transcript parsing can use some improvements in words
PowerPoint templates could be provided for read-outs of data to other stakeholders
Likelihood to Recommend
UserTesting is a great resource for collecting user data on a variety of different mediums. We love how quickly we can run tests and get feedback from users that fit our demographics. We are very fortunate to use it as a OneWorld recipient, but I have heard from others that it can get pricey for companies that are not nonprofits.
We use UserTesting to test out prototypes for our app and website, and to get feedback on our products. It's being used across our design team of 4. It helps us test concepts and user flows before releasing so we can iterate and release an improved version and not waste time with concepts and flows that users won't like or understand.
Pros
Robust interface
Sourcing testers
Ability to clip videos
Cons
Improved speech to text
More testing options
Likelihood to Recommend
Testing UX flows and prototypes, apps and websites. We haven't tried the moderating testing feature because the plan is a bit cost-prohibative.
VU
Verified User
Professional (Consumer Services company, 11-50 employees)
UserTesting is used primarily within the marketing and technology groups. It helps us to address user pain points and gain insights into how our target customers think and behave.
Pros
Participant pool: there is almost no limit to finding our audience.
Platform ease of use: the platform is extremely easy to use and we are able to get our tests up and running quickly.
Testing turnaround: most of our tests are able to be completed in a number of hours instead of scheduling interviews and waiting days. This allows us to pivot quickly.
Cons
If you're not experienced in asking the right questions you won't get what you need unless you bring in expert resources.
The testing pool in certain geographic areas like China are difficult if not impossible to source.
Most of the testers are great but you'll likely need to do a few retests because of poor quality.
Likelihood to Recommend
UserTesting is great if you're looking to test a concept, idea, or prototype. You can get quick and valuable feedback. It is not well suited when you're looking for quick feedback without watching all of the videos, which takes some time.
VU
Verified User
Director in Marketing (Non-profit Organization Management company, 201-500 employees)
UserTesting.com is one of our two main testing platforms (the other being A/B testing). It is the only tool we have that allows us to get specific supporter insights and measure task difficulty, etc. We use it often to ensure that our user experience design is working as intended and that users can complete necessary tasks. We also use to baseline an existing website or product prior to developing enhancements or future products to generate ideas for improvements.
Pros
Easy to set up tests; tasks are suggested, or you can create your own.
Recruitment is very fast; you will typically see results within minutes or hours.
The web interface makes it easy to watch videos, and there's a lot of additional functionality in the premium tier (which we haven't used).
Cons
A lot of "quality of life" enhancements are locked in the premium tier.
Limited ability to recruit based on demographics (i.e, no ability to recruit people of color specifically).
Watching the videos quickly becomes quite a bit of work.
Likelihood to Recommend
Be sure you have the resources to use the platform. For our organization, it would be ideal if we had a PT or FT position dedicated to setting up tests, recruiting from our own list, watching videos, etc. There is a bit of a learning curve, and it is worthwhile to purchase some time with one of their consultants in your first year to get tips on successful tests.
VU
Verified User
Director (Non-profit Organization Management company, 501-1000 employees)
We use User Testing to help us understand a variety of things -- workflows/usability, perception of new ideas, and goals or motivations. It's most used on the product side by researchers, but design and PMM also use it occasionally.
Pros
Very fast turnaround; great when I'm on a quick timeline.
General population; participants are less likely to be a superfan of our product and more likely to be very honest.
Ability to show webpages (including google slides, which has been very helpful for us), apps, or simply ask people to talk; very versatile.
Cons
Easier to test beta builds.
Likelihood to Recommend
It depends on how specific their participants need to be. If not too niche, then I'd definitely recommend usertesting.com.
VU
Verified User
Contributor in Research & Development (Consumer Services company, 51-200 employees)
It is being used for user research and usability testing. Solves the problem of screening people to talking to and reaching out to participants from all across the country. The XD team are the ones primarily using UserTesting for the design and research work around user experience design.
Pros
Screening criteria.
Test writing format is very easy.
Analysis is super easy.
Cons
Can be slightly more affordable for smaller companies to afford it.
Should have budget friendly options for smaller teams who don’t have funding.
More logins for larger teams for more people to run tests even though testing volume could potentially be low.
Likelihood to Recommend
Best suited to get quick results where protons are up and ready to go for testing. Not that great for native mobile app test prototypes to emulate the swipe and side scroll action. Dev teams and security teams are apprehensive of using the SDK, so a workaround for that would be appreciated.
VU
Verified User
Paraprofessional in Corporate (Consumer Services company, 1001-5000 employees)
We have used UserTesting on the Marketing Team to test what we are putting out to our users, from websites to apps. We have gotten valuable insight, especially as you're able to hear the user struggle with tasks and watch as they complete tasks more easily than we thought. It's great to see their screen and hear their voice. It gives insight into problem areas.
Pros
User Insight
Usability Testing
Content Testing
Cons
Currently, you can't edit the screener questions after you have run the test.
Likelihood to Recommend
If you would like to see how the real-life audience of your sites interact with what you offer, then I would highly recommend UserTesting.
