Usability Resources: User Testing Tools

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User Testing Tools

I’m always updating this list; to suggest a product please contact me.

(Click on a product name to visit the company’s website)

User testing software and hosted solutions

Products in this category are designed to facilitate user testing sessions and in some cases post-test data analysis. Some products are designed for in-person sessions while others are meant for remote user testing.

ClickTale – A hosted service that records and plays back user visits to your website. You can view individual sessions and usage statistics such as conversion and forms completion rates.

Ethnio – A remote user recruitment tool that adds a recruitment survey to your website. Ethnio can be used as a means to gather respondents for remote usability testing, in-person user testing, focus groups or other forms of user research.

Knoa – A user monitoring tool that’s designed to serve multiple purposes such as remote tech support and remote usability testing.

Loop11 – A hosted unmoderated user testing service. Loop11 is entirely web-based and requires no special code or downloads. Test respondents can use the web as they would normally while the Loop11 website gathers data about their usage in the background. Loop11 then compiles summary data such as task completion, paths, and failure points and makes them available in real time.

Morae – A usability testing and analysis suite. Morae facilitates capturing and reporting on user testing sessions. While expensive, Morae probably has more features than any other analysis tool. Whether or not you need those features depends on what kind of testing and reporting you wish to do.

Silverback – A simple and inexpensive Mac OS application that captures recordings of in-person user testing sessions (including webcam images if you choose) and exports to Quicktime format.

Userfly – A hosted service that records data from user test sessions and creates recordings you can then view at the company’s website.

UserTesting.com – An interesting and unique take on low-cost remote user testing. UserTesting.com recruits respondents and facilitates testing them at their own computers, on their own time. Each respondent conducts one or more tasks you’ve defined, and provides spoken commentary as they use your website. Sessions are recorded and made accessible to you online.

Uservue – A hosted service/software combination for facilitating remote unmoderated usability testing. Can be combined with Techsmith’s Morae for analytics of recorded sessions.

UserZoom – A hosted service for remote unmoderated user testing.

Remote desktop products

Products in this category aren’t necessarily designed to be user testing solutions but can be used as such. The products listed below generally can’t record sessions and they’re not designed to facilitate data analysis. If you don’t need recording and data analysis capabilities these products may be useful alternatives to the ones listed above.

Co-Pilot – A remote desktop sharing solution. It’s designed more for remote troubleshooting than remote user testing, but as with other products in this category it can be used as a remote user testing tool.

GoToMeeting – Designed as a remote presentation tool, GoToMeeting is another in the field of products that – while not specifically designed for remote user testing – can potentially be used for that purpose.

GoToMyPC – Similar in concept to Co-Pilot and other remote desktop-sharing tools, GoToMyPC is another remote desktop solution that has additional uses.

WebEx – Cisco’s Webex is designed as a desktop conferencing tool, but can used as a way to observe the desktop of a remote user testing respondent.

Do you know of a product that belongs on this list? Please contact me and tell me about it.