Usability testing software, the key to great user experience
If you run a mobile app or a website, it’s crucial that you have a way of finding out how users interact with it, what’s working perfectly, and which areas require improvement. Luckily, there are a whole plethora of usability testing tools that will help you do that.
In the following article, we’re going to discuss the top 9 best usability tools that will support you in enhancing your user experience.
9 Usability Testing Tools Worth Using to Ace Your Product’s UX
In order to optimize user experience, be it for your website or app, you have to use a combination of tools for A/B testing, session recordings, analytics, and reporting. Here are our tool recommendations:
1. Mixpanel
Mixpanel, used by such global giants like Uber, BMW, and Samsung, is a true gold mine if you’re looking to take your usability testing to the next level! It’s safe to say that it has set a new product analytics standard on the market. This usability testing tool will be invaluable if you’d like to gain a deep understanding of how users engage with your product, how and when they convert, and what you can do to retain them for longer.
What makes Mixpanel unique on the market is its so-called ‘innovation loop’. Namely, the tool helps you take a close look at your users by taking four repetitive steps:
- collecting accurate data
- noticing emerging user trends
- understanding the ‘hows’ and ‘whys’ behind actions
- setting goals, measuring metrics, and verifying user hypotheses.
Mixpanel also boasts a messaging and testing solution that lets you conduct A/B tests and send users targeted messages, based on their real-time interaction with your product.
You can start on a free plan to get the sense of how Mixpanel works, and upgrade as you grow.
Source: Mixpanel
2. Google Analytics
Google Analytics is every marketer’s go-to tool for website analytics. It allows you to check your conversion rates, find your best performing and underperforming landing pages, discover traffic sources as well as get insights about your visitors. While it might be slightly complicated at times, it gives you an ocean of possibilities when it comes to web analysis and reporting.
It integrates with all of Google’s tools including Google Ads, Search Console, and Data Studio which makes it a really powerful usability testing software. It provides you with general reports that give you a broad overview of your website performance, as well as very in-depth insights. You decide on the level of data granularity. You can easily share the reports with your teammates by saving them as PDFs and sending them via email directly from GA. It is free to use, unlike many other usability testing tools, which plays in Google’s favor.
Source: Google
3. Adobe Analytics
Adobe Analytics is a cloud-based marketing attribution tool and part of the Adobe Experience Cloud. It helps businesses of all sizes explore user behavior, segment them into groups, and drive detailed insights by observing their interactions with the product. By tracking user behavior and engagement in Adobe Analytics, you’re able to put your customers into context and drive user-focused product decisions.
The tool lets you build customized user analysis dashboards – you can drag and drop any data that matters to you the most, like tables, components, and visualizations. Adobe Analytics also takes away the hassle of manually perusing data in spreadsheets and helps you easily predict and model user behavior.
Another strong advantage is Adobe Analytics’ Contribution Analysis panel, which helps detect any hidden patterns and explain behavioral anomalies.
If this hasn’t convinced you yet, then perhaps the fact that two top research and advisory companies, Gartner and Forrester, use it to create their analyst reports, might do the trick!Adobe Analytics is available in three plans, Select, Prime, and Ultimate, with prices available upon a Product Demo.
Source: Adobe Analytics
4. LiveSession
LiveSession is a session replay software, which allows you to check what visitors do on your website, and in turn, improve the user experience. By watching session replays, you can see how users interact with your website and spot any roadblocks which prevent them from converting.
For example, imagine your email input field didn’t work, and people were unable to register for a demo. Without using session replay software like LiveSession you wouldn’t realize it’s broken, which would further decrease your conversion rate.
Improve usability testing with LiveSession
Test all LiveSession features for 14 days, no credit card required.
Sign up freeLiveSession is a must-have usability test tool for Marketers, UX Designers, Customer Support, and Developers which means your entire team can benefit from it. It integrates with some of the best marketing tools like Google Analytics, Intercom, LiveChat, and Drift.
It’s used and valued by customers worldwide, including kissflow, databox, and RocketLink. RoketLink managed to boost their signups by 110% with LiveSession. There is a free 14-day trial available so you have nothing to lose.
Source: LiveSession
5. Unbounce
Unbounce is used by over 15,000 companies to boost on-site user engagement and conversion rates. The tool offers a simple, drag-and-drop landing page and pop-up builder, which lets you use over 100 proven, high-converting templates without the need to code. What makes the tool unique from a usability testing standpoint, however, is its AI-powered Smart Traffic and Unbounce Conversion Intelligence ™ features. What are they?
Unbounce blends the line between marketing and AI to provide you with the insights you need to comprehend how users engage with your product. As a result, you can shorten your user testing cycles and understand the steps you need to take if you want to further optimize your UX and conversion rates.
Unbounce offers a Free trial, so you can take the tool for a test drive.
Source: Unbounce (G2.com)
6. Optimizely
Another usability testing tool we recommend using is Optimizely . It’s a platform that offers A/B testing and web personalization. It allows you to quickly test different variants of your website without any coding skills to verify which version performs better. You can test both web versions live, prior to your visitors seeing it, which minimizes the error probability.
Optimizely lets you experiment with your content and product features which not only has a positive impact on conversion, but also reduces development costs. How? By ensuring all business decisions are data, and not gut-based. It’s suitable for Marketing, Product, Engineering, and Data Science teams. Optimizely is used by the world’s best tech companies such as Slack, Atlassian, and IBM.
Their rollout plan is free to use and is feature-abundant, which gives you a great opportunity to check if Optimizely is the right tool to meet your needs.
Source: Optimizely
7. Survicate
Survicate is a survey and NPS software that lets you collect customer feedback to boost your users’ satisfaction levels, raise product engagement, and create better experiences. You can collect feedback from users on your website, via communication tools, email, as well as in your mobile app.
Survicate offers hundreds of ready-to-use survey templates and integrates with top marketing, communication, and product software including Intercom, Mixpanel, Google Analytics, and Segment. By running surveys among your audience, you fill any informational gaps left unanswered in other usability test tools and truly understand your users’ motivation, goals, and challenges.
Survicate offers a free plan with up to 100 free responses each month.
Source: Survicate
8. UsabilityHub
UsabilityHub is a user testing and usability research platform which enables you to get feedback from real people to improve the UX of your website and app. If you’re unsure about your design decisions, you can use UsabilityHub to verify them. It offers you a wide range of features like:
- First click tests – to check the effectiveness of links and your content hierarchy
- Design surveys – to validate your assumptions by asking your users questions directly
- Preference test – to check users’ preference for visuals and copy by measuring their sentiment and affinity
- And many others!
It’s used by leading global companies across sectors including Philips, Walmart, and Amazon. Their cheapest plan starts at $50 and is perfect for occasional testing – it doesn’t require long-term commitment.
Source: UsabilityTesting
9. TryMyUI
If you’d like to conduct usability testing on your website or app, but don’t have the means to organize a group or testing session yourself, TryMyUI is perfect for you! TryMyUI will connect you with a group of users who reflect your ideal target audience. Each user testing session will be recorded so that you can analyze how users engage with your website and how they perform the tasks they were assigned to. By using TryMyUI’s Collaborative Analysis Suite, you’ll also be able to easily create and share the list of the most important usability findings with your team.
You can start on a free trial, and upgrade as your usability testing needs grow.
Source: TryMyUI
Combine various usability testing tools for best results
Building a website or an app requires a lot of decision making, which can be overwhelming. It’s practically impossible to create a great user experience without usability testing software. It allows you to base your decisions on hard data instead of guesswork or your gut feeling, which not only enhances your conversion rate but also reduces your development costs.
While you might have different preferences for usability test tools, it’s crucial to select tools that will complement each other, i.e. that cover A/B testing, session recordings, analytics, and reporting. Only then will you be able to get the best results.
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