5 ways to test the Usability of your E-commerce Site
Usability testing is a technique used to evaluate a product, service or website by testing it on users and it’s good practice to perform tests in combination with Split testing. Having an e-commerce site myself, I had to pay special attention to the elements on pages and where my products are positioned in relation to the page. There are so many variables involved in optimizing the usability of page such as dimensions, colors, copy, etc. If users cannot find your product, then they cannot buy it either.
There are many methods for studying usability, but the most basic and useful is done through user testing. Here are some tools to help you in studying if your missing out on sales, and what you can do to improve conversions.
FiveSecondTest.com
Fivesecondtest helps you fine tune your landing pages and calls to action by analyzing the most prominent elements of your design. Here’s how it works:
- Upload a screenshot or mockup, set some questions you want answered and wait for the feedback to roll in!
- Testers have five seconds to view your image and must then answer the questions you have set.
- We collect all of the responses for you, extract the frequent keywords and then present the data with beautiful graphs.
UserTesting.com
UserTesting.com’s discount usability testing helps website owners discover why people leave their website, without the hassle and expense of traditional usability testing. Here’s how it works:
- Sign Up in 3 Minutes.
- We Notify our User Panel.
- Get Results in as Little as an Hour.
Usabilla.com
Whether you’re looking to test out an experimental layout, a full-fledged mock-up or a working website, Usabilla’s usability testing platform combines power with simplicity, offering insight minus manual labor. Here’s how it works:
- Create a test.
- Select your pages.
- Select questions.
- Invite your users.
- Analyze feedback.
Userfly.com
Run instant usability studies for your website using your real users. Watch movies of your users’ browsing sessions to analyze their behavior and optimize your forms, landing pages, and conversion rates. Web usability testing just got cheap, simple, and instantaneous!. Here’s how it works:
- Sign up.
- Install script seconds with one line of code.
- Watch videos of your real users!
FeedbackArmy.com
Feedback Army is a cheap website usability testing service built on Mechanical Turk. Submit your questions and get feedback from 10 people for $15. Here’s how it works:
- Sign up.
- Request Feedback.
- See Results!
I’ve used some of these tools before, but a much better tool for running online user testing is Loop11 (www.Loop11.com). It’s full service user testing tool which captures a whole range of usability metrics. Anyone serious about usability should be using Loop11.
Hey Richard – that’s a really great post!
Have you used any of these sites? Is there one your recommend more than the other?
Hi,
This is really interesting take on the concept. I never thought of it that way. I came across this site recently which I think it will be a great use of new ideas and informations.
Very creative ways of testing out my site’s usability and I do agree that everyone should have theirs tested.
Very innovative methods of examining out my website’s user friendliness and I do acknowledge that everyone should have theirs examined.
Regarding Fivesecondtest i think its lengthy procedure. First to make some snapshots and then answer questions etc. There are so many sites also i check the speed of my site in different test websites each show different results.
Hey Richard,
I was scouring the net for resources on affordable remote user testing and came across this article.
I see there this is no source for a cheap, quick remote user testing tool that provides videos and there’s two links that aren’t working. However, through my scouring, I stumbled across this hidden gem: https://usertest.io and think it would be a great addition to the article.
Either way, thanks for the great resources. Enjoy your week.