7 steps of comprehensive user testing according to ShopBack

While tirelessly toiling on perfecting your product, have you ever wondered, “Is my product really delivering the value that my customers seek?”

There’s no better way to find out than communicating with your users and watching them interact with your product.

Here’s a guide on how you can conduct comprehensive user testing.

Before the session

1. Set your objectives 

The first step is to have clear and focused objectives. Knowing the desired outcome of each user testing ensures that your efforts are focused on obtaining valuable feedback.

For example, one of the objectives could be getting feedback on whether this UI makes it easier for users to navigate from A to B.

The objectives that you set will determine:

• The user group
• The type of questions to ask
• Your prototype’s design

Then, consider the two research methodologies: quantitative and qualitative.

Quantitative data: Quantitative data helps to obtain representative insight on what users feel about a product and what should be improved. Have a large sample size (ideally, 80 percent of your customer base) to have a good representation. The purpose of a large sample size is to prioritize resources and focus on issues with the biggest impact.

Common UX research tools that can provide quantitative data are survey platforms such as Wufoo, SurveyMonkey, or Google Forms.

Qualitative data: The aim of qualitative research is to find out why users feel the way they feel when using a product. This involves meeting with users physically and asking them questions about the product. This gets you more in-depth, feature-specific insight than quantitative research would allow.

There’s a misconception that more feedback brings better results. But the fact is that it only takes three to five user tests to quickly distill the most important insights about your product.

The common UX research methods that can provide qualitative data are usability tests, interviews, and focus groups.

2. Find your target audience

During the session

After the session