Have you noticed that the number of usability testing tools is constantly growing? Not surprisingly, because users will choose from two websites, apps or products the one that is more intuitive, more comfortable to use and more convenient.

In fact, a negative user experience can easily “kill” the customer base and significantly shorten the life cycle of a product. And to prevent this from happening, you need usability testing tools. Each of them has its own advantages and peculiarities, so it is difficult to stop at any one of them. I most often use 6 tools for different projects, which I decided to tell you about.

UserTesting

UserTesting is one of the most popular platforms among usability testing tools.

Using it, you can quickly get feedback from real users in video or note format. I prefer to work with videos or participate in live conversations, as it allows me to observe users’ facial expressions, analyse intonation and see their live reactions.

One useful feature is Highlight Reel. It allows you to highlight key points that are important to bring to the team’s or client’s attention.

By the way, if you use Justinmind for prototyping, you’ll be interested to know that UserTesting is integrated with it.

HotJar

HotJar is one of the key usability testing tools. Over 900,000 organisations currently use Hotjar for usability analysis and in 2021 the tool was recognised as one of the leading services in EMEA.

I would highlight the key features you get when using the tool:

• Heatmaps: maps clicks, scrolling, mouse movement
• Feedback collection
• View records during A/B testing
• Tracking and recording of user behaviour
• Analysis of conversion funnel
• Form analytics
• Create various questionnaires and surveys
• Click comparison

The pluses for me personally are the ease of setup, which takes only a few minutes, and the visualisation of the data, which makes it easier to analyse user behaviour.

UserZoom

UserZoom — perhaps requires no introduction. But I thought I’d add it to complete the picture. It’s a huge platform, suitable for large companies, as it has around 120 million potential test participants.

Once you sign up and pay for the service, you get access to the complete package for online user research — from recording sessions on multiple devices to saving your driving route through the site/app, not to mention heatmaps. Plus in UserZoom you can run multiple studies at the same time.

I usually set up the study package so that only the add-ons I need for the project are there. This allows me to be more productive and not be distracted by redundant data.

Lookback

Lookback — this tool, perhaps, loses in popularity to those named above. But its functionality and flexibility are worthy of taking a place in my TOP.
I like Lookback because it allows you to access the screen of tested users and take notes while recording. Whenever necessary, I use the screen sharing feature. So I can ask people what they think when they complete a task or interact with a product (website, application, etc.) in general. Very often this leads to interesting ideas or leads to non-obvious conclusions. Another advantage of the tool is that the recordings are automatically saved to the cloud service.

Dovetail

Dovetail is a tool that greatly simplifies the usability testing process. It allows you to quickly import videos, conduct moderated and unmoderated studies, observe user behaviour and note their reactions. I also like the fact that it is possible to standardize the process of usability testing, i.e. to create your own template once and not spend more time organizing the process.

A huge plus is that Dovetail indexes project information and lets me see how often certain topics come up in my notes. This makes it much easier to make informed decisions.

Contentsquare

Contentsquare is not really a testing tool, but it helps me structure my research data efficiently. It can be used to upload videos, highlight important moments in interviews and then share them with the team.

The developers promise that in the future AI will analyse the user’s face, facial expressions and identify moods and emotions. I’m looking forward to it because it’s not just what the user says and how he thinks, but also what he feels and experiences using the product that matters for the full picture.

Of course, every project is different and you have to look at the key features of each tool to choose the one that’s most effective. I hope there is one on my list that will be of use to you.

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