The online arena has significantly evolved in the previous decade. From focusing on driving traffic through SEO to converting traffic using CRO best practices. Now the point has arrived where the lines between user experience, also known as UX, and Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO) have started to blur to the point that proper UX has been integrated into optimum CRO practices. The authenticity of the statement is facilitated by the fact that top CRO service providers have incorporated UX services along with their existing CRO practices.
User Testing
User testing has proven to be an extremely potent tool in determining the quality user experience. The concept is quite similar to when video game developers offer a limited release called beta testing, allowing a few users to test out the platform and provide feedback. That feedback straight from the future users of the product is detrimental to the success of the product, or in this case, the website.
Allowing the audience to assess the user experience of the website and provide their personal experience or consumer insight significantly helps companies understand the opinion of their own users or consumers. In most cases, website owners or companies recruit individuals and pay them to assess the user experience, and along with the paid users, they also let volunteers to help in assessing the user experience.
User testing can be extremely insightful and can also be the determining factor in the success of the product or good. But to ensure that the objectivity is not compromised, the company has to research the target audience and the major demography, which constitute the majority of the website’s traffic.
Advantages of User Testing
As the owner or administrator of a website your perspective of your website or digital content will always lack objectivity. This could be due to conflict of interest, personal biases, or other various hosts of reasons. Hence, the perspective of the consumer or the user will prove to be invaluable. This is how large technology giants like Google, Amazon, and Ebay have attained their respective successes, which was by no means left to change. User testing is about determining what the user sees, how they interact and what their experience is like. Since, success directly related to the contentment of the users, it’s important to take their perspective when strategizing and planning for future developments. Using analytical software such as Omniture and Google Analytics will help you understand a great deal about what happens on your website. Usertesting on the other hand will help you determine the rationale behind a particular phenomenon.
User testing will help you determine the following:
- Why some users stay while others leave?
- If users are not purchasing your product, then why?
- Why users prefer your competitors over you?
- If users abandon their shopping carts, then why?
You can basically determine the answer to most of your questions through user testing; it’s probably the most organic way to understand the reasoning behind the behaviour of your users.