Item: UserTesting
Rating: 7
Author: Ryan Guinee, CFLE

Overall Satisfaction with UserTesting

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

UserTesting is empowering our organization to give users a voice. We are integrating their voice into our strategic priorities and it's helping us shape decisions that affect them. I conduct a variety of tests including persona development interviews, prototyping tests, IA (information architecture) tests like card sorting, or generative research where we just want to talk to users and understand their world.

Pros and Cons

Pros

Panelist recruitment and diversity of panelists.
Flexible incentive structure.
Breadth of testing modes from simple to complex.

Cons

Navigation and site structure is confusing.
Managing test folders is cumbersome.
Questionable user consent and privacy policies.

Return on Investment

Decreased decision-making time/fatigue for design strategy.
Increased our research throughput.
Catching errors/misunderstanding early in the development cycle.

Support Rating

UserTesting support goes beyond product support and includes research strategists to help you think through what you're trying to learn. They have practitioners in these support roles who aren't shy about pushing back on a question or test plan to help you achieve a standard of excellence. If there are problems with the platform, test plan, incentive, or filling seats in a test I have great confidence in their team to help me out.

Usability

Using the platform as it has changed/adapted to new features hasn't been as smooth as I would have liked. Some of the patterns of use are being broken and I have to relearn how to get value out of the tool. It's not a deal breaker, but it creates these micro-interactions of frustration and annoyance.

Customer Insights

We've really only used it for digital experiences because that best suits our context. I didn't even realize they had methods for in-person feedback. The primary benefit we've experienced is just cutting through the decision-making fog with clarity from users. It serves as a compass when we feel like we're getting off track in our development cycle.

Key Insights

Do you think UserTesting delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with UserTesting's feature set?

Yes

Did UserTesting live up to sales and marketing promises?

I wasn't involved with the selection/purchase process

Did implementation of UserTesting go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy UserTesting again?

Yes

Likelihood to Recommend

UserTesting's strengths are its panelists, flexible incentive structure, and breadth of testing modes. I like that they push for the latest and greatest features that users are asking for. As the platform has changed to adopt user preferences, the navigation and site structure has diminished. It can be difficult to know where to find tools, there are inconsistencies in test organization/folder structure, and some features are just buried behind a "clean" UI. The tool suits power users well and I'd like to have easier access to powerful features.

Comments

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Powerful tool that would benefit from its own purpose