What are Usability Testing Tools?
Usability testing tools are used to evaluate the end-user experience with a product or service. This usually involves learning more about how products or a webpage are received and used by a group of customers. Usability tests also identify design problems before the final product is released.
Usability testing is a core component and method of user experience research (UXR). It helps provide organizations with direct qualitative and quantitative input on how real users use the system or website. Overall, they help gauge customer satisfaction and understanding with the product.
Many usability testing platforms also offer A/B testing services and may overlap with functional testing tools. However, the core functions of the usability testing platforms are behavioral data tracking and prototype testing. These allow designers, researchers, and site developers to observe user engagement with the website or mobile app and identify frustration points.
Most products in this category offer remote, moderated, and unmoderated user tests along with video and survey capabilities. Many of these platforms include their own pool of remote users to conduct usability tests with. Alternatively, some vendors also allow customers to use their own panel of participants to run the tests.
Usability Testings Tools Features & Capabilities
- Usability Tests
- Remote testing
- Moderated testing
- Unmoderated testing
- Mobile app testing
- Prototype testing
- A/B testing
- Data Analysis
- Video capabilities
- Video annotation
- Survey capabilities
- Task reporting
- Behavioral data tracking
- Heatmaps
- Clickstream
- Time on task
Usability Testing Tool Comparison
Before investing in a usability testing platform, consider the following key points:
- Methodology: What type of user research are you planning on conducting? Mainly in person or online interviews? Moderated or unmoderated usability tests or surveys? Surveys? Or are you planning on analyzing website data using product or web analytics tools, heatmaps? Or are you focusing on optimizing your website via A/B and multivariate testing? There are different types of software tools that are well suited to each of these. First, identify what type of tests you plan on running or analytics you plan on looking at before picking out a usability platform.
- Testers: Will you need to purchase test participants through the platform you end up purchasing? Or do you already have a way to recruit test participants? Certain platforms like UserTesting.com have a wide pool of users that customers can take advantage of. However, not all platforms offer this.
- B2C vs. B2B: Will you be targeting B2C or B2B users to test? This may not seem like an important distinction at first, but certain platforms are much better suited to B2C than B2B audiences. For example, some platforms won’t work well for more complex prototype testing or longer user interview sessions (e.g. 45 minutes or longer). Consider the makeup of your audience and target test group before purchasing a tool.
Pricing Information
Many vendors offer free trials of their usability testing platforms or freemium versions of the software with a limited test length. Monthly plans can range anywhere from $80-$400 a month. The more expensive plans provide unlimited testing time and a greater variety of testing methods and analytic tools. Individual and team plans with a set number of video sessions can range from $50 to $300. Enterprise-level solutions are more expensive than individual or team plans. Vendors typically do not disclose prices for enterprise plans but most offer quotes upon request.
The following Usability Testing Tools offer award-winning customer relationships, feature sets, and value for price. Learn more about our Best Of Awards methodology here.
