Produces insights into user behavior to discover what works and doesn't work in the design. The goal is to tell you how to change the design to better serve your users.

Process and Deliverable

• NN/g research experts gather input from your team and design the study.
• Participants from your target market use the design while our experts and your team observe and analyze.
• We analyze the sessions, write a report, and share recommendations with you.
• Additional reports, meetings, and presentations upon request.

What Can be Tested?

• Websites, subsites, landing pages, checkout processes, signup forms, etc.
• Intranets, extranets, enterprise applications
• Applications/apps, whether computer-based, cloud-based, mobile, or any other platform
• Mobile or tablet sites and apps
• Email newsletters, confirmation emails, other notification-based communication
• Wearable technology, consumer products, and anything else that has a user interface
• Fully implemented designs or rough, early prototypes — in fact, the earlier the better
• The total user experience or just a single feature you want to hone

Timing

• User testing, including planning, running the tests, and analyzing results, takes from 3 to 6 weeks.

Types of Usability Evaluations

Qualitative Usability Tests

$20,000–40,000 USD

Qualitative tests are the most traditional form of user testing, grounded in user-behavior analysis and aimed at discovering what does and doesn't work in the design.

The primary goal is to learn what parts of the design to maintain and what parts to improve and how to better serve your users and business. These tests generate actionable redesign findings, but no statistics.

Iterative Design Usability Tests

$40,000–70,000 USD

Early iterative testing through several rounds of refinement is the best way to create a solid foundation for a design. We can help you:

• Prototype a design
• Test the prototype
• Analyze tests and draw conclusions
• Improve the prototype
• Test again, improve more, ...

Competitive Benchmarking

Around $45,000 USD

Do you want to know if your design is better or worse than your competitors? Qualitative testing comparing your own design with two or three of your most important competitors will tell you. Competitive studies are an excellent way to begin a redesign project to give you inspiration and targeted goals. Competitive tests can also test variations of the same design.

Quantitative Tests

Around $70,000 USD

Quantitative tests are typically conducted to generate statistically significant numbers that benchmark a design, or they compare two different designs or two versions of the same system. Organizations that are highly metrics-driven value this type of testing.

Quantitative tests differ from web analytics because they require observing users interacting with your design and give you insights into why an event is happening and how to fix problems.

The main goals are to gather statistics on typical productivity indicators such as task time, success, and satisfaction; and to compare designs or benchmark a design to compare it with a previous or later version.

Remote Usability Testing

$10,000 (small focused tests) to $70,000 (broad studies) USD

In remote studies the facilitator, observers, and participants are in different locations connected through the Internet. Users may be in their home, office or elsewhere, interacting with your design.  Remote testing can be done for both qualitative and quantitative studies. Options include:

• Testing with participants across the country or around the world—anywhere it's hard or expensive for the design team or usability researchers to go.
• Testing busy participants who are hard to schedule. May be necessary for B2B sites or projects targeting executives, physicians, or similar groups.
• Smaller studies where you want to focus on a specific feature, tool or functionality. Such studies are cheaper and faster than traditional tests.
• Larger studies where you want to get a broader set of users without the cost of travel for your participants or your team.

International Tests

$50,000–150,000 USD

If your customers (or users) are in different countries, international studies can give you insights into their cultural preferences and usage scenarios.