User Testing Articles & Videos

  • Dogfooding vs. QA vs. User Research

    Dogfooding, or using your own products internally, helps catch bugs, but it can't replace user research: your team knows too much to represent real users.

  • Why User Panels Fail

    User panels can deteriorate in predictable ways, introducing bias and reducing their effectiveness for ongoing research.

  • UX Research with Minors: Consent vs. Assent

    When conducting UX research with minors, you must obtain consent from a parent or legal guardian and assent from the minor participant.

  • User Panels 101

    A well-built internal user panel saves time, reduces costs, and strengthens your organization’s connection to real users.

  • In User Research, Don’t Stop at “Yes” or “No”

    Product stakeholders see user research as a tool to validate already-made decisions. But binary findings that confirm or reject a design provide little value.

  • Analyze Usability Test Data in 4 Steps

    Analyze with confidence by collecting relevant data, critically assessing it, and forming testable explanations.

  • 6 Dimensions for Assessing Usability Data in Analysis

    Analyze usability findings for authenticity, consistency, repetition, spontaneity, appropriateness, and confounding factors to separate surface impressions from real insights.

  • Tools for Unmoderated Usability Testing

    There are many tools for unmoderated usability testing on the market. Choose a tool that offers the right features for your research.

  • 3 Design Processes for High Usability: Iterative Design, Parallel Design, and Competitive Testing

    3 methods for increasing UX quality by exploring and testing diverse design ideas work even better when you use them together.

  • Research Plans: Organize, Document, Inform

    Start every UX-research study with a plan. Research plans document goals, methods, and logistics.

  • Screening Participants for User-Research Studies

    Well-written screeners ensure that your study participants are appropriate for your research goals, improve data quality, save resources, and reduce bias.

  • Icon Usability: When and How to Evaluate Digital Icons

    Effective icons depend on recognizability and interpretation. Evaluate them with methods appropriate for your specific research questions

  • Affinity Diagramming for Collaboratively Sorting UX Findings and Design Ideas

    Use affinity diagramming to cluster and organize research findings or to sort design ideas in ideation workshops.

  • The Wizard of Oz Method in UX

    The Wizard of Oz is a user-research method where a user interacts with a mock interface controlled, to some degree, by a person.

  • The Aesthetic-Usability Effect

    Users are more tolerant of minor usability issues when they find an interface visually appealing, and this effect can mask UI problems during usability testing.

  • Competitive Usability Evaluations

    Data on what works well or poorly on other sites saves you from implementing useless features and guides UX investments to features that your users need.

  • Usability Testing With Older Adults

    When conducting usability testing with older adults, understand your participants’ needs and accommodate them accordingly.

  • Qualitative Usability Testing: Study Guide

    Unsure where to start? Use this collection of links to our articles and videos to learn about planning, conducting, and analyzing qualitative user testing.

  • Remote Usability Testing: Study Guide

    Use this collection of links to our articles and videos to learn about conducting user testing remotely.

  • Between-Subjects vs. Within-Subjects Study Design

    In user research, between-groups designs reduce learning effects; repeated-measures designs require fewer participants and minimize the random noise.