What are your favourite tools for user research?

Tools
#1

Our focus theme for September is user research, and we need your help!

We want to know:

What are your favourite tools for user research, and why?

We’re compiling a list of the most popular tools for our blog as a resource for other UXers.

Thanks for your help :slight_smile:

#2

I’m a big fan of the OptimalWorkshop suite, especially OptimalSort (online card sorting) and TreeJack (online tree testing of the non-arboreal kind).

UsabilityHub for running remote usability tests, impression test and split testing designs.

An older version of Silverback on my laptop when running usability tests (new version coming soon, they say).

When testing hand-sketched clickable prototypes, I like using Marvel. Just take a photo of the sketches and add hotspots and head off to find a test participant.

UserTesting.com is handy for recruiting remote participants and getting video recordings of them completing specific tasks or UI flows.

I know whatusersdo.com is fantastic too, and keep meaning to use it more.

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#3

Thanks for that list. Learned some new ones, and I had forgotten all about Usability Hub. It a great way to get feedback on your designs and a steer about preferences.

I also love the Optimal Suite, especially Treejack. It’s great when you have a few options to test as you can get a steer on which works best and what titles users seem to be responding to.

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#4

Do you have any favourites that aren’t on @Lukcha’s list?

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#5

Usability hub is great for running quick tests and getting almost instant feedback, only downside is often the demographic is a bit skewed.

We have used whatusersdo recently too and although we found it ok we did have a few issues - test setups got changed by the software so users couldn’t login

We actually have our own internal usability testing lab, which we use for most of our testing, it means we are in complete control of the environment and users.

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#6

Lukcha’s list is more than sufficient, but you can add a few of these too.

OptimalSort is my favorite for Card sorting too
SurveyMonkey, Typeform and Google Survey for online surveys
Usabilla, another one for usability testing
Google Analytics and Crazyegg for web analytics

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#7

Are we including heat mapping in here? then include MixPanel for Heat maps.

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#8

For heat mapping there is also Chalkmark. Another from the Optimal Workshop suite of tools.

#9

I use VWO for heatmapping.

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#10

I don’t know if anyone is still following this thread or not, but I have been learning how to use hotjar for analytics. You can also watch recordings of website visitors.

One of the bigger challenges I have faced is remote unmoderated testing. I used usability hub for one study and found it useful. I hope to play with it more here in the future.

I use Zoom for remote usability testing. Some changes they have made are a bit annoying, but it gets the job done. I would be open to suggestions for any other research tools.

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