We provide a free test for new users. However, we do ask that the user have a valid credit card. Although we don’t charge the credit card (we simply make sure it’s valid), a couple of our prospective customers have been upset that we ask for a credit card at all. We agree that in the world of free, or even freemium services, it’s unusual to ask for a credit.. Read More
3 facets defining the user experience
At TryMyUI we review a lot of user testing videos. In these narrated videos the tester verbalizes her thoughts as she performs the tasks in the usability test. In this free-form mode, we are actually getting information that points to 3 characteristics that affect the user experience.
More on the ideal user
When most people think of performing usability testing, they think of using novices to see if the website is apparent to someone with very little experience. However, having now reviewed several hundred user tests done by both novice and experienced internet users, we’ve realized that both yield interesting information. The novice user is interesting because they don’t have a predictable model in their minds, so it’s illuminating to see how.. Read More
Looking for the ideal usability tester…
Let’s assume we’re about to embark on a user experience study and want to solicit the opinions of a handful of users, be it for a moderated or unmoderated study. How should we decide what users to pick and listen to? Would any person off the street work, or are there key criteria we should pay attention to?
How many users is enough?
Can you really learn much from viewing videos of a handful of users?
What about the user?
What do we need to know about our users, and how can we get some of this information?
It lives…
Finally! We’ve developed a lot of sites in the past few years, but I’m still mentally unprepared for the truism that when you think you’re 95% done, you’re really only 50% done. That little bit that differentiates almost done from done just doesn’t seem to end. We’d been in alpha testing for several months when we decided to redesign the look & feel and make some improvements in response to our alpha testers. It really didn’t seem like much at the time. Anyway, we’re now live…
