Testing from Afar

Testing can be incredibly useful–even essential to rolling out an new product.  But it can be cost-prohibitive.  Small firms might not have the resources to find the right users, employ testers, set up a room with specialized one-way glass, etc.  Of course, people do testing in this way for important reasons: if you have a specialized set up, you need to have the testers on-site.

But, often remote research has significant advantages.  If you are developing a website with global reach, testing remotely allows you to create a diverse testing base. You save money in terms of space and set up.  Newer tools allow testers to remote in, see all the key strokes, but also the facial expressions of the testers.

Remote testing isn’t without its challenges.  If you connection to your remote tester fails, you are out of luck.  You might not be able to observe facial expressions clearly with the interface.  You do have to find a way to send incentives to remote testers.  And, you might  get push back from your stakeholders as remote testing isn’t universally accepted.

Even with the possible downsides, the significant positive points make remote research an important tool for user experience researchers.

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