Welcome to our comprehensive guide on user experience testing tools. In today’s digital landscape, providing a seamless user experience is crucial for the success of any website or application. In this article, we will delve into the world of user experience testing and explore a variety of tools that can help you evaluate and optimize the user experience of your digital products. Whether you’re a designer, developer, or product manager, these tools will empower you to gain valuable insights and make informed decisions to enhance user satisfaction. Let’s dive in and discover the key user experience testing tools that can take your digital presence to the next level.
Types of Usability Testing
Before signing up for a usability testing tool, look for one that accommodates your team’s usability testing methods. Here’s a quick reminder of the different types of usability testing:
Quantitative or qualitative:
Quantitative research gives you usable results via numbers and statistics, while qualitative research is about words and meaning. It gives you the ‘why’ behind the numbers.
Moderated or unmoderated:
Moderated testing refers to the presence of a researcher during the test—they may instruct the participant or ask them questions. Unmoderated usability testing is when the researcher is not there.
Remote or in-person:
Remote usability testing occurs virtually, with researchers and participants in different locations. Meanwhile, in-person testing takes place in the same location. You can run usability tests in-person or remotely without specialized software, but a dedicated usability testing tool simplifies reporting and decision-making.
Best User Experience Testing Tools
1. Maze
Best for usability testing and continuous product discovery
Maze is a continuous product discovery platform that empowers teams to collect and consume user insights. It’s ideal for testing at each stage of the design process—and even after you’ve launched your tool, with Live Website Testing.
Maze offers integrations with Figma, Adobe XD, InVision, and Sketch so your team can import an existing prototype from their preferred design tool. The platform includes pre-made templates to get you started and help your team run in-depth quantitative and qualitative usability tests that research participants find easy to access.
You’ll also be able to auto-generate a user-friendly usability test report to share with anyone on your team through a link or PDF. This instant reporting functionality means your team won’t spend hours finding key usability metrics like completion rates, misclick rates, or time spent.
Key features
Prototype testing and concept validation:
To catch usability and design issues before you spend money developing the wrong thing
First-click testing and heatmaps: To see what your user resonates with and clicks on your website or app
Preference testing and A/B tests:
To validate ideas and designs and understand preferences
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Surveys:
To collect in-depth qualitative insights and get to know your users
Clips:
Record your users’ screen, audio, and video—to better learn what your test participants think and how they act when completing your tasks
Reach:
To organize and segment your users and test participants in one place—and reach out to them to ask them to complete future tests
Panel:
To access thousands of pre-screened participants, recruit users, and get answers to your tests in hours
Guerilla testing, card sorting, and wireframe testing:
To validate information architecture and test your prototype with real users
Live website testing:
To research your published site and gather post-launch insights from real users
Pricing
The free plan allows you to review up to 300 responses per year. Paid plans start at $75/month for 3 seats and 1,800 viewable responses per year. Maze also offers an Enterprise plan to suit your organizational needs.
2. Lookback
Best for screen recording and collaborative insights
Lookback is a user experience (UX) screen recording tool for designers and product managers who want to see how users interact with their applications. Lookback’s testing tools allow your team to see what the users see and catch their reactions in real-time—in a recording. Lookback promotes team collaboration as researchers can invite others from the product team to view the test, leave comments, and tag others on an internal hub—without disrupting the participant’s progress.
Key features
Screen recording:
Put yourself in the users’ shoes and see how they completed your tasks
Live sharing:
Collaborate and comment on live interviews without interrupting the session
Analytics:
Review the most relevant qualitative customers’ insights on a centralized dashboard
Save all recordings in the player:
Ask your team to tag each interview so anyone can log in and rewatch any relevant session
Pricing
Lookback offers a 60-day free trial on all plans after you’ve signed up for an account. Pricing for team plans starts at $149/month with limited sessions but unlimited collaborators.
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3. UXtweak
Best for diversified user research
UXtweak is an all-in-one tool for collecting user feedback on a website’s performance. This platform allows you to examine how customers interact with a digital product, improve customer journey, dispense of usability issues and tailor the product to client expectations. A major advantage of this tool is its universality – you can use it throughout all development phases for mobile, web or application design.
Key features
Website usability testing
Moderated and unmoderated tests to improve the user journey and ease of use of your website or application.
Card sorting & Tree testing
Conduct A/B tests and optimize the information architecture of your digital product based on the user’s expectations.
Mobile testing
Test for mobile by measuring users’ activities in your mobile app, website or prototype.
Prototype testing
Effectively evaluate design flows and user interactions with design prototypes (with Figma and Invision integrations).
Emphasizing with users
Employ preference and five second testing alongside surveys and session recordings to better understand the wants and needs of target users.
User Panel
For trustworthy research results, UXtweak’s User Panel helps you employ reliable participants from more than 130 countries.
Pricing
Thanks to UXtweak’s free Starter Plan, you can try out every feature for unlimited time to make sure the tool is exactly what you need. Paid plans start from $99/month with discounts per annual billing. The company also offers tailored solutions for startups and enterprises.
4. UserTesting
Best for moderated user tests
UserTesting offers customer experience (CX) solutions for designers, product managers, marketers, and executives. It lets your team see, hear, and talk to customers as they interact with websites, applications, or prototypes in moderated testing sessions.
While the platform offers a mix of moderated and unmoderated testing solutions, its main focus is user interviews. UserTesting has one of the largest participant pools on the market—but you do pay extra to test your tool on pre-screened and qualified users.
Key features
Card sorting, tree testing, usability testing, and prototype testing: So your team can run a variety of tests using the same platform
Template library:
To shorten the time your team spends creating each test
Quick Answers:
Recruit from the UserTesting panel and get answers to your tests in hours
Sentiment analysis:
This automated testing tool uses AI to simplify the reporting process and identify repeated pain points
Human Insights platform:
Allows your team to visualize data, read and highlight video transcripts, and get an automated summary of insights
Pricing
UserTesting doesn’t publicly share costs, but users have reported prices starting at $15,000 per seat per year.
5. Optimal Workshop
Best for basic usability testing methods
Optimal Workshop offers usability testing functionality limited to task completion and moderated sessions. Your team can use Optimal Workshop to test information architecture (IA) and create tasks for users to complete. Its feature set includes tools for card sorting, tree testing, and first-click testing.
Key features
Card sorting, tree testing, online surveys, and first-click testing:
To test your platform in multiple ways and spot usability or UX issues
Qualitative research:
Paint a full picture of how your users feel about your product and gather both qualitative and quantitative data
Automated analysis:
Improve your team’s productivity by giving them access to a tool that automates data analysis
Pricing
The free plan lets you explore all the functions of Optimal Workshop tools with sessions and template limitations. Paid plans start at $208 per user/month and come with a two-month free trial.
6. UsabilityHub
Best for pay-per-answer remote research
UsabilityHub is a remote user research platform allowing teams to run different tests and identify usability issues. The UsabilityHub platform is known for its first-click tests, design surveys, preference tests, and five-second tests. It also has a built-in participants panel with over 170,000 testers available on-demand at a pay-per-answer price. Alternatively, researchers can invite existing users to participate.
Key features
Surveys, five-second, first-clicks, prototype, or preference tests:
Run multiple unmoderated and moderated tests
Design surveys:
Ask questions regarding your design to identify specific issues with your visuals
Unlimited participants:
You can recruit as many participants as you like from your audience—or pay extra to access the UsabilityHub participant panel.
Reporting:
Includes click visualizations, open text analysis, and task duration metrics
Pricing
You can run free tests for up to two minutes or upgrade to paid plans starting from $75/month for three seats.
6. Loop11
A good usability testing alternative
Loop11 is a popular online usability tool that allows you to run website usability testing, A/B testing, and prototype testing. It uses GPT-4 to create AI-powered summaries, audio transcripts, and reports. It also offers a range of video, audio, and screen recording features.
Key features
A/B testing, prototype testing, competitive benchmarking, true intent studies, and IA:
Utilize multiple different testing methods for qualitative and quantitative data
Screen recording:
Get your team to see what your user sees and does on your platform
AI-powered insights:
If you’re happy leaving the analytics to AI, Loop11 boasts AI-powered insights to increase efficiency
Pricing
Pricing ranges from $199 to $599/month. All plans include a 14-day free trial, and users can choose to subscribe for one month at a time or access a 10% discount with an annual subscription.
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8. Userfeel
Best for sporadic testing
Userfeel is a usability testing tool that’s ideal if you don’t want to conduct regular usability tests, as you don’t need to pay for a monthly subscription—you can simply pay when needed. Of course, this does mean it can add up without you noticing. Userfeel allows your team to set up a list of tasks for users to complete on your website, define the target audience, and then collect recorded videos of users.
Key features
Transcriptions:
Shorten the time your team spends rewatching live interviews
Unlimited screening questions:
Encourage your team to ask as many screeners as needed so you get users that truly fit your customer’s persona
Highlight reels:
Your team will be able to create a short video using the most relevant clips so you can rewatch it and catch the user’s sentiment
User test guarantee:
Get a free replacement if you consider a user unfit for your tests
Pricing
Userfeel charges per test length and type. Its prices start at $30/hour-long unmoderated session with current users. Prices go up to $180/hour for moderated or unmoderated sessions with a user from the Userfeel panel.
9. Trymata
Best for testing your customer’s journey
Trymata (formerly TryMyUI) allows you to run remote usability tests and gain user insights to inform your product, marketing, e-commerce, startup, or agency strategy—and build products your users will enjoy. It lets you run live product analytics to test your customer’s journey, and you can conduct unmoderated tests and then watch the recording to identify user frustrations.
Key features
Test prototypes, live websites, or mobile apps:
Conduct usability testing at any stage or device and improve your SUS
Recruit from its panel:
Access Trymata’s pre-screened participant’s panel
Create and upload custom NDAs to protect your brand:
Avoid information leaks by writing personalized NDAs for participants to sign before testing
Collaboration tools:
Use highlight reels, invite multiple researchers to work on projects, and leave video annotations to simplify remote team collaboration
Pricing
Trymata’s usability testing plans start at $333/month. It allows for two seats and comes with 120 yearly panel credits.
10. Hotjar
Best for website user behavior analytics
Hotjar helps measure the usability of a website by recording real user behavior through clicks and mouse tracking—and is well known for its live heatmap recording functionality. Additional features include session recordings, conversion funnel analysis, as well as the collection of user feedback via forms and surveys.
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Key features
Heatmaps:
See the hot spots where users are spending the most time on your site and the colder areas that aren’t getting much love
Screen and clicks recording:
The spot where your visitors click and what catches their eye
Capture feedback from real users:
Use Hotjar’s in-app pop-ups to ask real visitors for feedback and update your design and UX
Host moderated user testing interviews:
Pay for Hotjar to engage in connecting with users face-to-face and humanizing your quantitative data
Pricing
Hotjar offers four different packages with plans available at multiple price points—ranging from $32/month to $9448/month, depending on your chosen features.
Conclusion
How do you test usability?
You can test usability in moderated or unmoderated sessions, remotely or in person, by following these steps:
- Define your test goals.
- Outline the logistics, i.e., when it happens, who’s your audience, and where it will occur.
- Choose the testing tool.
- Determine the format, i.e., moderated or unmoderated, in-person or remote, quantitative or qualitative.
- Limit the audience size
- Write test tasks
- Decide evaluation metrics
- Run the usability test
- Create a usability report with results
- Determine action steps
What is a usability testing tool?
A usability testing tool is a software solution that provides features to check if your design is usable and intuitive enough for users to accomplish their goals. A wireframe and usability testing tool allows you to see how people can complete a task on your prototype, website, or application. These tools share areas of improvement and flag potential usability problems based on user feedback.
What are the three types of usability tests?
The three types of usability tests are:
- Quantitative vs. Qualitative
- Moderated vs. Unmoderated
- Remote vs. In-person
What tools do you use to do manual usability testing?
To do manual usability testing, you’ll need these tools:
- A note-taking app (or a pen and paper)
- Video conferencing software (or a video camera and audio recorder to record the session)
- Your app or website
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FAQs
What are user experience (UX) testing tools?
User experience testing tools are software or platforms that help businesses evaluate and analyze their digital products or websites’ usability and overall user experience. These tools offer various methods for collecting user feedback, conducting usability tests, and measuring user satisfaction to improve the design and functionality of digital experiences.
Why are user experience testing tools important?
User experience testing tools are important because they provide valuable insights into how users interact with digital products or websites. By identifying usability issues, pain points, and areas of improvement, businesses can enhance the user experience, increase customer satisfaction, and drive better engagement and conversions.
What types of user experience testing tools are available?
Several user experience testing tools are available, including remote usability testing tools, heat mapping tools, session recording tools, A/B testing tools, and survey tools. Each type offers unique features and methodologies for collecting data and analyzing user behavior to gain actionable insights.
How can user experience testing tools benefit businesses?
User experience testing tools offer numerous benefits to businesses. They help identify usability problems early, allowing quick improvements and cost-effective design iterations. They also provide objective data-driven insights, enabling businesses to make informed decisions based on user behavior. Optimizing the user experience can enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty and achieve better business outcomes.
Can user experience testing tools be used for both websites and mobile apps?
Yes, user experience testing tools for websites and mobile apps can be used. The principles of usability and user experience apply to both platforms, and many testing tools offer specific features and capabilities for testing and analyzing user experiences on websites and mobile applications.
