Usability Testing for Website Development
Developing better UX through observation-based recommendations
An advertising agency, on behalf of their client, commissioned Insightrix Research to test the user experience of their new crop science website, which had previously been introduced for a mobile and desktop/laptop user experience. Insightrix conducted similar testing on behalf of another major crop science company in 2017, and the end client expressed interest in repeating this study to trend research results.
The crop science website was designed to deliver crop yield results and innovative solutions to farmers. Therefore, the end client sought to employ the website UX approach to inform their goal in building prototypes that are beneficial for customer success.
The Objective
Through employing remote usability software and tracking the user experience of actual prospective users as participants, an improvement would be measured in prototype end usability.
The Solution
Insightrix employed the latest in remote usability testing software tools – Validately – to conduct website usability testing.
The recruited participants used either their mobile device (i.e., smartphone or tablet) or their laptop/desktop to have their user journey recorded, including audio and screen recording, and their live, real-time facial expressions. The location of the UX testing participants spanned Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
Insightrix used its online market research panel, SaskWatch Research®, to recruit prospective participant farmers (who grow canola) via telephone. Those recruited were evenly split between the three Prairie provinces (Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Alberta), and divided into mobile and desktop users/testers.
The test guide was designed to direct the discussion with focus on areas that aligned with the client’s research objectives, particularly to understand the customer journey when users are looking for yield data on product trials conducted close to their home farms.
The Outcome
With the use of the Validately tool, the participants were able to explore their individual user journeys, and researchers were able to assess the level of difficulty they experienced when searching for information on the website.
The research participants were able to navigate through the website content, search general results and locate information specific to their needs or locations. Research moderators were able to observe participant user behaviours, how they typically searched for crop yield information, how they were able to arrive at the website itself and how the website aligned with the users’ needs.
Users enthusiastically interacted with the website and engaged the navigation tools, and based on the questions posed by the moderator, relayed their experiences in contrast to their expectations on the interface with the map, the filters and the results pages of the website.
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