When you are developing a website or app, conducting usability testing is one of the most important tasks you can do – apart from telling you how easy your website is to navigate, it can also give you important insights into user preferences, behaviors, and motivations. By conducting usability testing, you can improve the overall user experience, increase engagement, and reduce user frustration. Let’s take a look at some usability testing tools that can help you do this to create digital products that are effective and enjoyable to use.
Qatalyst
Qatalyst is an integrated user research platform powered by Insights AI, that helps UX, product, and design teams test their digital products and experiences. With Qatalyst, you can conduct moderated research and unmoderated research and arrive at actionable insights that can help you build an engaging digital experience that will keep your users coming back for more.
Usability testing methods supported:
Surveys: Yes, Qatalyst offers the option to create surveys to include in studies. You can choose between 11 different types of question blocks, including Likert scales, SUS, checkbox questions, and short/long answers.
First click test: Yes, Qatalyst offers first click trusting where you can track up to the first 1o clicks on an image.
A/B testing: Yes, Qatalyst offers A/B testing with click tracking, heatmaps, Areas of Interest, and Emotion AI metrics.
5 second testing: Yes, Qatalyst offers 5 second testing (for up to 20 seconds). You can also view the click tracking, heatmaps, Areas of Interest, and Emotion AI metrics.
Card sorting: Yes, Qatalyst offers open, closed, and hybrid card sorting. You can also view an agreement matrix of the same.
Tree testing: Yes, Qatalyst offers tree testing. You can also view the paths taken to different end screens and the most common paths taken by users.
Prototype testing: Yes, Qatalyst offers prototype testing for both defined and exploratory paths and gives you a usability score. You can also see the page-by-page analysis that gives you the average time spent on the page, misclick rate, and drop-off rate along with the click tracking, heatmaps, Areas of Interest, and Emotion AI metrics.
Session recording: Yes, Qatalyst offers session recordings with translation, transcription, and the ability to create highlights and tags.
Live website/app usability testing: Yes, Qatalyst offers live website/app testing with translation, transcription, and the ability to create highlights and tags. You can also use the UserPath Visualizer to see user flows, journey maps, and a screen-by-screen breakdown similar to prototype testing.
Maze
Maze is a continuous product discovery platform for user-centric product teams. They offer both moderated and unmoderated research and also provide usability scores, and allow the capture of clips and in-product prompts.
Usability testing methods supported:
Surveys: Yes, Maze offers built-in survey functionalities.
First click test: Yes, Maze offers a "First Click" test feature.
A/B testing: Maze integrates with A/B testing tools like Optimizely and Google Optimize.
5 second testing: Yes, Maze offers a 5-second test feature.
Card sorting: No, Maze does not support card sorting directly.
Tree testing: Similar to card sorting, Maze doesn't natively support tree testing. However, you can potentially create a prototype that mimics a tree structure and observe user navigation patterns.
Prototype testing: Yes, Maze supports prototype testing. You can upload prototypes (low-fidelity or high-fidelity) and conduct remote user testing sessions. Maze offers features like screen and webcam recording to capture user behavior and reactions.
Session recording: Yes, Maze automatically records user sessions during testing.
Live website/app usability testing: Maze does not directly support live website usability testing. However, Maze can be used for remote website or app usability testing and provide feedback through recordings and surveys within the Maze platform.
Userlytics
Userlytics is a user experience research platform and usability testing tool that allows teams to rapidly receive quantitative and qualitative insights. They offer moderated and unmoderated testing, as well as benchmarking and multi-channel testing.
Usability testing methods supported:
Surveys:
First click test: While Userlytics doesn't have a dedicated "First Click Test" feature, you can achieve similar results through their highlight reel functionality. By analyzing session recordings, you can identify where users click first during their interactions.
A/B testing: Userlytics does not support A/B testing.
5 second testing:
Card sorting:
Tree testing:
Prototype testing: Yes, Userlytics supports prototype testing. You can upload prototypes and conduct remote user testing sessions with features like screen and webcam recording to capture user behavior and reactions.
Session recording: Yes, Userlytics records user sessions during testing, allowing you to observe user behavior in detail.
Live website/app usability testing: Yes, Userlytics supports live website and app usability testing. They also offer features like screen sharing and remote recording during these live sessions.
UserTesting/UserZoom
UserTesting is a user research and testing platform that helps teams get insights from customers at every stage of the product development process. Apart from their own platform, they have also merged with UserZoom and offer full-service research, benchmarking, and a centralized repository of insights.
Usability testing methods supported:
Surveys: Yes, UserTesting offers the option to integrate survey questions into your studies.
First click test: Yes, UserTesting offers first clock testing which shows you the median time on task, success percentage, defined success areas, and median number of clicks.
A/B testing: No, UserTesting does not offer A/B testing.
5 second testing: No, UserTesting does not offer 5 second testing.
Card sorting: Yes, UserTesting offers open and closed card sorting.
Tree testing: Yes, UserTesting offers tree testing for prototypes, websites and apps when you add a link.
Prototype testing: Yes, UserTesting offers prototype testing for sketches, wireframes, or semi-functional prototypes.
Session recording: Yes, UserTesting offers live interviews with a Zoom integration. You can also short, contextual summaries of findings.
Live website/app usability testing: UserTesting only offers live app testing but not website testing.
Useberry
Useberry is a UX research platform that allows teams to test ideas, designs, prototypes, websites and information architectures. Apart from traditional usability testing methods, they offer open analytics, which is a self-reporting usability testing method.
Usability testing methods supported:
Surveys: Yes, Useberry offers survey types such as Multiple Choice, Opinion Scale, Short Text, Likert Scale, SUS, and Demographics surveys.
First click test: Useberry does not offer first click testing but does allow you to view interactive clicks, element-wise clicks, and heatmaps.
A/B testing: No, Useberry does not offer A/B or multivariate testing.
5 second testing: Yes, Useberry offers 5-second testing.
Card sorting: Yes, Useberry allows you to conduct card sorting to improve navigation classification & labeling and content hierarchy.
Tree testing: Yes, Useberry allows you to conduct tree testing to test the content hierarchy of your product and ensure content structuring.
Prototype testing: yes, you can conduct prototype testing with Useberry and integrate with popular design tools such as Figma, sketch, Protopie and InVision.
Session recording: Yes, Useverry offers session recordings to capture face, voice, screen, as well as mouse movements, clicks, taps, and scrolls across multiple pages on desktop and mobile devices.
Live website/app usability testing: Useberry offers website testing but not app testing.
Lyssna (Formerly known as UsabilityHub)
Lyssna is a remote user research platform that helps businesses understand how users interact with their designs. You can conduct both moderated and unmoderated research on multiple devices and get access to a panel of 530,000+ active respondents to consuct usability tests.
Usability testing methods supported:
Surveys: Yes, Lyssna offers the option to conduct surveys with multiple question types and conditional logic. It also supports the addition of image, video and audio files in the survey.
First click test: Yes, Lyssna offers first click testing with heatmap and click map view, task duration results, and auto grouping and results filtering.
A/B testing: Lyssna allows you to conduct preference testing for image and audio files and supports up to six files.
5 second testing: Yes, Lyssna offers 5 second testing and allows you to use filters to deep dive into your data, spot trends with word cloud visualizations, and tag responses to surface common themes.
Card sorting: Yes, Lyssna offers card sorting with a card and category view, agreement matrix, similarity matrix and auto grouping and results filtering.
Tree testing: Yes, Lyssna offers tree testing with a detailed path analysis.
Prototype testing: Yes, Lyssna offers prototype testing with Figma integration, free flow and task flow tests.
Session recording: Lyssna offers the option to conduct user interviews or upload session recordings. They also offer multi-language transcription.
Live website/app usability testing: No, Lyssna does not offer live website/app usability testing.
UXArmy
UX Army is a video recording-based user research platform that offers Usability testing, User Research, and automated respondent recruitment. They also offer bookmarks and notes, usability metrics and templates.
Usability testing methods supported:
Surveys: Yes, UXArmy offers surveys and allows you to add images as well as record the responses.
First click test: No, UXArmy does not offer a standalone first click test.
A/B testing: Yes, UXArmy offers preference testing option for images, text, and videos.
5 second testing: Yes, UXArmy offers 5 second testing and measures the time to first click to assess the hesitation factor.
Card sorting: Yes, UXArmy offers card sorting and allows for images to be added along with text label to create cards.
Tree testing: Yes, UXArmy offers tree testing with a data visualization feature.
Prototype testing: Yes, UXArmy supports prototype testing on computer, smartphones and tablet and helps to measure task success based on usability metrics and offers Transcription, SUS Score, task success rate, heatmaps, and navigation paths.
Session recording: Yes, UXArmy offers user interviews with recording and screen sharing. You can also create video clips, highlight reels, and tags.
Live website/app usability testing: Yes, UXArmy offers live website/app usability testing across devices and gives the SUS Score, task success rate, heatmaps, navigation paths, and transcription.
Loop11
Loop 11 is a user testing platform that allows you to conduct moderated and unmoderated testing on mobile and desktop devices. They also offer competitor benchmarking and true intent studies.
Usability testing methods supported:
Surveys: No, Loop11 does not offer a survey feature within their platform.
First click test: Yes, Loop11 offers first click testing.
A/B testing: Yes, Loop11 offers A/B testing on unlimited design variations for designs as well as UX elements by offering alternate versions of a website or app.
5 second testing: Yes, Loop11 offers 5 second testing.
Card sorting: No, Loop11 does not offer a card sorting feature within their platform.
Tree testing: Yes, Loop11 offers tree testing.
Prototype testing: Yes, Loop11 allows you to test low-fidelity and high-fidelity prototypes through integrations with all major prototyping tools, as well as rapid prototyping.
Session recording: Yes, Loop11 offers moderated usability testing for up to 2 hours with screen, video, and audio recording and a virtual observation room.
Live website/app usability testing: Yes, Loop11 offers website/app usability testing on mobile and tablet devices.
Optimal Workshop
Optimal workshop is a usability testing tool that allows teams to improve their digital experiences through a range of tools, mainly focused on testing information architectures and conduct qualitative research. They also offer affinity mapping, multi language support for surveys, and screening questions.
Usability testing methods supported:
Surveys: Yes, Optimal Workshop offers surveys with a variety of question types such as multi-line text, radio button, and ranking, among others.
First click test: Yes, Optimal Workshop offers first click test and allows you to import images from Figma.
A/B testing: Optimal Workshop does not offer A/B testing directly, but you can run an A/B test with 2 or more studies using a snippet of Javascript.
5 second testing: No, Optimal Workshop does not offer 5 second testing.
Card sorting: Yes, Optimal Workshop offers card sorting with a standardization grid, similarity matrix, dendograms, and automated analysis.
Tree testing: Yes, Optimal Workshop offers tree testing with multiple visualization methods like pie tree and task comparison.
Prototype testing: Yes, you can conduct prototype testing by importing images from Figma.
Session recording: Yes, Optimal Workshop supports session recording and create segments for the participants.
Live website/app usability testing: No, Optimal Workshop does not offer live website/app usability testing.
UXTweak
UXtweak is a user research and usability testing platform that aims to improve the usability of digital products. They offer heatmaps, onsite recruiting and logic flows.
Usability testing methods supported:
Surveys: Yes, UXtweak offers surveys with a wide variety of question types such as open-ended questions, question grids, and rating scales.
First click test: Yes, UXtweak offers first click testing with click map and heatmap views.
A/B testing: Yes, UXtweak offers preference testing to test images, video and audio.
5 second testing: Yes, UXtweak offers 5 second testing up to 20 seconds.
Card sorting: Yes, UX tweak offers, open, closed and hybrid card sorting.
Tree testing: Yes, UXtweak offers tree testing through the tree testing editor or by importing it from a live website.
Prototype testing: Yes, UXtweak allows users to build a prototype directly on the platform or import Figma and Invision prototypes.
Session recording: Yes, UXtweak supports session recordings.
Live website/app usability testing: Yes, UXtweak offers live website usability testing through a Chrome extension as well as by pasting a snippet on the website, as well as live app testing.
Sprig
Sprig is a user insights platform that enables product teams to build better product experiences by going beyond basic analytics. They offer AI analysis to customizable dashboards, generate automatic summaries, and spot emerging trends.
Usability testing methods supported:
Surveys: Yes, Sprig offers AI-generated survey creation, templates, as well as advanced targeting.
First click test: No, Sprig does not offer first click testing.
A/B testing: No, Sprig does not offer A/B testing.
5 second testing: No, Sprig does not offer 5 second testing.
Card sorting: No, Sprig does not offer card sorting.
Tree testing: No, Sprig does not offer tree testing.
Prototype testing: Yes, Sprig offers prototype testing through integrations with major prototyping platforms.
Session recording: No, Sprig does not allow session recordings on the platform but they do offer an Unser interviews integration to facilitate this.
Live website/app usability testing: No, Sprig does not offer live website/app usability testing.
Lookback
Lookback is a user research platform for mobile and web devices that focuses on session recordings as a method of capturing user interactions. They also offer highlight and tags for recordings.
Usability testing methods supported:
Surveys: No, Lookback does not offer surveys.
First click test: No, Lookback does not offer first click
A/B testing: No, Lookback does not offer
5 second testing: No, Lookback does not offer
Card sorting: No, Lookback does not offer
Tree testing: No, Lookback does not offer
Prototype testing: No, Lookback does not offer
Session recording: Yes, Lookback offers live interviews with users with Virtual Observation Rooms, team chat, and timestamped notes.
Live website/app usability testing: No, Lookback does not offer live website/app usability testing.
Hotjar
Hotjar is a user testing tool that allows you to visualize how users navigate your platform. They offer a variety of tools to measure website navigation such as live feedback and user funnels.
Usability testing methods supported:
Surveys: Yes, Hotjar offers surveys including NPS, checkbox, multiple choice and open-ended questions.
First click test: No, Hotjar does not offer first click testing but it shows you user clicks through heatmaps.
A/B testing: No, Hotjar does not offer A/B testing.
5 second testing: No, Hotjar does not offer 5 second testing.
Card sorting: No, Hotjar does not offer card sorting.
Tree testing: No, Hotjar does not offer tree testing.
Prototype testing: No, Hotjar does not offer prototype testing.
Session recording: yes, Hotjar allows you to conduct user interviews and clip and share moments. You can also get a transcription of the interview.
Live website/app usability testing: Hotjar allows you to test your websites through the Hotjar recordings feature.
FAQ:
What is a usability testing tool?
A usability testing tool is a software application or platform designed to facilitate the evaluation of the usability of a digital product or interface. These usability testing softwares typically provide features for designing, conducting, and analyzing usability tests, including tasks creation, participant recruitment, session recording, and reporting.
What is usability and UI testing?
Usability testing is a method used to evaluate the ease of use and effectiveness of a digital product or interface by observing real users performing tasks and providing feedback. It focuses on identifying usability issues, such as navigation problems, confusing layouts, or interaction difficulties, and improving the overall user experience.
UI (User Interface) testing, on the other hand, specifically focuses on testing the visual and interactive elements of a digital interface to ensure they function correctly and meet design specifications. It involves verifying that interface elements, such as buttons, menus, and forms, are displayed correctly, respond to user interactions as expected, and adhere to design guidelines.
Why do we test usability?
Usability testing is conducted to ensure that a digital product or interface is user-friendly, intuitive, and effective in meeting user needs and goals. By observing real users interacting with the interface, usability testing helps identify usability issues, validate design decisions, and prioritize improvements to enhance the overall user experience. Ultimately, testing usability helps create products that are more usable, accessible, and satisfying for users, leading to increased user satisfaction, engagement, and retention.
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