User research is an integral part of every organization’s product development process and helps them understand users’ behaviors, needs and preferences to develop user-friendly products. Unfortunately, it is generally a long, drawn-out process. Most organizations take upwards of 12 weeks to conduct user research and usability testing. However, if you’re a fast-growing team who wants to keep up with your competitors and release upgrades and features frequently, you might be looking at a smaller timeframe.
Rapid usability testing can help in such cases – it’s virtually the same as regular usability testing, except it reduces the testing cycle thanks to dedicated panels and platforms that provide rapid user insights and helps teams make informed decisions.
When is rapid usability testing useful?
The turnaround time in rapid usability testing is generally useful in most cases where researchers want results and insights quickly.
Here are some instances where it might be especially useful:
Testing concepts and ideas quickly
If you’re in the conceptualizing phase, rapid usability testing can provide clarity on whether your idea might be successful, or help you choose the best among various concepts before you send it to production.
When you want to change mid-development
If you’re mid-development and have to change or modify your product, conducting rapid usability testing can help you rapidly get user opinions on any changes you have in mind, or even generate new ideas for production.
When you’re on a limited budget
Conducting usability testing the traditional way can be a long and expensive process due to the costs associated with recruiting participants, paying them for their time and setting up testing facilities. However, rapid usability testing relies on online platforms and pre-recruited participants, making it a more cost-effective option.
Conducting rapid usability testing
We spoke about needing to cut down on research time for faster results earlier. With Affect UX, you can do just that – cut down on your research time to just two weeks from over 12 weeks. Here’s how we can help at every stage of the usability testing process:
Choose what you are testing and set up your research
To conduct your usability testing, decide what you are going to test first – whether it is a concept, prototype or wireframe. When setting up the task, make sure you pick only 1-2 important aspects to test so that you don’t confuse the testers. Remember – with rapid usability testing, you can always come back to conduct additional tests when you need to.
How we can help:
With Affect UX, you can set up your research in minutes – all you need is a website link or a prototype to test. You can choose from several survey question types and even use our set of sample questions to set up the pre-screening and post-survey questions without any hassle.
Find the right participants
Finding the right respondents is the key to getting genuine, actionable feedback. To do this, ensure that you add the right screening questions to get users who fit your target demographic.
How we can help:
Get access to over 60 million respondents from over 120 countries for you to choose from. This means that even if you’re testing a niche product, you will be able to find respondents quickly, for faster results.
Conduct the test
While speed is of the essence, it doesn’t mean that you have to sacrifice quality. Ensure that you ask all the questions you need during and after the test to get the most out of your research.
How we can help:
With Affect UX, you can conduct both quant and qual research in one integrated platform, which means that you don’t have to rely on multiple platforms for your research. Another important point to notice is that Affect UX can cut down the time usually taken by traditional research (12 weeks) to 1-2 weeks!
Analyze results
After conducting the rapid usability test, compile and list down all the important findings from your research. You can then prioritize these findings and send them to the relevant teams.
How we can help:
The Affect UX dashboard gives you both a bird’s eye view as well as granular insights into your users’ responses and behavior. You can arrange your data the way you want to, and share these insights with internal teams so that these insights can be integrated into the product development process.
To conclude
Conducting rapid usability testing for your products can help you keep up with your competitors, elevate your user experience, and show your users that you are committed to continuously improving your product. Contact us to understand more about how we can help you do that!
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