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<h4>Talking about Remote Unmoderated Testing</h4>
<p>User testing in labs are often intimidating. Getting people into a room where they’re surrounded by strangers, monitored by cameras, and asked to perform difficult tasks is certainly not the best way of user testing. Rather, testing with users in their natural habitat tackles with the downsides of lab user testing. Such a testing is called unmoderated user testing.</p>
<p>Maybe this is the reason why designers and UX guys across the globe are adopting to remote unmoderated testing so quick. This technique of user testing is sure to stay and here’s the proof-</p>
<p>In the 2009 UPA Survey, which gathers salary and other job-related information from UPA members, 18% of respondents reported using unmoderated remote testing. The results showed the growth of this research method of around 28%. According to the recent 2011 UPA Survey, the number of UX Professionals who use this technique of user testing has increased to 23%. These figures have only increased exponentially in the past few years.</p>
<p>Having said that, there are situations where unmoderated user testing works magical.</p>
<h4>1. Budget constraints</h4>
<p>Needless to point out, in-lab user tests are expensive. Participants for the test are typically paid at least $100 for attending the sessions. Also, lab moderators need to be paid for several hours of work.</p>
<p>But with remote unmoderated testing, the expense is cut down by several layers. There is no need to travel to conduct tests, and user incentives are also typically much lower for remote testing.</p>
<h4>2. Tight deadlines</h4>
<p>In an ideal world, you have weeks of time to prepare for your research and to recruit the participants. However, in reality, this is not always the case. Sometimes design teams want to get feedback on the prototypes they are working on in a matter of days.</p>
<p>With remote usability testing, you can set up a study within a couple of hours. Once the study is ready, all you need to do is to send a web-link to your participants.</p>
<h4><strong>3. Geographical constraints</strong></h4>
<p>Geographically distributed research is very expensive and at times put aside due to the cost and the time commitment. But what when your audience is expected to be geographically distributed?</p>
<p>With remote testing, one gets the flexibility to conduct a study in many various locations without stepping out of your office. I feel that is just awesome! It removes the barriers that have traditionally impeded this very critical research.</p>
<h4>4. When a specific environment is critical</h4>
<p>Let’s take the Uber app for example. Most users are on the streets when they’re booking a cab. The surroundings are quite different from sitting in a peaceful room and having all the attention on the phone. Vehicles are honking, users are constantly pre-occupied with the safety concerns on the road and so much more is going around.</p>
<p>For such cases, when you’re aware that situations will be v-e-r-y different when your user is on the app, it is best to test in those natural conditions rather than pushing them into labs.</p>
<h4>5. Large sample size needed</h4>
<p>A small sample of in person usability tests may be all that is required from a design perspective but if your stakeholders are used to seeing large samples and buy-in with a small sample is difficult then using big numbers may be simpler than trying to convince them of the value of the small sample. Further, where a new design is critical for an organisation or will have will have a substantial impact, the confidence gained from a large sample study can be valuable.</p>
<h4>6. Competitor analysis</h4>
<p>Analysing the user experience of your competitors is an excellent way of UX benchmarking. A website’s/app’s performance is evaluated using various user experience metrics such as efficiency, effectiveness, and satisfaction.</p>
<p>By utilising statistically significant quantitative data, which can be easily achieved with remote usability testing, you can determine the relative quality of your website and the areas for improvement</p>
<h3><a href="http://ift.tt/2neAQ50">CanvasFlip</a> — your tool for remote unmoderated user testing</h3>
<p>Following the trend of user testing, we built CanvasFlip for the UX community. We made sure that the process is totally inline with the unmoderated user testing.</p>
<p>In these tests, hundreds of participants simultaneously participate in a study from their own computer and in their own environment. During the study, participants are provided tasks by the <a href="http://ift.tt/2neAQ50">CanvasFlip</a> tool and are asked to walk through the tasks as they normally would. Participants act and respond naturally as they are participating in their own time and when it is convenient for them. The best part is that they do not have the slightest hint that their sessions are being recorded and there is close scrutiny on their behaviour.</p>
<p>Talking about the researcher, apart from saving himself/herself from the burden of efforts required for the in-lab testing, here are few other benefits-</p>
<ul>
<li>Get feedback on the smallest tasks which might be too trivial to talk about in a one-on-one session.</li>
<li>Compendium of UX data to convince the team and clients</li>
<li>Direct share link of any particular user session. It is quite helpful when one wants to discuss on a particular session with your boss or team.</li>
</ul>
<p>The UX community is swiftly moving towards the adoption of remote unmoderated user testing. If you’re not one of them, I am pretty sure you are planning to try it out in your upcoming projects. <a href="http://ift.tt/2neAQ50">CanvasFlip</a> has helped multiple teams across the globe to carry out remote tests successfully. <a href="http://ift.tt/2mhLjr6">Talk to us, we are flexible with our timings</a> 🙂</p>
<p><a href="http://ift.tt/2neAQ50"><img alt="" src="http://ift.tt/2neFakI"></a><img src="http://ift.tt/2mhLliX" width="1" height="1" alt="stat?event=post.clientViewed&amp;referrerSou"></p>
<hr>
<p><a href="http://ift.tt/2neEtYl">Make user research more natural and casual</a> was originally published in <a href="http://ift.tt/2cAqCpx">Prototyping: From UX to Front End</a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.</p>


Make user research more natural and casual

Talking about Remote Unmoderated Testing

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