User testing has become a crucial focus of many companies in the digital era. Why? Because user testing is done right has many mutual benefits for business and customer alike. Here are five of the core reasons why you should carry out rigorous user testing for new as well as existing products and user flows:
1. User Testing Enables Smoother User Experience And Reduces Churn
Churn – the moment users stop using your app or product – is something every business wants to avoid for obvious reasons. High churn equals lower user retention and thus lower per-user revenue and overall revenue.
User testing empowers you by giving you data-backed insights into what users want to achieve using your product. It enables you to find concrete steps to take to give users a better, more user-centric experience that aligns better with their intent. Executed well, this approach may drastically reduce churn.
2. User Testing Exposes Low-Functioning Areas Of Your App Or Product
There’s a saying in marketing that you should ‘eat your own dogfood’. Yet the problem with testing your own product is that your usage habits adapt to the flaws in your product. What might be a stumbling block in using your product or app to a user is not necessarily one you encounter because you think ‘isn’t it obvious how to do that?’ Good user testing strips away assumptions, allowing you to see what truly is and isn’t working in your product. This is a key first step for fixing what’s broken in your ideal customer’s journey.
3. Good User Testing Reduces Wasteful Expenditure
Many businesses develop app or product variants or functionalities without testing real user response first. Often, much time is spent gathering ideas via internal debates, time that could be put to better use simply learning from real users’ engagement with an MVP (minimum viable product) beta design. Good user testing that includes recordings of users interactions and reactions gives you clear insights into the parts of a new design that will work and the parts that won’t.
4. Careful User Testing Eliminates Embarrassing Bugs Early
How embarrassing is it when a user comes across a glaring bug in your system that should have been stamped out long ago? Attentive user testing makes it easier to put quality control in place right from the start. You can test different model users, including less technologically-savvy older users, for example, to make sure every bug-revealing use case has been tested.
5.Great User Testing Yields Actionable, Measurable Insights
While group think-tanks and brainstorming sessions are useful at the planning stage, user testing is still best for gaining actionable, measurable insights into what users want and the alignment (or gaps) between your product and these desires. A comprehensive user testing process gives data you can use to guide tweaks and changes so that they are always aligned to business objectives as well as users’ needs.
Do you need help conducting insight-creating user testing? Contact Interact RDT today.