Mobile Usability Testing

Have you conducted mobile usability testing with your mobile applications and websites to ensure they are providing a great user experience?

If you want to ensure a “YES” to the above question, then mobile usability testing should be a critical component of your development process. Mobile internet and application usage has been increasing at a rapid rate, particularly since the iPhone opened up its app store to outside developers in 2008. Since then online mobile platforms from Apple (iOS), Microsoft, and Android have been growing at incredible rates and the pace of software and hardware innovation has accelerated faster than ever before. Each month brings new mobile users, and new devices in various form factors – something we expect to continue for the foreseeable future.

It’s more important than ever to have a successful mobile user experience – and mobile usability testing is a critical component for success

With the growth of these device platforms and the creation of hundreds of thousands of apps, companies are  increasing development resources into mobile development work both for mobile applications and also for mobile versions of the products/websites.  The bar for user experience has been raising quickly and users have high expectations. Including usability testing in your development process is critical if you want to ensure success of mobile websites and mobile applications.

Our mobile experience includes mobile websites and mobile apps on a wide range of platforms – including Android and iOS devices (iPhone/iPad).

Methodology

Our mobile usability testing methodology is similar to our typical usability testing methodology. We conduct our mobile usability tests in our state of the art usability labs in Seattle, WA or Rochester, NY and we can also conduct studies in other labs across the country. Our client viewing experience offers a clear picture of the mobile device screen and a picture-in-picture view of the participant as well. Clients can observe this live in the observation room with our consultants or they can view this same feed in a live stream from their desktop.

Participant recruitment – we work closely with you and (typically) a recruiting firm to ensure a professional participant recruit with the right users that represent your customer segments.

Metrics/Success Measures – our testing will provide you with a clear understanding of the following issues, along with a prioritization of findings and actionable recommendations so your product team can fix them.

  • Success Rate – Can your customers successfully complete the core tasks the mobile site or app is designed for?
  • Top Usability Issues – What are the top usability issues observed? (and actionable recommendations for fixing them).
  • Satisfaction – How satisfied are customers with the mobile experience?
  • Navigation – Do customers understand your navigation and engage with it?
  • Content – Is your content useful to your customers for their mobile usage scenarios?
  • Qualitative comments –  How do your customers feel about the experience? What user experience issues are causing them frustration and negative experience?
  • Overall Experience – does your mobile site or mobile application meet your customers’ needs?  We can also assess competitive mobile user experience and conduct competitive studies to evaluate how your product compares to your top competitors.

Deliverable:

Our deliverable includes a PowerPoint presentation delivered approximately a week after the study is complete. We present our findings, including video clips, to help your team understand the issues observed.  We provide actionable recommendations for fixing the issues, and answer any questions your team has.