Usability Testessen – better products in 3,2,1…

On April 10th, 2019 we invited testers and companies to a lively evening full of fun to help us get better products out there in the market through the Usability Testessen in our Munich office.

It was an evening that brought together testers and companies in a feel-good atmosphere and created useful feedback on the usability of certain products.

30 people and a lot of interesting insights

Around 30 people accepted our invitation and came together for pizza, beer, and testing. Six companies took the opportunity to get feedback on their products.

The range was widely spread: From fulfilling scripted test cases like ordering a certain product from an online shop or booking a trip, to getting feedback on the usability of a new mobile app, to describing the impression of the look and feel of a YouTube video.

We were happy to see that companies brought products in all different development stages. Something that we, as a testing specialist, always emphasize: Testing helps you to build the best product for your customers in every development stage. The range is wide and goes from Comparison Studies in the concept phase, over Prototype Evaluation and End-to-End Testing in the testing phase, to UX and functional tests after the release.

Good atmosphere, valuable feedback – a successful evening

As a host, it was also nice to see that testers didn´t just come for free food and drinks but all were really engaged when it came to testing the products. They offered valuable insights from a customer perspective, so the companies could get an idea of existing pain points or comprehension problems.

Of course, the setup doesn’t provide representative feedback of the whole target group but nevertheless, all companies gained valuable first insights on their products. So, if a button, for example, was completely confusing the 6 testers, that might be reason enough to rethink its positioning and give the initial concept another design loop.

All in all, the companies were really content with the outcome of their tests and went home with a lot of insights and feedback so they can now start working on an even better product.

Also, for our Project Managers, it was very interesting to see the testers at work. As they deal with more than 300,000 testers from our crowd, they perform usability tests every day – just with a much higher number of testers and of course not offline but online. This gives clients the opportunity to get representative feedback from their exact target group as they can compile the testing group by choosing from over 65 demographic criteria.