With the recent outbreak of the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) it's more important than ever to look at new ways of working remotely. One of OVO's senior CX team members, Carla Sarli summarises the practicalities and tips of remote user testing.

1. Using remote user
testing to create
unmoderated tests
Five takeaways to speed up your
delivery and reduce costs.

2. Usability testing is an essential step in the
design process when creating the user
interface or improving the user experience.
Carla Sarli gives us five top tips to get the
best insights from your test.
Carla recommends the usertesting.com
platform as it is both easy to use and
cost effective.
Carla is an Experience Designer
at innovation consultancy,
Our Very Own
linkedin.com/in/carlasarli/
TA K E 5

3. TA K E 5
ourveryown.com.au
Define
objectives
and plan
Online user testing follows
the same goals and process
as an in-person lab test.
Create the test script
outside the UserTesting.com
platform. This will allow you
to focus on what you’re
trying to learn and not to
feel limited by the tool.
Only then translate it to
‘UserTesting’ language.

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Keep users
engaged
Write short tasks and
questions, or split longer
tasks into smaller parts as
participants will often tire of
reading lots of text.
Create dynamic tests by
including different kinds of
tasks such as verbal
responses, written responses,
multiple choice and rating
scales. You can also insert a
variety of assets and links
(though check that they’re
accessible).

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Include
metric
questions
Metrics are always good for
convincing sceptical
stakeholders who put their
trust in numbers alone, so
include some tasks that give
you scores or ratings.
UserTesting.com will even
give you the graphs
afterwards, which is great for
slide decks and reports!
Pro tip: Remember to ask
users for the reasons behind
their choices.

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Always
preview your
test before
launching
Since you’re not physically
present to redirect the user if
they deviate from the path you
want to take them through,
you need to keep users ‘on the
rails’ for them to give you the
information you need.
Previewing the test before
launching it will help you
discover a lot of mistakes,
especially those related with
the dynamic and narrative
omissions. This will ensure you
that the test will take the user
on the expected path.

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Optimise for
better, faster
analysis
Note tools with tags, quote
transcription and post
questionnaire questions will
help you find patterns and
relevant quotes faster.
Summarising video sessions
will help you remember
specific issues participants
had, and downloading the
Excel spreadsheet will give
you the summary in one
single file.

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