A4U Exclusive - Free usability test for your site!

[cclapper]

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Hello Chaps!

We are just finalizing the launch of our new service at UsabilityTest.com - where you can get your website reviewed by other people.

If you are asking why would you want to get a feedback on your site? Well, we all have the same problem and that is we spend so much time on building our affiliate sites that we get blind to certain things - which are obvious to us but not to rest of the people who will be using the website.

Usability Testing helps to address these issues, and normally its carried out with expensive professional companies who charge lots of money to conduct tests in the labs etc.

What we want to do is help smaller websites do it for free or on very low budget.

And as we are starting now I offer to test your website for free! I am not a well-known usability expert - I am just a guy who has built many websites and some of them even got successful (e.g. www.broadbandspeedchecker.co.uk) but what I can do is produce a video how I would use your website and talk what problems I see.

I cannot guarantee how many websites I review, so anyone who is interested - Go quickly to UsabilityTest.com - Start a new test and I will start reviewing on first come first serve basis!

[Tom]

Interesting idea, good luck with it. I'm signing up atm, look forward to some feedback

[cclapper]

Interesting idea, good luck with it. I'm signing up atm, look forward to some feedback

Here you go Tom:

Usability of webchalkboard.com - UsabilityTest.com

I hope its useful

[Tom]

Thanks, that was very interesting.

I was a little confused to begin with that you'd just included a video showing yourself using the site, but it's actually very helpful as you can see exactly what a user is doing, looking and clicking. For example it helped me see how the captcha image could be annoying, and as such I've now added a little text explanation to help users.

Do you also provide a summary of your experience? Or is the idea purely to provide videos of users using the sites being tested?

[cclapper]

Thanks, that was very interesting.

I was a little confused to begin with that you'd just included a video showing yourself using the site, but it's actually very helpful as you can see exactly what a user is doing, looking and clicking. For example it helped me see how the captcha image could be annoying, and as such I've now added a little text explanation to help users.

Do you also provide a summary of your experience? Or is the idea purely to provide videos of users using the sites being tested?

Glad you liked it.

Summary & written review - it depends on the tester, I prefer to give video feedback as its quicker and tends to be more useful when you can actually see what went wrong rather than explaining whole paragraph what you've done. Some testers do both though and it really depends how they are motivated.

[Tom]

Cool, well there was certainly a lot more to it than I expected. How are you marketing the service and getting testers onboard? Also can you explain what the prize money thing is about I seem to remember seeing?

[Paul_MN]

Looks like a very interesting concept and one that could work very well if you market it properly and get it busy quite quickly.

Good luck with the site.

PS: I have also posted a link to the site on our forums so hopefully some of our affiliates will try it out too

[Dazza30]

Ive just signed up, hopefully this will be usefull :tup

[cclapper]

Thanks guys for such a fantastic response! I am thrilled:tup

Tom: The prize thing - basically, if you want to get more reviews then you can motivate testers by setting a prize. The concept is the same like 'design contests' on sitepoint or crowdspring where testers compete for the best review and you then choose the winner of the prize.

e.g. we just got William from ManageAffiliateLinks.com add this test - Usability of www.manageaffiliatelinks.com - UsabilityTest.com - the prize is $20 for the best review so if any of the affiliates here wants to do a short video review of the affiliate software then you might win the prize! It's quite fun actually to review sites...

Paul: Thanks a lot for your support! I have PMed you, if you could send me a task list of what would you like to test then I will review the site.

[cclapper]

Just created 2 new reviews:

Usability of www.manageaffiliatelinks.com - UsabilityTest.com for William
Usability of http://www.theitguide.co.uk/ - UsabilityTest.com for IT Girl

[channel5]

Excellent webite

[lisaanne]

Cool idea - I do usability testing quite regularly so I like the idea of doing it via a video and will be trying to earn some pennies via your site! I've just signed up but am working on an old laptop today so won't download the software until I'm back in the office. Is it a screen capture software thing you've written yourself?

Best of luck with it - look forward to using it!
lx

[cclapper]

Cool idea - I do usability testing quite regularly so I like the idea of doing it via a video and will be trying to earn some pennies via your site! I've just signed up but am working on an old laptop today so won't download the software until I'm back in the office. Is it a screen capture software thing you've written yourself?

Best of luck with it - look forward to using it!
lx

Thanks a lot Lisa! Looking forward for your feedback

Screen capture software - yes, its written by me, but I am planning to include an upload box as well for people who don't want to install stuff and have their own recording tools.

If you have any problems please let me know.

[theitgirl]

Just created 2 new reviews:

Usability of www.manageaffiliatelinks.com - UsabilityTest.com for William
Usability of http://www.theitguide.co.uk/ - UsabilityTest.com for IT Girl

Thank you very much - some useful stuff there. I've made several changes already

[babrees]

I found this service excellent.

I submitted a site and, tbh, I was horrified when I saw the layout of the site in the video. I don't know what resolution Janusz has, but it threw everything out of alignment, which I did not realise! I shall have to look at it in all the different resolutions and ensure everything lines up as it should do!

OK, apart from that I was pleased that he picked up on the things that I was not happy with. Much of it was to do with working with crap datafeeds, but he did give me an idea to work on to improve it. There was also a couple of other things which I had not noticed and can improve. So, thanks Janusz.