

BetaPunch - User Testing For Startups - jmduke
http://www.betapunch.com/

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toki5
I like the idea! One bit of knee-jerk feedback for you -- on Firefox (don't
know about others), the "What our clients are saying" is moving _really_ fast.
Messages with longer text fly away before I'm done reading them!

If possible, I'd also like to see a simulated demo. "Watch users interact with
your site" is very intriguing, but I'd like to see that in action, even before
I commit to the first-is-free trial.

Edit: Expanding on that -- I signed up to see what the testing experience is
like, and I see you guys have a stock website so you can confirm a tester
account as legitimate. Why not take an example video from this process (one of
yours, or maybe a tester's, with permission) and provide that as a demo so
that people can see exactly what they'll be able to expect out of their site's
review?

As an aside, out of curiosity, what's the point in having varied pricing plans
if they all cost the same per unit? You have '5 for $50' or '10 for $100' or
'15 for $150' -- why not just say "each test is $10" and let us choose the
number of tests we want?

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IceyEC
Same problem with the "What our clients are saying" bit on Chrome using Ubuntu

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danielvinson
As a designer who also enjoys critiquing sites, I would gladly try this out
(as a tester and customer) - if it weren't for you requiring feedback to be in
video/audio form. There are just so many problems with this.

Namely:

* Video recording is cool. But I'd much rather have a hotzone graph of mouse activity than having to waste my time watching each video manually, with the option to review each video.

* Not all offices that might want to use this are SF startup environments. I could never get away with wearing earbuds/headphones in my office to listen to testers. And I work at an office smaller than many startups.

* I can't name one designer I know that would have the patience to listen to 50 minutes of people talking about their website, no matter how constructive it is. * Your average tester will not speak very good English. If I'm purchasing your service I would be pissed if I couldn't understand what they are saying.

* Most people express themselves much more clearly and concisely in text. Since most (if not all) of the people testing will be from generations that grew up with IM and texting, I am sure this will lead to a much, much higher average review score.

I'm ranting a bit here, but basically TL;DR - Text reviews by testers is
simply a better option for your business.

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rnochumo
You make a lot of really valid points. We allow our testers to summarize their
videos with written comments prior to uploading their video. Many of our
testers write very thorough critiques to be submitted alongside their videos.

I feel videos are far superior to written feedback because I pay very close
attention to what users DON'T do when navigating my website. I think that's
just as valuable as watching what they actually do (if not more valuable). And
you just can't get that from somebody writing their feedback mostly from
memory.

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alexjeffrey
One thing that made me blink here is that there's no economies of scale in the
pricing - there's no benefit for me to sign up for more tests at once. It's
likely there's a good reason for this but I thought I'd bring it up as users
can always just keep buying Starter packs.

[edit] Also, does having experienced web users as your usability testers not
defeat the object? I always thought that the idea of usability testing was to
see how well non-technical users could navigate and use your site or app?

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rnochumo
You're absolutely right that the pricing doesn't make a whole lot of sense
right now. I am still experimenting with price points. Some of our competitors
are charging $39 / test. I plan on increasing the pricing in the near future,
so buy up for cheap now while you still can ;-)

As to your second point we need to do a better job of marketing the fact that
we do get "average joe's" to review your website. Not everyone that tests
websites for us is a usability expert. The only thing I make sure of (before
approving a tester) is that they know how to be critical of the website they
are reviewing.

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dchuk
Please kill that red text on blue background, it's brutal on the eyes

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ChrisInToronto
I can't help but notice there isn't a support link, or support@ email. Should
we be publicly disclosing bugs to BetaPunch over twitter? :-p

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ChrisInToronto
WHOAH! Security issue! my password was just sent back to me in plain text! Fix
this now please.

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paukiatwee
My review was denied with the reason on "Denied due to not being able to
understand what you were saying." Cool, that is what visitor is saying... Is
the review done by robot?

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markdown
God, that testimonial scroller is brutal.

If you absolutely must use a scroller, scroll down from top and show the
testimonials for at least 5 seconds.

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rnochumo
It is brutal. It will be fixed soon!

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frankdenbow
got some good feedback from a few people on this for one of my sites. Wish
there was a lower price point but was happy with the results

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vowofnow
Love love love the colors on the website. Catchy. I'll be using the service
soon too!

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rscale
Danielle Morille had a troubling encounter with them, as documented here:
[http://www.daniellemorrill.com/2013/01/why-i-wont-be-
using-b...](http://www.daniellemorrill.com/2013/01/why-i-wont-be-using-
betapunch-for-user-testing/)

As of 25 minutes ago, they were still publicly trashing her in Twitter.

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austingunter
Also known as a clinic on acting as judge and jury for your own "death by
social media" judgement.

