

How to Usability Test your Start-up for Free - crxnamja
http://okdork.com/2008/09/16/how-to-usability-test-your-site-for-free/

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timcederman
Hah, I always love the reaction of people doing user testing for the first
time. It's universally (as per the article) "I never really did this before
and was AMAZED how people use the site vs. what I expected"

Some problems with the article.

1\. Craigslist is fine but it will bias the users. If you ask people to do it
for free, you're getting one subset of users (who are actually usually pretty
decent). If you pay people, you open it up to a much wider, more motivated
pool -- but you get "professional" test subjects.

2\. Going to a random public place and asking people to try it is good for a
shotgun approach, but if you're trying to get coverage for your target
audience (particular if there is a certain demographic you need for
monetization) this is a no-go.

As to the rest of the article's content... well, I don't want to rain on the
guy's new-found usability evangalism, but this is pretty basic, heavily skewed
stuff. It seems like he's passing on what his 'mentor' has told him completely
uncritically. Particularly the Nielsen stuff. Ugh.

For people who do want to do free user testing for their site, I highly
recommend ethnio.com. This allows you to target your existing site users and
works great.

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crxnamja
tim, totally good call. its insane to watch people. i remember at facebook
people would click a certain link to do something and i yelled at them. why
are you not doing this? i dont understand!!!

1\. know what you mean about sample set. its hard to get exactly the right
person but close enough is good for me. 2\. for the public places, i have seen
a few people on sports sites and go up to them. (we built a new sports site)

i've seen ethnio.com, good call. in terms of being an evangelist, im not at
all. the real issue is that most startups NEVER do this, i wanted to document
what i've done and if people want to use/benefit then good. if not, sucks for
them.

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timcederman
I definitely appreciate the effort you've gone to. Unfortunately user testing
without careful evaluation can wind up hindering or hurting a product. If you
look at a site like 37signals (hah, had to make sure I got the capitalization
correct - [http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/1088-how-not-to-apply-
for...](http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/1088-how-not-to-apply-for-a-job)),
they do a great job without it, and manage to upset the great Donald Norman
while they're at it (<http://www.jnd.org/dn.mss/why_is_37signals_so_1.html>).

I do agree that startups should be doing more. You have done a good job of
giving some steps to get started, so kudos.

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maxklein
37signals sucks. Like really badly. But we're just so used to being blind that
we follow the guy with one eye everywhere.

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fdb
On Mac there's a nice new application called Silverback that can record the
screen + the image and audio from the webcam.

<http://silverbackapp.com/>

