A new product or feature is always accompanied by users who challenge it. Questions like “Why can’t I find what I am looking for?” or, “Why is this page taking forever to load?” are common when businesses haven’t taken the time to understand what the user really wants. User testing offers the opportunity for you to challenge your own product before it’s launched into the real world and challenged by real users.
When you create a new product, it’s important to keep the targeted users in mind. To put it simply, what’s the point of cooking a meal if you don’t know who is coming for dinner? Along with market-related research, user research sets the stage for the entire product process. It enables your organisation to identify and solve current problems that your users are facing.
However, researching users just simply isn’t enough to determine whether your product will succeed. Are you sure you identified all your users' problems? Are you sure you solved all your users’ problems? Are you sure this is even what your users want?
User-testing challenges your “solutions” and enables you to pick up on any errors and pain points that might hinder the success of the overall product.
User testing is the process through which the design and functions of a website, app, product, or service are tested by real users who are asked to perform specific tasks in realistic conditions. At Root, these are the steps we follow when conducting user testing:
At Root, we've found that actively involving real users is the best way to develop products that are actually useful. Products that solve users’ real problems. Here's how user testing helps us provide value to our customers and improve our business operations.
User testing gives an inside look into the designs, the research and the general UX process for our clients and team members at Root.
Showing participants what the process looks like to get to the final result provides more insight into the product and its purpose, which increases interest and an eagerness to get involved.
Running user tests takes the veil off the design process and creates a culture of collaborative contribution instead of just broad critique when the product goes live.
Recently, Root conducted user tests for our Embed Self-Service Add-on where clear insights and communication increased the overall confidence in the product amongst Root team members, our clients and their end-users.
Ultimately, users need solutions to fix their everyday problems. By uncovering usability issues during a user test, the researcher and product team can get an inside-look into difficulties and frustrations, which helps us design for an optimal user experience. This also benefits the team down the line, as less product-design error tickets come in, allowing the support team to focus on other issues that might crop up.
Fixing errors can be costly, especially after a product has already launched. User testing has proven to be a useful way to help us save on developmental costs. We’ve found that adjusting a product to fit the customer needs after user testing takes up much less of our development resources, which is helpful when working against the clock or juggling multiple projects.
Here at Root, we know that it’s important to understand the real challenges your users are facing when developing a product instead of just launching it into the wild and hoping for the best.
Conducting both user research and user tests with real users benefits both the people who will be using your product and your team by creating awareness, encouraging cross-collaboration and communication, increasing customer satisfaction and saving on developmental costs.
Why not challenge yourself before you are challenged?
We’re on a mission to continuously improve the user experience of our products and we’d really value your input. Get in touch with us by completing this survey and we’ll get back to you when our next user tests kick off!
Root is an end-to-end digital insurance platform that enables you to launch new products and digital engagement channels fast. We package all the compliance, regulatory and reporting complexities behind easy-to-use APIs, allowing your team to focus on building great customer experiences.
Are you interested in taking your insurance business to the next level today? Email us at [email protected] or get in touch here to hear more.