Using Technology to Gather Customer Insights

By January 3, 2020Uncategorized

User testing is a key component of user experience (UX) research. No matter your level of market research experience, you can gather game-changing customer insights with simple user experience tools.

Not sure where to start? Which platform you select depends on your key research questions, budget, and preferred interface. 

Here are 6 user experience insights tools you can use to gather insights and improve the on-site experience. 

1. Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a free online resource powered by Google that gives you insight into how visitors find and use your website. You can find demographic targeting information, identify which pages are underperforming, and find the number of visitors who return to your site over time. With practice (and some help from Google’s free support resources) you can gather valuable insights about your audience.

Cost: Free

2. Crazy Egg

Crazy Egg is a pioneer in the UX heat-mapping field. Features like “heat map”, “scroll map”, and “overlay” shows how users click and scroll on the page. The “Confetti” feature provides insights about website acquisition and organic search queries for a more comprehensive understanding of what users expect from your site. 

Cost: Pricing starts at $24 per month for 30,000 tracked pageviews.  

3. Hotjar

Hotjar is a visitor recording tool that allows you to watch how your visitors are interacting with your website. With heatmaps and live videos, Hotjar gives you a first-person peek into your visitor’s experience on the site, which allows you to identify pain points in your website design. You can also implement event-targeted question prompts to get real-time comments and suggestions from visitors. 

Cost: Plans start at $89/month for websites with up to 20,000 pageviews per day. 

4. UserTesting 

UserTesting’s goal is to narrow the “empathy gap” by helping organizations better understand their customers’ needs, wants, and experiences on a website or app. With 3-5 user tests, you can curate user journeys and target specific survey response questions to get real-time feedback from real people. UserTesting can help you gather data throughout the product development process, test website design, and leverage customer feedback to improve marketing and make strategic branding decisions. 

Cost: UserTesting offers different plans for Individual and Enterprise clients. We recommend starting with a free trial before purchasing a plan.  

5. Userfeel 

Userfeel provides live recordings of users interacting with your website, along with transcripts and written responses to survey questions. Userfeel is notable within the UX testing field because it is designed for non-English websites and users. Data can be collected and reported in over 40 languages, making Userfeel ideal for organizations with large international presences. 

Cost: Pricing is based on a credits system, with tests requiring between 1 and 3 credits. The cost is $59 per credit, and credits can be purchased in bulk at a discount.

6. Five Second Test

Five Second Test from Usability Hub delivers exactly what it promises. This service provides users with a 5-second preview of a website and gathers users’ first impressions of the site’s design, intended audience, and overall trustworthiness. Users can form an impression of your website within 3.4 seconds, so understanding their initial impressions is key to creating a site that people want to engage with. 

Cost: Pricing starts at $0 per month for limited timed tests, with panel recruitment charged separately. 

Tracking behavior and gathering insights is a key step to creating a positive user experience on your website. With these tools, you can gather feedback to improve site usability and create a positive user experience for visitors.