User testing — a vital ingredient in your next digital project

User testing is a critical element of any digital project. Rich, one of our web and UX experts, explains why. 

Building a digital presence

More than ever, companies are turning to beautiful designs, interesting interfaces and well-crafted marketing strategies to promote their products and services. However, amidst all this noise, the people that matter most — the users — are often left unheard.

When building your new website or app, it’s important to consider your users right from the outset. You need to make sure that they can find what they want quickly and with little to no effort.

More importantly, they need to understand what it is you are offering. And this is just one of the many reasons user testing is so important.

But what is user testing?

User testing refers to an element of the design process where a prototype of your product is tested with real users.

This allows for insight into how usable a product is, and also helps identify any potential risks, roadblocks or problems that end users might face when interacting with your product.

The end goal here is to reduce wasted spend that can often occur when testing has not been carried out on a product before it is built.

Reduce development costs with a prototype

User testing might seem obvious to some, but it’s still often missed — especially when it comes to website projects.

Without careful thought, certain features of a website can be missed in the rush to get things over the line. This can alienate your users and make it hard for them to find what it is that they are looking for.

Rather than addressing issues at a later date, by considering user testing from the start of your project you can test the usability of your website with a clickable prototype — before any real development work has taken place.

This not only allows you to learn exactly how your end users use your website, but also saves time and money as potential hurdles or usability issues can be addressed in the design/prototyping stage of your project, and not after the build has been completed.

Better understand your customers

Customers are important to any business. We all get that. But they’re often left behind when it comes to launching or building a new website or digital product.

As business owners, it’s very easy to become overly immersed in your project, almost to the point where you are unable to see the bigger picture. And what can happen here is that your product gets built to match the vision of those who own the business — not to solve the problems of the people your business is trying to serve.

Let’s face it. No one understands your business quite like you do. But do you know your users as well as you think you do? And are your users likely to use your product or website in the same way you might? The answer to this is probably not.

And that’s why you need user testing and prototypes.

Key points to remember

Perhaps one thing to take away from all of this is the following question: how does it feel when you come across a website or app that was a breeze to use? It’s memorable, right? That’s because it’s unusual.

As a business that specialises in software development, websites and UX design, we know exactly how important user testing can be to the success of any digital project.

To find out more about our experience, and how we can help you with your next project, including our very own prototyping software, get in touch today.