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In this article, learn about remote user research and the different methodologies you can apply to gather feedback to improve customer experience. |
This article applies to: UserTesting
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What is remote user research?
User feedback is a primary key to business success—whether you’re launching an app, redesigning a website, refining product features, or improving the overall customer experience.
So how do you go about getting that feedback?
Remote user research is a fast, reliable, and scalable way to get the insights you need to improve your customer experience.
Unlike traditional in-lab usability testing or testing with focus groups—both of which can be time consuming—remote user research allows you to recruit contributors and get results in a matter of hours, rather than days or weeks.
You’re not limited by your location, schedule, or facilities: you’ll get candid feedback from real people from your target demographic in their natural environment, whether that be at home, a store—whatever environment or context within which they’d typically interact with your product.
Performing remote user research on a regular basis helps you:
- Validate your product ideas before committing resources
- Influence decision-makers in your company to make improvements
- Align your team on priorities
- Identify opportunities to differentiate your company from your competition
- Transform your company’s approach to customer experience
What is usability testing?
One of the most popular remote user-research methodologies is usability testing. Performing remote usability testing allows you to gather insights into the following areas:
- Visual design (how it looks)
- Interaction design (how it works)
- Information architecture (how it’s organized)
- Content (what it says and how it sounds)
- Functionality (what it does)
Usability testing typically focuses on the qualitative aspect of feedback rather than the quantitative. For example, usability testing helps you...
- Generate that qualitative-based narrative with a smaller sample size.
- Focus more on the "why...?" or "how...?" than the "how many...?" or "how much...?".
- Be quicker, more efficient—and reduce cost as a result.
- Understand or discover insights, instead of proving a point or winning a bar bet.
- Provide a subjective tilt and tint to objective
Other remote user research methodologies
In addition to usability testing, here are other examples of approaches and methodologies to support remote user feedback:
- Longitudinal/Diary studies: Observing users interacting with a product/flow/process over time
- Benchmarking studies: Tracking changes in your users' experience on a monthly or quarterly basis
- Competitive benchmarking studies: Comparing the user experience of several similar companies over time
- Beyond-the-device studies: Observing non-digital experiences, such as unboxing a physical item or making a purchasing decision in a store
- Moderated studies (remote): Facilitating users through your study, one-on-one, in real time
To learn more about how and when to use each of these techniques, check out The UX Research Methodology Guidebook.
Summary
- Remote user research is a fast, reliable, and scalable way to get the insights you need to improve your customer experience,
- Unlike traditional in-lab usability testing or focus groups, you can recruit contributors and get results in a matter of hours—not days or weeks.
- One of the most popular remote user-research methodologies is usability testing, which can help you quickly get qualitative feedback.
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