Get out of the research lab: test mobile user behavior in real life situations

November 29, 2015

People use their smartphones literally anywhere: while they are in bed (70%), on the toilet (63%), in public transport (88%) or even while riding their bikes (17%).

We’ve developed a research hack that allows us to capture the interaction of users and mobile devices under more natural conditions than in a research lab. People can go about their activities while we run user tests with them.

What makes our approach special is that it works on any mobile device, in almost any real life situation, and our setup is completely wireless. 

We can now test user behavior on mobile devices – almost anywhere your users go

When you conduct usability tests, you set a task and observe how real people use your web or mobile site to determine how well it works with its intended users and how it could be improved. You capture what happens on screen as well as in their minds (they speak their thoughts as they visit your website).

We felt that particularly for mobile devices – which are heavily used on-the-go or while users are busy doing something else – it is key to run tests in real situations of use. To complement our other research methods we’ve developed a way to run mobile tests of apps or websites anywhere people bring their smartphone or tablet, e.g., as they walk through a store or take the subway to work.

Add on-the-go mobile testing to your research mix and get a new perspective on your visitors

We are big fans of mixing different user research methods to get the best possible insights about users. Getting out on the street to do UX and human behavior research adds incredible value. As is the case with any research method, it has its advantages and disadvantages.

The wireless, cable-free, portable setup allows testing in natural use cases. You can record almost any sort of user experience – as long as the light conditions are okay for the camera to capture it.  It is easy to mount the rig on your tester’s devices. This has the advantage that they can conduct the tests on their own phone or tablet, which they are familiar with. You can use the setup on almost any type of mobile device, with no need to install any software.

Contrary to other methods that use software to directly record the screen and audio from the test participant’s device, you also see the fingers operating the device. As always, this has 2 sides: on the downside the recording is never as sharp as with screen recording software, and on the plus side, capturing the finger movement lets you see if users have problems entering data.

What can you do with this type of research?

Add context to existing data

• How is the user experience in specific use cases?
  If you’ve already conducted other research on how users feel about your website, you can now dig deeper and explore common use cases in more detail.

Learn how the location or activity affects the user experience

• What else do they do in parallel while they visit your site on their mobile device? And how does this affect the user experience?
• How does the location and surrounding impact the user behavior?
• Are there any situation-dependent user needs you do not cater to?

Get competitive insights

• What other pages are they visiting as part of their activity?
• How does competition perform in specific use cases?

 

Do you know in what situations your audience uses smartphones and how good your mobile experience is?

Contact us if you’d like us to help run some mobile user tests in real life situations and find out how well your app or website works.

Let us know in the comments what situations your users are typically in when they visit your page.