15 Best Usability Testing Tools for Better UX

Usability testing is a critical component of user experience (UX) design. It helps identify problems, understand user behavior, and improve the overall user experience. With many tools available, selecting the right one can be challenging.

Best Ready to Use Web Themes & Templates

This guide overviews some of the best usability testing tools, categorized by their primary functions.

UserTesting

UserTesting provides customer experience (CX) solutions tailored for designers, product managers, marketers, and executives. The platform allows your team to observe, listen to, and engage with customers as they interact with websites, applications, or prototypes during moderated testing sessions.

While offering a combination of moderated and unmoderated testing options, UserTesting primarily emphasizes user interviews. The platform boasts one of the largest participant pools available, although additional charges apply for testing with pre-screened and qualified users.

Features:

  • Human Insights platform
  • Template library
  • Sentiment analysis
  • Quick Answers
  • Prototype testing

Preview

Loop11

Loop11 stands out as a leading online usability tool, facilitating website usability testing, A/B testing, and prototype evaluations. Leveraging GPT-4 technology, it generates AI-powered summaries, audio transcripts, and comprehensive reports.

With Loop11, teams can seamlessly integrate tasks and questions within tests, yielding a blend of quantitative and qualitative insights. Its suite of video, audio, and screen recording functionalities makes it ideal for unmoderated usability testing. Moreover, Loop11 provides access to a diverse pool of participants for recruitment purposes.

Features:

  • AI-powered insights
  • A/B Testing
  • Website Usability Testing
  • Task and Question Integration

Preview

Lookback

Lookback serves as a screen recording tool tailored for designers and product managers seeking insights into user interactions with their applications. Its testing features enable teams to observe user actions and reactions in real time through recordings.

Lookback fosters collaboration within teams by enabling researchers to invite product team members to view tests, leave comments, and tag others within an internal hub, all without interrupting the participant’s flow.

Features:

  • Save all recordings in the player
  • Screen recording
  • Live sharing
  • Analytics

Preview

Userbrain

Userbrain stands out as a user testing tool known for its user-friendly interface. Boasting an extensive collection of starter templates and a tester pool exceeding 100,000 individuals, it simplifies the process of designing and executing usability tests for digital products.

Userbrain’s reporting capabilities are notable, offering several quantitative metrics such as task completion rates and time on task. Notably, these reports are updated in real-time as users complete testing of your application or prototype, providing immediate insights into user interactions.

Features:

  • Video annotations and commenting
  • Multi-lingual support
  • Easy to set up

Preview

Dovetail

Since its establishment in 2017, Dovetail has prioritized the development of software aimed at fostering profound customer insights. With a substantial customer base exceeding 3,200 companies, Dovetail holds a prominent position in the usability testing sector.

Notably, Dovetail’s theme library offers a captivating array of designs, particularly appealing to enthusiasts of bold colors and minimalist aesthetics. Among its theme categories, “turn feedback into insights” stands out, offering a selection of themes to kickstart your journey swiftly.

Features:

  • Research insights sharing
  • Nifty transcription features
  • Data tagging and annotations

Preview

Lightster

Lightster stands out as a versatile user testing and survey platform designed to empower product managers, designers, and researchers in collecting feedback from their desired audience. What draws me to Lightster is its capability to serve as a comprehensive usability testing tool, facilitating user-centered feedback collection.

Through Lightster, users can engage directly, providing real-time reactions, ideas, and invaluable insights. These insights play a pivotal role in validating assumptions and guiding informed decisions regarding product development.

Features:

  • Easy to connect directly with target audience
  • Multiple ways to collect insights
  • User-focused feedback

Preview

Trymata

Trymata asserts that its usability testing capabilities can result in an average sales increase of 40%. Introduced in 2015, the platform, formerly known as TryMyUI, rapidly gained traction due to its wide-ranging usability features. Trymata provides tailored screener questions and demographic filtering options for user research.

Additionally, its advanced filtering functionalities allow for precise participant selection based on criteria such as age, location, or occupation, thereby enhancing the accuracy of research studies.

Features:

  • Great demographic filtering features
  • End-to-end analytics
  • Real-time user tracking

Preview

Userfeel

Userfeel serves as a remote usability testing platform, enabling you to gather feedback on your website or app from a global pool of participants. With over 150,000 testers proficient in 40 languages, Userfeel provides extensive coverage for diverse user demographics.

What attracted me to Userfeel is its pricing model, which offers a pay-as-you-go approach. This flexible model allows you to pay for each test without any subscription fees, making it ideal for occasional usability testing needs.

Features:

  • Easy to set up
  • Global participant pool
  • No additional cost for extra team members

Preview

Hotjar

Hotjar is renowned for its ability to assess website usability by capturing real user interactions through click and mouse tracking. Its live heatmap recording feature is particularly notable. Moreover, Hotjar offers additional functionalities such as session recordings, conversion funnel analysis, and the capability to gather user feedback through forms and surveys.

Features:

  • Host moderated user testing interviews
  • Screen and clicks recording
  • Heatmaps
  • Capture feedback from real users

Preview

Optimal Workshop

Optimal Workshop provides usability testing features focused primarily on task completion and moderated sessions. Within Optimal Workshop, your team can assess information architecture (IA) and devise tasks for users to accomplish. Its array of features encompasses functionalities for card sorting, tree testing, and first-click testing.

Features:

  • Automated analysis
  • Card sorting
  • Qualitative research
  • first-click testing

Preview

Lyssna

Lyssna is a cutting-edge platform dedicated to optimizing user experiences through comprehensive usability testing solutions. With Lyssna, designers, product managers, and researchers can delve deep into understanding user interactions, preferences, and pain points to refine digital interfaces effectively.

Features:

  • Quantitative and Qualitative Analysis
  • Collaboration and Sharing
  • Intuitive Interface
  • Real-time Feedback

Preview

TestRigor

testRigor stands out as an intelligent test automation tool powered by generative AI. It empowers users to create and run test cases using simple English commands, eliminating the need for coding expertise. Leveraging AI capabilities, testRigor identifies UI elements based on visible text and their on-screen positions, streamlining the testing process.

Features:

  • No-code test writing
  • Analytics and reporting
  • Test data management features

Preview

Userlytics

Gain both qualitative and quantitative insights from a vast panel of 2,000,000 users with Userlytics. Test the usability of your website, conduct prototype evaluations, and assess your information architecture (IA) effectively. Userlytics enables you to conduct moderated sessions and includes a think-aloud feature, allowing you to capture users’ thoughts as they engage in unmoderated tests.

Preview

Qualaroo

While not exclusively designed for usability testing, Qualaroo enables you to integrate feedback surveys directly into your website as prompts to evaluate UX, gather product insights, and enhance conversion rates. With Qualaroo, you can leverage AI sentiment analysis and tap into a diverse array of survey templates.

Preview

GetFeedback

GetFeedback, previously known as Usabilla, enables you to gather in-app feedback seamlessly. It seamlessly integrates with your Salesforce database, enhancing your segmentation capabilities by consolidating user information and test responses in a single location. This integration can be easily facilitated using Maze’s Reach feature.

Preview

Conclusion

Selecting the right usability testing tool depends on your specific needs, budget, and the type of insights you seek. Whether you’re conducting remote usability testing, moderated sessions, unmoderated tests, A/B testing, or analyzing user behavior with heatmaps, there’s a tool tailored to your requirements. Strategically combining the proper testing tools can significantly enhance your UX design process, leading to better user experiences and higher satisfaction rates.

Related Posts


Browse our collection of related blog posts, where we delve deep into the fascinating design and development world. Whether you’re a seasoned enthusiast looking to expand your knowledge or a curious newcomer eager to learn more, this compilation of articles will serve as your guiding light.