How can you conduct effective user testing on communication platforms?

1 Define your goals and metrics

Before you start user testing, you should have a clear understanding of what you want to learn from your users and how you will measure their behavior and satisfaction. For communication platforms, some common goals and metrics include assessing the ease of use for features and functions, the effectiveness of communication and collaboration among users or between users and agents, user satisfaction with quality, speed, and reliability, as well as the likelihood of recommending the platform or using it again. You can collect these metrics through surveys, interviews, usability tests, analytics, and more. It's important to make sure your goals and metrics align with your research questions and hypotheses.

2 Recruit and segment your users

The next step is to identify and recruit users who reflect your target audience and represent different segments and scenarios. When selecting users for communication platforms, consider factors such as how often they use the platform, the devices, browsers, and internet connections they use, their demographics, preferences, and expectations, as well as their pain points, needs, and goals. You can use a variety of methods and tools to recruit and segment your users, such as screener surveys, email invitations, social media posts, referral programs, and more. Ensure you have enough users to cover your segments and scenarios by offering incentives or rewards for their participation.

3 Prepare your tasks and scenarios

When preparing for user testing of your communication platform, it is essential to create realistic, relevant, and challenging tasks and scenarios that are not too complex or vague. For example, users may need to send a message to a friend or group using the chat feature, join a video call with a colleague or client using the conferencing feature, ask a question or request a service using the chatbot feature, or explore the settings, options, and features. You can use various methods and tools to prepare and present these tasks and scenarios such as task cards, scripts, prototypes, mockups, and more. It is important to provide clear instructions, expectations, and success criteria for each task and scenario.

4 Conduct your user testing sessions

Now you are ready to conduct user testing sessions with your users. Depending on your goals and metrics, you can choose different formats and modes, such as remote or in-person, moderated or unmoderated, synchronous or asynchronous, qualitative or quantitative. To conduct and record your sessions, you can use various methods and tools, like video calls, screen sharing, screen recording, eye tracking, voice recording, and more. Additionally, it is important to follow ethical and legal guidelines, obtain consent from users, and respect their privacy.