THE 5 SECOND USABILITY TEST

WHAT ARE 5-SECOND USABILITY TESTS?

Five second usability tests are conceived as a norm in the landing page design and conversion rate optimization space. They are one of the tests performed which helps understand what the user sees and understands from your web page/landing page/micro site etc. within the first 5 seconds of viewing the design. They are used to test whether the user can understand the message conveyed by the page effectively in 5 seconds. They serve as a first impression gauge of your website.

THE BASIC DEFINITION OF A 5-SECOND TEST

“A 5 second test is a UX testing method in which a user/participant is shown an image/screenshot of a web page for five seconds. The image is then closed/removed and the users are asked a few questions about what they remember about the page. The data is collected and improvements are made based on the answers to the questions asked."

HOW TO PERFORM A 5-SECOND TEST?

There are several ways of conducting a five second test on your website. Asking friends and family to review your website (though this may skew the results a bit), asking co-workers and acquaintances etc. The main questions they must answer are:

· Do you understand the message/use cause of the site?

· Can you understand the call to action and follow it easily? (Is it easily navigable?)

· Does the site look trustworthy or does it come off as spammy?

· What’s in it for me? (End benefit for customer)

WHEN DO YOU USE A 5-SECOND TEST?

Five second tests can be conducted at any time during the lifetime of a website. But there are some cases in which you must take advantage of them. They are:

1. Before a product/feature release:

If you’re releasing a new website, adding a new product/service, adding a new feature etc., then using a 5-second test can be vital to increase your UX and conversion rates. These tests are fast and can be used to gather data from thousands of testers quickly. Using these quantitative and qualitative data sets, you can focus on understanding your customers and their needs even before you make your product public. The steps to follow while implementing this are:

· Create 5 variations in the website/landing page design with variation implemented mainly in the theme, color, copy, contact form, headline and CTA.

· Gather data and implement data driven solutions for your site.

· Rinse and repeat the process.

2. Before performing A/B testing

You can also use A/B testing to optimize your A/B testing campaigns. A well-researched A/B test will perform better than an impulsive test. Data backed A/B tests have higher conversion rates and better usability because they are in sync with the analytics and is customer driven. Performing a usability test will save you a lot of time and money down the line- not including the feelings of frustration and hopelessness. You don’t have to implement, publish, drive traffic and then take down models and designs that are not working for you. Instead, you can use the available data to construct consumer centric models which can achieve stupendous results.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion I wish to state that using five second tests can help you drastically increase your conversion rates and make users take the action that you want them to take in the path of least resistance. It can help you make well-researched and analytical, data driven solutions while reducing expenses and skyrocketing conversions.

If you have any further queries, feel free to ask. Cheers.????