Crowdsourcing your usability testing

Outsourcing your usability testing to the millions of people on the Internet is a quick and easy way to find out if your site works.

You can segment your audience to target a specific group or ask users to complete certain tasks, or simply find out if people like and can use your site.

The easiest and most affordable way to outsource testing is through social media. Here are some tips on how to use different social networks to find out if your site is user friendly.

  • Post a poll on LinkedIn:
    • Ask a question like, What services does this company offer? or Would you buy from this company? Anything and everything is fair game here.
    • The polls on LinkedIn are shared with all users and can easily be promoted through your other social networks
    • Create a poll here>>
  • Post screen shots or links on Facebook:
    • Upload a graphic file or link to a website and post it on your wall with a question, it could be as simple as, “do you like our new site?” or more specific like “try to find sequined leggings, how long did it take you?” Encourage users to comment and like it
    • You may also want to post on friends and other users walls specifically asking for feedback allowing for more direct targeting and encouraging their friends to participate too.
    • Create a survey on Facebook using their simple tool to really find out what people are thinking. To create a survey on Facebook click here>>
  • Track it on Twitter:
    • Ask multiple questions or post tasks on Twitter, request replies or use analytic tools to find out what happens
    • Twitter is a great tool for crowdsourcing because the reach is so great, but it is hard to get feedback, you may want to directly message people, encourage users to tweet your site or create a survey using a third party service like Survey Monkey to really get the most out of Twitter Crowdsourcing.