Did you know that a mere 0.1-second delay in an application's loading times can result in a 7% drop in conversions? Or 88% of online consumers are less likely to return after a poor experience?
As user experience testing aims to identify inefficiencies and pain points in the user journey, it's equally important to empathize with your users, understand their needs, and enhance your product to deliver the best possible experience. At its core, UX testing seeks to answer the fundamental question: "Is our product doing what it's supposed to do, and is it doing it effectively?"
In this article, we explore emerging applications of UX testing that provide insights into new aspects of user behavior.
1. Voice User Interface (VUI) Interaction Testing
VUI Testing is a crucial aspect of evaluating the performance and user experience of voice-controlled devices and applications. In evaluating the effectiveness of voice user interfaces (VUIs), it is crucial to consider a range of factors like speech recognition accuracy, response time, and the assistant's ability to comprehend context, ability to customize their voice assistant's name and preferences, making the experience more personal, ensuring that the VUI provides a fluid and satisfying user experience.
Use Case: Honeywell’s Voice Picking technology
Voice picking is a technology used in warehouses and distribution centers to streamline order fulfillment. Voice-picking software integrates with the existing ERP to receive order information data about the picking areas. Pickers wear headsets with a microphone that connects to a mobile device running the voice application. The picker speaks into the microphone to confirm their work. The voice-picking application includes speech recognition software that recognizes and interprets the order picker’s spoken responses.
2. Emotion Recognition in Chatbots
Testers use sentiment analysis to gauge how well chatbots perceive and respond to user emotions. A chatbot's ability to recognize frustration, empathy, or satisfaction in user interactions can greatly enhance the quality of customer support, resulting in a more positive experience.
Usability testing for the chatbot hinges on several key metrics:
Efficiency: Time taken to resolve the issue.
Effectiveness: The accuracy and relevance of the chatbot's responses.
User Satisfaction: User’s satisfaction on a scale from 1 to 5.
Emotional Engagement: The chatbot's ability to recognize and respond to their emotions made the interaction feel more personal and engaging.
Use case: Insomnobot - 3000
Caper is a mattress company that created Insomnobot-3000, to help patients suffering from insomnia. Insomnobot-3000 is an AI-based chat application for patients that has the ability to detect and respond to user emotions and sentiment, providing empathetic and appropriate responses.
3. Dark Mode Usability for SaaS Apps
Dark mode is used in applications to reduce eye strain, improve user comfort and battery life and offer an aesthetically pleasing and customizable user experience. Usability testing for dark mode aims to evaluate its effectiveness in low-light conditions, with a focus on factors like readability, contrast, and overall visual appeal. This assessment seeks to determine if dark mode seamlessly transitions and offers a comfortable reading experience.
Use case: Meteroik
Meteroik is an analytics and email automation tool. Their goal in implementing dark mode was to provide a seamless experience for users who had dark mode preferences enabled on their devices, as well as those who preferred the light mode. They observed that many users, despite having dark mode enabled on their devices, actually preferred using the app in light mode, especially if it was what they were accustomed to. Similarly, some users wanted to use dark mode on a system with a light theme. To address these preferences, the team introduced three options: manual Light mode, manual Dark mode, and using the System setting, which automatically adapts to the time of day.
Conclusion
We've delved into a few emerging applications of UX Testing. These use cases illustrate how UX Testing is evolving to create more efficient, personalized, and user-friendly experiences. As technology and user expectations evolve, the world of usability testing continues to throw up numerous possibilities.