Usability testing is all about analyzing learnability, efficiency, pain points, improvements, and overall satisfaction. Keeping all of these elements in line and understanding how they relate to one another can be a difficult task and sometimes organizing them requires some extra assistance.
Online whiteboards are the perfect tool to organize the various components of a usability test and can help create an engaging environment for both the tester and the moderator.
In this article, we will outline why online whiteboards are so effective when paired with usability testing and will also talk about how they can effectively incorporate customer feedback.
If you aren’t sure what online whiteboards are exactly, they’re are defined on Fresco as “A shared, online workspace where teams can utilize visual elements in order to express ideas and collaborate together. Just like people use traditional whiteboards to communicate information to each other, online whiteboards act in the same way but are able to integrate multimedia content, interact and contribute in multiple different ways, and lack the limitations of traditional whiteboards”
Online whiteboards create a shared space where people can visualize data and imagery to better understand the concept they’re analyzing. They are mainly used for brainstorming, journey mapping, and large scale virtual workshops, but can be easily applied to usability tests as well.
Having a shared visual space gains extra significance online and is really important when creating a shared understanding between people. Especially when conducting a usability test, being able to communicate expectations and preferences accurately is of the utmost importance, and online whiteboards allow you to share these insights seamlessly.
Now that we have a good idea of what online whiteboards are, let’s discuss why they’re so helpful for usability testing.
How online whiteboards work in tandem with usability tests
Online whiteboards create a space where you can conduct moderated usability tests with ease, and are also a good place to organize your notes after the test is concluded.
When conducting a usability test, all of the data collected is important, and online whiteboards provide a flexible space that can quickly pivot to accommodate your structural needs. It’s incredibly easy to rearrange data to fit your preferred layout and this allows you to understand and digest the material much easier.
Being able to organize your takeaways on a visual interface is a huge advantage of using an online whiteboard for usability testing, and you can also easily share these takeaways with the rest of your team.
Online whiteboards allow you to distribute your findings throughout your team with a clear understanding of the goals, pain points, and touchstones that the user emphasized.
Not only can you collaborate with your team, but you can even collaborate with users to present an interactive testing experience.
Online whiteboards allow you to conduct usability tests in real-time and showcase many different pieces of information all at once.
Whether you want to show multiple different design iterations or have the user place notes in precise areas, using an online whiteboard to conduct part of your usability test is a great way to experiment with getting direct feedback from your users.
Thanks to this direct interaction, participants have an easier time staying focused on the goal of the test and can provide visual reference to their opinions without the strain of over-explaining. This is a way that online whiteboards can catalyze usability testing and open up new opportunities for both the user and the moderator.
Incorporating customer feedback into online whiteboards
Online whiteboards are very versatile tools, and like we previously explained they’re hyper effective at creating visual organization for different needs.
This is very applicable to customer feedback, and through online whiteboards you can create a unique structure to help establish the important feedback you receive from your customers.
This doesn’t have to be real-time feedback, and it doesn’t even have to originate on the board. It can be information that’s exported in or can come straight from the user. The key importance lies in the ability to sort and rearrange customer feedback to create a better understanding of it.
What online whiteboards allow you to do is to organize all of this feedback on a template that helps you understand the positives and negatives, and further allows you to share this information with your team.
Being able to distribute feedback quickly and to a lot of people is a key advantage of using an online whiteboard for gaining customer feedback and is another reason that they are so helpful when it comes to usability testing.
Conclusion
Usability testing is all about creating an understanding of the user’s perspective, and that is incredibly easy when communicating through online whiteboards. If you liked this post make sure you check out some others on our ever growing blog.
This post was contributed by Fresco — Fresco is a startup focused on providing unique visual collaboration solutions and expanding the potential of virtual whiteboards.
Darienne Jordan
Cherryl Pereira