I’ve just deployed a version 1 of my new app called Usaura. The premise of the app is simple: the fastest way to set up and run click tests.
The first version of Usaura lets you do one test: a click test. What’s a click test? Basically, you upload a screenshot of your interface, or even just a mockup, and provide instructions to the testers, e.g. “Click on where you think you can learn about the pricing for this product.”
You then get a test address to share with your colleagues and friends. When they go to the test page they’ll be presented with a short description of how the test works together with your instructions. Their clicks are then recorded and can be analyzed from the results page, which will look something like this:
The results page gives you two views: a heatmap and a clickmap–a view of the clicks themselves color coded depending on how much time the click took. Here’s the click view, which also shows click times on hover:
Where the app differs from other click testing apps is that there’s no registration–it’s as simple as just going to the site, filling out two fields and hitting the publish button. Another big difference is that testers can view results after they take each test. Just like taking a poll, participants may be curious to see the results, so I think it makes sense to satisfy this curiosity–the results themselves are in a way a reward for taking the test.
Making a couple of tests for a design can tell you how well it performs, but even more useful is running tests on design iterations to see if you’re going in the right direction.
As I mentioned before, this is a version 1, so it’s pretty much just the groundwork. I’ll be adding more customization and features for click tests, as well as other types of tests. Some stuff coming soon: private tests, multi-stage tests, drop-out rates and click areas to track error rates.
Anyhow, if this looks interesting head over to Usaura.com and give it a try. I’d love to know if you find the app useful and if so what other stuff you’d like to see–just drop me an email.
P.S. The results page is not compatible with Internet Explorer 8 or below due JavaScript and CSS3 issues, so please use another modern browser. The tests themselves should work for all browsers down to IE6, and if there are any issues on that side please let me know and I’ll fix them. Also, the tests right now allow a maximum of 4 clicks so you can ask people to click on multiple places–I’ll be making this number customizable soon too.