If you want to understand whether your website or product will connect with your audience, having a ux expert perform an evaluation can be crucial to answering these questions. But what exactly does a ux expert do when conducting a UX review, and how is it different from usability testing using a real test panel?

A UX expert is typically just one person and they will use various user journeys (for example, visit your ecommerce store and try to buy a new pair of shoes) and see if they come across any usability flaws along that journey.

An expert review should never replace a proper usability study, that is, using a panel of real world users and having them try to perform various tasks with your product. After completing my own evaluations for clients I am often asked more finite details regarding the design flaws I picked up upon. An example could be; suggesting a different colour button or placing a promotional video above or below a certain heading. This is where an expert review will cease to be effective because you can never rely on one person’s opinion and you really need to gather more data than just that one person’s assumption to make an informed decision.

Expert reviews are a great supplementary testing tool to be used during any phase of a design process because they are generally much cheaper to conduct (you just need to pay one person) and much quicker to deploy. There are a few more reasons though, here’s why I think conducting an expert review before jumping into a full user test might be beneficial for you.

Competitor Research

A way of using an expert review that is often overlooked is to perform a competitor audit. In traditional user testing the panel will often be focusing on your own website or product. After all, very few companies have thousands of dollars to invest in a user test only to test a competitor’s website. Looking at a competitor’s website can highlight missing features and content. It can also help understanding the price point and audience you should be focusing on.

Competitor audits should ideally be carried out at the beginning of any project as it is much easier to implement the changes compared to trying to fit them in a fully built out website/product.

Help you refine your scenarios for the real test panel

By having an expert familiarise themselves with your product they are then able to better understand the paths that a typical user will follow much better. This is especially true when it comes to web apps that often have unique interfaces and user journeys. Armed with this knowledge we can then prioritise our tasks and testing when it comes to the user testing panel.

Able to highlight common barriers at a cheaper price

As I mentioned above, an expert review will highlight the more common design and UX issues that often crop up in the initial development phase. By having an expert go over the product and highlight these issues to be fixed you save time and money in the long run when it comes to testing the more refined product with a usability testing panel. By removing these common barriers you allow the more expensive user testing to explore the deeper usability issues.

I can review your website in 48 hours for just $29. That’s a fraction of the cost involved in setting up a real user testing panel.

You will get solutions to the problems, not just feedback

This is obviously dependent on the expert’s skills and what they offer. Usually an expert conducting these audits will be experienced in UX design and likely be able to design solutions to help the teams in your business build a better product. With a user testing panel you will just be getting feedback and then have to figure out what to yourselves to fix the problem.

At Outsprung I have tested over 2000 websites and products. This experience of testing has given me an insight into what usually works for a product and what doesn’t, especially when it comes to ecommerce sites and app. From this I like to think I am able to show design teams working on products how they might approach a UX issues better than they currently are.

If you would like to discuss how I can help move along your product or website feel free to contact me here.