Saturday, May 21, 2011

User Testing for Fun... and Money

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I'm a big fan of www.usertesting.com. As a software engineer, I only wish I had thought of it myself, but I digress. This site allows owners of websites, applications, etc to post jobs and get user feedback on what they have or are planning to build. So now you can voice your opinion on that clunky old web page and the company will actually listen. All you need is a microphone and the ability to describe what your thought process is. You don't need to be a software expert and in fact you may get more jobs opportunities for not being one.

User testing or usability testing is an important aspect of user interface design and you get paid $10 for about 20 minutes of work. I know you're thinking, wow that's great $30 an hour working from home, but what's the catch. Obviously, there are a limited number of jobs and they tend to go fast. You need to start the job within 15 minutes of accepting it and you need a computer with a microphone. Usually the video will be from 5-15 minutes and after that you may be asked to answer a few questions about your experience. The video follows your clicks and mouse movements on the web page or application and records your narrations.

These jobs, like most surveys, are based on demographics so some days you may get offered five to ten testing opportunities and other days you may only get one or none. If you're a stay at home mom or someone that is available during the day and week nights you'll probably have quite a few opportunities, but I wouldn't bank on getting more than five to ten completed per week. You also need to pass an initial screening process by performing a sample job. If you describe what you're doing and stay on task, it shouldn't be a problem to pass.

So far I've only been able to complete one test, but I did receive $10 a few days later in my paypal account (cool). For those of you that don't have a paypal account, they are free. I hope this is useful for you and please follow my blog if you enjoy receiving this information :)

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