“Research that happens in the participant’s natural environment can give you more realistic insights than lab research.” (Source: User Testing, Inc.)

To fully comprehend users’ experience and satisfaction with a digital product, it is important to gather both quantitative and qualitative data. In the past, quantitative and qualitative testing had to be done separately due to limitations of online testing tools and methodology. This inherently created timeline and budget constraints. For example, if you needed both types of data, performing two separate studies meant that you also needed two separate user groups. This was not only costly and took longer, but it also meant your data wasn’t coming from the same set of users.

Today’s industry leading online testing tools allow user research researchers to combine both quantitative and qualitative studies into one, while using the same user set, and consequently accommodating more efficient and cost effective results.

Some of the latest online user research tools are able to collect a comprehensive set of quantitative and qualitative data in a single study:

Behavioral/Qualitative Data

  • User comments and reasons why
  • User’s facial expressions
  • Clickstreams
  • Heatmaps
  • Screen recording

Quantitative Data

  • Task success or failure
  • Task effectiveness and efficiency
  • Task ease of use
  • User preferences
  • Survey responses
  • Satisfaction metrics
  • Net Promoter Scores
  • Information architecture data

What’s more, this data can be collected from hundreds of participants all over the globe, not just the 8-12 participants that one-on-one studies average. This will generate statistically significant results for your study.

Another benefit of online user research is the participants are taking the tests in their natural environment using their own devices, so their behaviors are natural – this is something that is almost impossible to recreate in a lab setting. And, because online testing can be automated (rather than just moderated), users are able to participate on their own schedule.

With automated testing, there are fewer logistics involved. There is no longer a need to set up test schedules, moderate individual test sessions, or recruit more users than necessary due to no-shows. All of this saves time and money. The majority of the effort is in configuring the online testing tool based on the user research research goals, monitoring the study while it’s live and analyzing the data collected by the tool. Online user research research facilitates frequent testing at lower costs at any stage of your product design cycle.

Many UX research experts agree that modern advancements with online user research allows us to perform more complete research that can capture the same qualitative data as in-lab tests, in addition to many other quantitative points of data. Because of this, unmoderated online user research is becoming more commonplace and more trusted. According to UX Matters, “Remote user research is a welcome addition to any researcher’s arsenal—particularly as we try to fit data collection into agile sprints and work within the constraints of an increasingly lean bottom line.”