Real user testing

Hello Phillip!

Good work, your website looks nice)

I haven’t used services you mentioned, but I tried to register on your website to see how it goes. Few think I noticed

• sign in with Google didn’t work first time for some reason, I haven’t checked access to Google calendar
• I think you can figure out user’s time zone in js, it took me some time to select correct timezone))
• why have sign in with Google and ask for a password right away? I feel like you can get rid of this pop up with pass/time zone

This is what I’ve noticed from the first glance. Maybe will add more feedback when I have a chance 🙂

You can apply to betalist or smth similar to get more users

Hey Phillip! I'm a product designer and I use Usertesting almost every month at work. Here's my 2c:

• Usertesting is good for usability tests but difficult for contextual inquiries. The testers aren't in the mindset of someone thinking about using Planzer.io. Therefore, it's difficult to use their insights as a true reflection of why a potential user isn't converting. However, testers are really good for usability tests. For example: how difficult is it for a user to do XYZ. In this case, testers are solely testing the intuitiveness of the app.

• In your case, you could create a test and ask users to do XYZ tasks (these could be your 'aha' moments that are supposed to show users the value of Planzer.io). If you do the test and you find that users cannot complete the tasks, then you know you have to improve you user experience and your testers will give you insight on where to start.

• I would watch out for asking leading questions to make sure you don't give any biases away. For example: instead of asking "add a task" , write a scenario like "say you have to clean your house, write a paper, and apply to 5 jobs and you want to organize your day according to these tasks. How would you do that?"

• Another method is conducting user interviews. I would reach out to your sign ups and ask them how their first time experience was and what did or didn't match their expectations.

I hope that was helpful! If you want to chat more about user testing, I'd be down!

Hey Phillip,

Do you have the time - or a way to make the time - to conduct user testing on your own? Because if so, you can always do qualitative research the cheap and cheerful way.

In my full-time job as a UX Designer, the research piece is always challenging and I've had to come up with all sorts of inventive ways to get insights from real users, or target audience, when my company just hasn't had the budget beyond paying for the participants' time.

Here's how I've done it when I've had budget constraints.

1. Direct email to marketing opt-ins. Real users who've agreed to being contacted are a great starting point. Just explain that you're looking for feedback on the app and want to improve it, and you'd love to invite the user to a 30-minute session via video chat, in exchange for a gift voucher ($25-$30 or something). Aim for 5-6 sessions.

2. Invite via Calendly - include the link in the email you send users, and ask them to book a date and time that works for you. Use the 14 day free trial, and then the free account works for one event.

3. Write your script questions on Google docs or something similar. Focus on 3-5 questions you really want to answer as part of your chosen journey. If it's onboarding, focus only on that and ask open questions - get them to share their process of onboarding and see if you can find any friction points or areas that are stopping them from using the app beyond sign up.

4. Hold the sessions on Google Meet or Teams or Zoom - whatever video meeting software you use. Record the session (with their permission), ask them to share their screen so you can see their journey, and conduct the research session. Then at the end, ask if they'd be open to more sessions in future and you now have a participant to add to a research pool. Pay them their voucher via email.

5. Watch the videos back and make observations, looking for patterns from the feedback sessions.

I could go on, but all of that is going to be necessary regardless of the tools you use. If you don't have the resources or time to do the above, it doesn't matter which user research tool you try. There's lots to it. But it can be simple, and more importantly, to get started, it can be done for free.

When you want to scale it, you should consider a research database for all your videos, clips, notes and findings - for all research projects you've conducted. I've managed to get my current employer to invest in condens.io for this, and it's been an incredible time saver.

Good luck with it, and if you need any help or advice, give me a shout. I'm happy to help wherever I can.

Try https://www.respondent.io . I used them last year and they let you customize your search based on many criteria and setup forms to qualify users. You could also just watch what they are doing by using https://hotjar.com . Hotjar records the interactions on the pages on your sites and lets you watch what people are doing. They also create heat maps.

You can also find user testers on Fiverr.

I had a look at your app, I came across a few issues that make it inconvenient to use (I reported these via the built-in tool). Also, I'm not sure about giving a random app access to my email or Notion. Other than that, I like the idea that you can put your todos on a Calendar and that you can track progress towards goals.