Why unmoderated user testing is your best friend during the design process

Unmoderated user tests are studies that don’t require a researcher to lead the session and ask questions.

Instead a software application is used to lead the participants through steps, or a script, to interact with the prototype and provide feedback.

Here are a few reasons why unmoderated tests can be super helpful at helping the product team gain insights during the design process.

1. It's fast

Unmoderated tests don’t require a person leading the session, therefore participants can do it at a time that is convenient for them, making scheduling unnecessary.

Anyone who has done user test scheduling knows that scheduling participants to complete a study can be a drawn out process that can take days and sometimes weeks to get data.

Once an unmoderated test is set up, it could potentially be done within hours.

2. It takes less total effort

Let’s be honest, listening and asking the right questions in a user testing session requires a lot of energy!

With unmoderated tests, you don’t need to spend equal amount of time for every participant’s test.

However, more effort needs to be spent on getting the script and the prototype in tip top shape because when your participants are going through the questions, you wouldn’t be there to catch errors.

3. Test more participants in a shorter amount of time

Because of the asynchronous nature of the test, more participants can be taking the test at the same time, making it easier to see patterns across different tests.

When is it a good time to run an unmoderated test during the design process?

With the projects I’ve done in the past, I find that when the user flow is more or less defined, and the screens are perhaps in low fidelity visual state, then it’s a good time to do unmoderated user tests.

At this stage, you can provide a prototype that enables the user to complete a task on their own with the script, but the designs are not so set in stone that the test results would undo a lot of work that the team has done.

When you can launch a test at the end of the day and receive feedback top of the morning the next day, there’s no reason not to do a test to learn more from potential users.