How We Redesigned Yelp’s UX With Remote Usability Testing

Usability testing, with real users, is one of the key areas that too many web designers skip. Often, there is little money in the budget for tests, but remote usability testing can be relatively cheap to perform, and the results can make a huge difference to a site’s conversions.

To demonstrate the power of usability testing in design, we teamed up with UserTesting and Optimal Workshop to run some tests on Yelp as part of a redesign exercise.
We specifically chose remote usability tests because they’re pretty quick and fairly affordable to run, compared to focus groups and other lab-based design tests. These tests were all unmoderated so that the users could interact with the Yelp website in the comfort of their own home for the most natural results. We encouraged them to think out loud and then recorded their reactions.

User research isn’t about writing complex reports — it’s about asking the right questions and using the evidence to support design decisions. In this piece, we’ll look at how we chose our users, how we set up the tasks, and what the results were…

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