If you are unfamiliar with the term crowdtesting then you should know that the crowdtesting market is already booming and is set to climb to 2.5 billion USD by 2025. 💥 In an era where the digital landscape is more competitive than ever, the key to success is building top-quality, robust, and user-friendly products quickly.
While traditional testing methods like usability testing or heuristic evaluations can keep the boat afloat, crowdtesting is probably the only methodology out there. It provides a robust and holistic approach to testing that can keep up with the demands of continuous deployment.
By tapping into the power of crowdsourced testing, digital products, and services can benefit from real-world perspectives. They can fine-tune their interfaces to meet the ever-changing customer demand. 🙌
What Is Crowdtesting?
Crowdtesting, also referred to as crowdsourced testing, is a testing methodology that taps into the power of the crowd to leverage global and diverse user insights gained from real-world environments.
Crowdtesting offers a multifaceted approach to testing. The user insights gained from this type of testing are diverse. They vary not only when it comes to the hardware and software used, but also to geographical location and context of use.
Crowdtesting offers a robust testing solution for products. It can come in particularly handy for organizations that are keen to scale quickly without increasing their headcount.
What Are the Benefits of Crowdtesting?
Crowdtesting can have a host of benefits for businesses that are looking to achieve product excellence and enhance the user experience.
➡️ Research with Global Reach
One of the greatest advantages of crowdtesting that makes it stand out from other research methodologies is its global reach. With crowdtesting, researchers have an unmissable opportunity. They can tap into an international network of testers and test their product with users from diverse linguistic and cultural profiles.
This approach to testing is particularly handy. It’s beneficial for those looking to launch their products globally and have to meet diverse market needs. Last but not least, crowdtesting offers a cost-effective and scalable testing solution that can be easily adopted by companies of all sizes.
Test with the crowd, and gain real-world insights with UXtweak´s User Panel 🐝
➡️ Research with More Objective Insights
Traditional testing that depends on the same group or groups of users to test a product can hinder the objectivity of the insights gained. Crowtesting on the other hand can ‘give’ more objective insights as well as unbiased data. This is due to the diverse range of users who are trialing the product or service at a global scale.
➡️ Real-World Environment Testing
With crowdsourcing the participants of the study are testing using their own devices in natural environments. This is a critical benefit that this methodology has to offer. It provides real insights that derive from testing in real-world conditions. They are not limited to a lab environment that examines only a set of use cases.
➡️ Mitigation of Research Bias
Mitigating research bias is always at the top of the researcher’s list. Especially when it comes to conducting research with small samples that lack diversity.
By default, crowdsourcing has the unique advantage of mitigating research bias. The sample size is not only large but also varied. Hence, crowdtesting can offer a more unbiased, rounded view of the performance of the product.
➡️ User-Centric Design Validation
Last but not least, crowdtesting can be viewed as the epitome of user-centric design validation as it provides the research team with direct, unfiltered feedback from the product’s real end-user.
In this way, designers can fine-tune their products based on the feedback of their actual users and craft products that meet and exceed user needs and expectations.
How to Do Crowdsourced Testing?
If you are new to the world of crowdsourced testing, fear not. Here is a step-by-step tried and tested guide on how to set up and run your first crowdtesting study:
1. Define the Objectives of Crowdtesting
Begin by clearly outlining the specific and measurable outcomes that you want to achieve through your crowdsourced testing. These can be looking at specific product metrics, validating a concept, or ensuring the usability of a particular feature or part of the interface.
By doing so, you will have the perfect basis to create focused and goal-oriented test scenarios that are guaranteed to bring relevant and actionable results. Additionally, those objectives will be the north start for recruiting the right participants for your study.
2. Select a Crowdtesting Platform
This is a crucial step that should not be taken lightly. Choosing the right platform for your crowdtesting can make or break your study. To select the appropriate platform take into consideration factors like the size of the study, the pricing, and the different tools on offer. Ensure those can cover your testing needs. Later in this article, we are reviewing our personal top 5 favorite platforms to use in 2024 and beyond so stay tuned. 🔥
3. Create Tasks and Scenarios
Once you have decided on your crowdtesting platform it is time to start creating your testing scenarios, as well as the tasks that your participants will need to perform as part of your study.
One of our top tips when it comes to tasks and scenario creation for crowdtesting is to ensure that you develop detailed testing scenarios. These should replicate real-world use cases. To design scenarios that are on point always consider the whole user journey.
Then, laser focus on the particular user interaction that you want to test having always in mind the study goals.
4. Set Clear Crowdtesting Instructions
Now that your scenarios are ready, it is time to think about how you can best communicate them to your testers. Start by creating a video or document with detailed and clear instructions on task execution.
❗️Do not forget to be very specific about the type and form of feedback you are expecting to receive to ensure consistency of the insights across the board.
5. Recruit Testers
Next up is participant recruitment. The secret sauce to successful crowdsourced testing is selecting testers who are representative of your user base. Due to the nature and scale of crowdtesting you might choose to include a range of different profiles for more diverse insights.
Here is where you can take advantage of your crowdtesting platform and use its segmentation tools to better define your audience ensuring the relevance of the insights gathered.
6. Run the Crowdsourced Testing
This is the step where the magic happens. Activate the test and monitor the testers that are going through the predefined testing scenarios. You can also take advantage of the real-time analytics that some of the crowdtesting platforms offer to track progress or identify issues early on in the testing process.
7. Collect and Analyze Feedback
When the testing is over, it is time to collate all the feedback provided by the users and start analyzing it. Try to find patterns or trends in user behavior and identify common themes or problems that seem to be recurring.
When analyzing the data it is important to take into consideration both the qualitative and the quantitative insights. This provides a more rounded understanding of the outcome of the study.
8. Iterate Based on Insights
The last step of the process is of course to action the insights that were gathered during your crowdtesting.
📌 A top tip here is to prioritize the issues based on the impact that they have on product performance and start implementing those changes first.
Do not forget that fine-tuning a product is an iterative process. Always consider additional testing to validate any major changes that have been made.
Top 5 Crowdtesting Platforms to Use in 2024
Here are the top 5 of our favorite crowdtesting platforms to use in 2024:
1. UXtweak
UXtweak is the only research platform you will ever need. This robust platform boasts a range of tools that can help you hit the ground running as it specializes in website and app optimization.
Features for crowdtesting:
- User segmentation
- User panel
- Session recordings
Discover the session recording tool in the free UXtweak demo ⬇️
Pricing: UX tweak features different price tiers starting from a free plan with basic features to more advanced plans starting from $153 that can be tailored to the unique needs of every business.
2. UNGUESS
Unguess is a cloud-based crowdtesting platform that can manage a vast crowd of humans and their tasks across all phases of product development. This is a robust platform featuring a range of testing tools ideal for companies that are looking to up their quality and security game.
Features for crowdtesting:
- A dedicated ‘crowd’ community called Tryber with diverse testers from experts to simple users.
- Bug tracking integration
- A comprehensive selection of qualitative and qualitative research methods
Pricing: You can visit the UNGUESS website and book a demo to find out more about their pricing.
3. Centercode
Centercode is yet another robust user-testing platform that can help your company test and build products that are in line with the needs and wants of its intended audience. This platform boasts a range of research tools and methodologies that allow researchers to capture user feedback during all the stages of the development process.
Features for crowdtesting:
- Beta Testing
- User Acceptance Testing
- Comparative Research
Pricing: To find out more about the different pricing options head to the Centercode website and book a demo with them to inquire.
4. Testlio
Testlio is a service crowdtesting platform that combines manual and automated testing offering the best of both worlds. With its fused software testing options, product teams have an unmissable opportunity to reduce quality costs and expand testing coverage all while improving release velocity.
Features for crowdtesting:
- Vetted testers for crowdtesting
- Testing for specific devices, in certain locations, or precise languages
Pricing: Testlio offers custom pricing based on the scale of projects.
5. Bugcrowd
Bugcrowd Security Knowledge Platform is a robust security testing platform that taps into the power of a global crowd of cybersecurity experts to pinpoint vulnerabilities.
Features for crowdtesting:
- Penetration Testing
- Bug Bounty Programs
- Vulnerability Disclosure
Pricing: To find out more about the different pricing options head to the BugCrowd website and book a demo with them to inquire.
Start Your Crowdtesting Journey Today
In this highly competitive digital market, delivering robust products and frictionless user experiences is the alpha and the omega for the success of an organization. Crowdtesting is your one-stop shop for large-scale, cost-effective global testing that can provide real-world feedback across diverse environments.
Check out UXtweak, the only research platform you will ever need, and kick-start your crowdtesting journey today! 🐝
