6 Free Website Usability Tools to Boost User Experience
A business website is essential for doing business today, and companies, large or small, are aware of this. But many do not realize that simply having a website isn’t enough. They also need to make sure their websites work properly so that site users have the best experience possible.
Fortunately, usability tools are available to ensure great browsing experiences for website users, and many of these tools are free. Some only look at certain features of your website, so you may need to use several of them to get a complete picture of your website’s overall usability.
To make sure your website is user-friendly, below are six of the best usability software options in the market:
1) Five Second Test by UsabilityHub
UsabilityHub’s Five Second Test allows you to upload a mockup, wireframe, design, or a static image on your website for testing. The tool then lets you know which parts of the page stands out the most to users.
Essentially, Five Second Test tells you what site users immediately see and focus on in the first five seconds of seeing your design or image.
Website owners and administrators find this particularly useful to ensure their calls-to-action are clear and easily definable, as well as only upload images or designs that capture their users’ interest.
Keep in mind, this tool doesn’t provide a full usability test. All it does is give you actionable insights into which elements of a design, mockup, or wireframe are the most prominent within the first five seconds a user sees it.
This then allows you to reconfigure the design or webpage according to which parts you want to instantly become more noticeable. When you’re done reworking it, you can run the test again.
To start the testing process, sign up for an account. Upload an image and include instructions, if needed. You can also ask simple, direct questions such as:
- What do you think this page (or design) is about?
- What product or service do you think this company provides?
- Did you notice the free product being offered at the bottom of the page?
- Which element of the page (or design) immediately caught your attention?
- What is the brand name of the featured product?
UsabilityHub offers a full suite of usability tools for agencies, teams, and UX professionals for $99 per month. Aside from the Five Second Test, the suite includes the Navigation Flow Test, Click Test, Question Test, and Preference Test.
When used together, they provide greater visibility into what works and what doesn’t on your website.
2) ClickHeat
ClickHeat from Labs Media is a tool that provides users with a heatmap showing user clicks on an HTML page. It showcases hot and cold zones so you have a better understanding of the elements of a page that get the most number of clicks, and which items are left out in the cold, so to speak.
Because it’s open source, it’s entirely free to use. They also have a demo available on the site, which uses clicks from their own website to give you a better idea of how it all works.
Another nice thing about the software is that they’re continually developing it. They plan to improve the speed, increase the accuracy, and provide the ability to limit the tracking to a “defined percentage of clicks.”
All upgrades are free as well.
While this is certainly a good tool, it does have downsides. For example, there’s no way to ask users why they clicked on certain items.
3) GTmetrix
According to Kissmetrics:
“Website visitors tend to care more about speed than all the bells and whistles we want to add to our websites. Additionally, page loading time is becoming a more important factor when it comes to search engine rankings.”
Indeed, a website that’s fast and responsive is essential in keeping the attention of your visitors. However, you may not always realize that there are hiccups in the site that are slowing things down.
GTmetrix offers site speed analysis, as well as insights and recommendations for better performance. The basic version of the tool is free. It allows you to monitor up to three URLs and archive up to 20 URLs.
Users of the free version receive 20 API credits per day and can create up to three report filters. Paid plans are available for those who want access to more features. To get better insight about this tool, you can read its reviews.
4) Spur
Spur is a web application from ZURB that allows you to critique web designs by simply entering the site’s URL. If your website isn’t live yet, you can instead upload an image or mockup.
Once uploaded, Spur gives you access to seven different tools that allow you to look at your design in ways you may have not thought of before: grayscale, intersections, spacers, contrast, blur, mirror, and rotate.
Spur is primarily a visual tool that lets you look at your site from various angles and perspectives, including how it would appear on mobile devices. Its goal is to help you analyze your design and find ways to make it even better.
Keep in mind that the tool doesn’t analyze clicks, provide heatmaps, and other user activity data. Its sole focus is on aesthetic design. It’s free to use and very simple to understand.
If you need more tools to analyze other aspects of your website, ZURBapps Pro Suite includes tools that take care of feedback, prototype interface screens, collaborative design, and testing.
5) CheckMyColours
CheckMyColours is another free tool that can help with the usability of your site. The tool checks the background and foreground color combinations of a website to determine if they provide enough contrast.
When a user visits a site and there’s enough color contrast, they may not see certain elements. The tests performed by CheckMyColours are all based on W3C algorithms.
To start using the tool, enter the URL of your website. Click on the Check button, and once done testing, the app provides a report on luminosity contrast ratios, brightness differences, and color differences.
You may need a working knowledge of HTML to fully appreciate the report.
6) Optimal Workshop
Used by companies such as The New York Times, British Airways, Deloitte, Vodafone, and National Geographic, Optimal Workshop is a complete suite of usability tools that allows businesses to conduct qualitative research, analyze first clicks, simplify website navigation, and more.
Optimal Workshop offers three usability applications or modules:
- Treejack for tree testing, which helps you understand the findability of topics on your website
- OptimalSort for card sorting, which allows you to better design workflows, menu structures, and navigation paths
- Chalkmark for first-click analysis or remote usability testing
Optimal Workshop can be used for free. While there are limitations, the free account is fully equipped to run unlimited surveys involving minimal tasks and a small number of respondents, i.e., 10 participants per survey. Treejack and Chalkmark cover three tasks per survey, and OptimalSort can accommodate up to 30 cards per survey.
For paid subscriptions, modular pricing is at $109 per module per month or $990 per year, and the full suite of applications costs $1,990 per year.
Final word
Adding usability tools to your design and testing processes ensure you’re creating quality websites that are useful and easily navigable for your visitors. Check out the free tools above to get started on your journey to building better websites that capture user interest and command higher conversion rates.
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