You look at your site everyday, probably multiple times a day. What you see is probably very different from what other people see. Plus, how they interact on your site might be different then you think.
Peek User Testing is a free service that allows you to see what new visitors think of your site and how they experience it. The services has “a normal, everyday user test it (your blog) right away”. They record the user visiting your site and send you back the video.
How the Peek test works:
Head over to peek.usertesting.com and submit your blog URL (you could also test a landing page). Then, select whether you wan them to test your website, or the mobile version of your website. I recommend doing both.
They will ask you for your name, number, and email address to send you the video.
Submit your site and peek will send you a video of a person viewing your website (usually in a few hours to three days). The video is a visual and audio recording of someone visitng your blog for the first time. You can view this video from peek for more information on how it works.
Peek allows your 3 free tests a month.
The feedback you’ll receive from your test
Here are the four questions the viewer will be asked while visiting your blog:
- What is your first impression of this web page? What is this page for?
- What is the first thing you would like to do on this page? Please go ahead and try to do that now. Please describe your experience.
- What stood out to you on this website? What, if anything, frustrated you about this site? Please summarize your thoughts regarding this website.
- You are about to finish the recorded portion of the test. Please add any final thoughts before going on to do the written questions.
If you want more in-depth tests or want to target different audiences, you can check out usertesting.com for their paid services (I haven’t done this yet).
What to do with the feedback from your peek video.
Some of the recent adjustments I made in my redesign were based off of feedback given from my peek user tests. I learned that I needed to improve my reader’s experience by simplifying navigation and directing them to important pages on my blog that might interest them.
Everyone is going to experience your blog differently, so I definitely recommend utilizing all three of your tests close together. This will help you get a better overall picture of how new visitors view your blog.
Watch your video with an open mind and a desire to improve your readers experience.
Here are some things to analyze from your tests videos:
- Does your home page accurately depict the purpose of your blog?
- What did the reader to first on your blog, and is this what you want them to do?
- Is your blog easy to navigate?
- Is there anything you can adjust in your design to improve your readers experience?
- Is there any wording that could be improved to make your blog more clear?
You might not agree with everything the testers say, and that’s okay.
Have fun seeing your blog through the eyes of someone else. Use the information to improve your blog and give you more confidence in your blog design.
Photography by: Haute Chocolate style stock photography
I’ve done this twice now since you posted, and I think I might be addicted. haha. A couple comments have been very helpful. I absolutely love this feature and will probably continue to max out my 3x/month limit! 🙂
I think that is awesome that you’ve utilized this free test Ash! Have you made any changes or do you just find it interesting?
Thank you Kristie! This is absolutely what I needed!! I have a high bounce rate and this feedback will help! What a wonderful HELP!
This is so cool and I’m totally nervous to hear what they have to say! I think I’ll be using this every month just to get a total 3rd party’s opinion on my site. Thanks for sharing this! Also, are you on BlogLovin?
That was very cool. I think I will make some changes to my front page based on the excellent feedback from the anonymous user. Thanks so much, Kristie!
I’ve used Peek before, and the feedback I got was incredibly helpful. 🙂
Glad to hear your feedback was helpful! Did they like your blog? Did you implement any changes after your video?
What a neat service – thanks for sharing! Am I the only one kind of scared to use it? 🙂 I mean, its a REAL person, haha.
Nope, not the only one. I should add some context in the post about that. It IS scary to get real feedback from a person.
Oh wow, this is such a useful post! Thanks so much for sharing this tip. I’m with Kathy…I’m a bit scared to use it!
I was too! But it is actually really helpful. Just make sure to do all 3 test in the same week, that way you hear a variety of opinions. You’ll have to let me know how it goes!