Prototype Validation Part2
In Part I. of this article I was summarising importance of prototype validation that is often misinterpreted with prototype demonstration. Nothing can compare to directly observing users performing tasks and having chance to immediately follow up with additional questions.
However in world of enterprise apps, this is not always possible. Different timezones, schedules and priorities makes it very hard to access right audience at right time.
That is the reason why I decided to look for remote research tool that can help me validate prototypes early and often.
Goals
I had only few evaluation criteria. Tool that I am looking for has to have meaningful Trial version, work with InVision and feature simple link sharing.
TL;DR:Winner is Validately
Validately
Validately came out as winner of my research. It just does exactly what I need and does it with no hassle.
It integrates seamlessly with InVision. It records paths as sequence of connected pages. It contains task goals. It contains additional Q&A surveying. It records videos that can be easily shared & downloaded.
There are few features that I am missing, such as clickmaps aggregated from all respondents or better task customisation options. But Validately seems to be small and agile team and I hope more features will be added in future.
Chalkmark
Chalkmark is one tool out of Optimal Workshop suite. It does only one thing — First impression study. User is presented with discovery task and tool records clickmaps. While there is value in this kind of tests and tool is easy to use, there is one showstopper. This thing costs 109$/month for only this single one feature.
Loop11
Other than tricky Trial registration, this tool showed lot of initial potential. It can analyse click-streams and paths and contains additional surveying. Unfortunately I did not make it work with InVision. I also wanted to task users with slightly more sophisticated task descriptions, and for this purpose I found horizontal bar very limiting.
TryMyUI
Initial review of feature list get me interested in this tool. But the whole web experience with tiny little typography and robotic copywriting does not feel like this is tool "from designers to designers".
You start test with PDF (?) with 1,2,3 instructions to hassle with your Java version. I want to test complex enterprise apps with technologically savvy audience. But that does not mean I want them to read PDF's and hack the Java version in order to run my test — so this tool is no no.
Lookback
I knew that Lookback does not fit any of my initial goals, but I decided to try it out anyway. Main motivation was tight integration with InVision.
The only thing it does is to record your screen with webcam. No tasks, no evaluation. Ah, and you need to install desktop Mac app in order to do that. So maybe next time :)
Liked it? Please recommend it. If you missed Part 1 continue reading here or jump to Design Toolset.
