Tasks set
Remote Testing enables respondents to test the web site under investigation at their home PC or at work. The use situation during the test thus corresponds with the 'natural' use situation to the greatest possible extent. This test approach is particularly suited to solve the following problems, or rather, to meet the demands of:
- Establishing the 'natural' user behaviour as a means to examine, for instance, the actual sales size of a web site (variant 'Critical Incident'),
- conducting a competition benchmarking based on a sufficiently sized target group (variant 'Task-based Benchmarking'),
- conducting a fairly long-term study to assess the real use of the customer's page in the context of the competition environment (variant 'Long-term Monitoring'),
- reaching international target groups that are regionally scattered, or rather, difficult to reach (e.g. 'B2B').
Method
- 'Critical Incidents': the participants are asked to set about moving on a page according to their initial intentions; they are provided with an opportunity to give feedback while surfing.
- 'Task-based Benchmarking': identical tasks are to be performed on the pages that are being investigated.
- 'Long-term Monitoring': the respondents receive a plug-in for their browsers; all of their actions are recorded for selected pages. Furthermore, it is possible to place event-based enquiries on the competing pages.
It applies to all variants that:
- The participants’ entire log files, screenshots of the pages visited, mouse movements, clicks, and entries can be recorded. These data may be evaluated for each individual respondent or in an aggregated way.
- Online questionnaires can be placed randomly (before, during, and after the test).
Process phase
Sample
- 'Critical Incidents': online recruitment, a minimum of 50 respondents.
- 'Task-based Benchmarking': recruitment via a panel (online recruitment only in exceptional cases), at least 200 participants per problem.
- 'Long-term Monitoring': recruitment by means of a panel, a minimum of 500 respondents.
Timing
Depending on the variant a Remote Test that includes 200 participants can be conducted within 3 to 6 weeks.
