UserTesting

UserTesting Review:

UserTesting enlists freelancers to review new websites and mobile apps in exchange for a $10 tester fee. The idea is to help the web developer understand the user experience of using a site. You’re looking to see whether the site is user-friendly, or tough to navigate.

Since tests take roughly 20 minutes, this equates to a nice hourly wage for a work-at-home job. But tests are not available every hour, nor even every day.

You should consider this a way to occasionally earn a little pocket change, not a full-time job. Testers are paid once a week via PayPal.

Getting started

To get started, you’ll need to download the User Testing software and do a sample test. By and large, what the tests consist of is finding particular areas on the targeted website, and talking to yourself as you explore it, explaining whether the site was intuitive or whether you found it hard to navigate.

The irony here is that User Testing’s software provides a really bad user experience. When we tested it, it refused to load. You’d think that a site that’s all about testing user experiences on other websites would work a little harder on their own.

And the problem with their software is the biggest gripe we see from other users, too. And since you can’t do tests without the User Testing software, it’s a problem.

Recommendations

If you like getting paid for your opinion, you should also check out Product Tube, which pays you to make short videos about your product selections. Ivueit and ProxyPics, which has you shoot cell phone photos of  properties and describe their condition.

What their users say (from Indeed)

“This isn’t a full time job. You usually take several screening tests to qualify to take a test. They want very specific demographics for each test. I like earning a few bucks here and there, but you won’t make a lot. You provide feedback for websites and prototypes, to help improve user/consumer experience.”

“Once they accept your application for CONTRACT work as a tester, THEN you still have to fit the random demographics of every single stupid client that comes along.”

Tech glitches

“There are so many technical issues with this company. So often the UserTests are unable to be completed because there is a technical error with the screen recorder or with the test itself. This is even more true on mobile. When technical issues happen– and it is often– the additional time required to find support and ask for fair compensation well exceeds the time that should be taken working on a test for ten dollars. This isn’t even considering the time spent interrupting your day with unpaid screeners, which leads me to say this job is extremely underpaid for the time spent on it.”