Testing the usability of your site is one of the smartest things you can do. Usability involves making a website’s interface easier to use and simpler to understand, so that the user’s experience is as enjoyable as possible.

The more usable a site is, the more satisfying it will be to interact with it — and happy visitors translate into happy customers.

Ideas about what makes for the best website design don’t always translate perfectly when put into practice. Elements that one person might consider easy to use may actually turn out to be confusing for someone else.

As designers and developers, we have a natural bias towards the way our own products function: we built them, so we know exactly how they work.

Our visitors, however, don’t have this advantage. This means that testing for usability is the only reliable way to find out how well a website works.

How much testing should I do?

Just 5 users will provide enough results to help you make effective updates to your website. While you could test with 15 users to find most or all problem areas on your site, testing with just 5 will uncover 85% of issues, which gives you the most value for your money.

Other trouble spots can be identified by testing a subsequent round of users, and with each additional test, the number of issues uncovered will decrease.

It’s important to note that the very first usability test offers the greatest insight. Even a small amount of testing can yield significant results and reveal big issues and problem areas early on.

This means that you don’t need to spend a lot of time or money to benefit from usability testing.

Try Userfly

Userfly is an interesting new startup. The service allows you to put a little bit of JavaScript on your website and then track a lot of your visitors’ actions, from mouse movements to clicks and keystrokes (except password entries, of course).

This means that you can replay a user’s session exactly as it happened, and not just on a single page either, but across your entire site. You can see where the user’s mouse moved and exactly what they typed.

You can start using Userfly for free, with a limit of 10 captures. The Basic plan gives you 100 captures at $10 per month, which should be plenty to get you started.