I'm John Weidner, a founder of UserBob. If you have any questions or comments about this service, please feel free to call 405-806-0070 or email john@userbob.com. I will personally make sure that you are happy with the service that you have received. I promise that we will redo your test or give you a 100% refund if you are not completely satisfied with the results you receive.
Frequently Asked Client Questions
1. How long does it take to get back my test results?
You will be able to view your results as each user finishes recording their video. For a regular one minute test that is not filtered by demographics workers typically will have that completed in less than two hours. However, if you restricted your test to a smaller demographic group, the length of time will depend on when the next worker in your demographic signs in to review sites.
2. Who are the testers?
We use a service provided by Amazon called Mechanical Turk to find real users to test your site. We only select users from the United States and Canada who have a 99% approval rating completing tasks on Mechanical Turk. We manually inspect videos from new testers to ensure you receive a quality result.
3. What if I think a video is useless?
When you view the videos you are able to rate it on a scale from amazing to useless. If you are not satisfied with your videos, send us an email letting us know what the problem was and we will replace the video with a video from a new user or credit your account.
4. Will I get new users each time I run a test?
Yes. By default, users will not be allowed to do a test for you if they previously did a test for you. However, if you are an agency for multiple websites, you may not mind getting the same users as long as they are testing different web sites. You can change this default behavior, on your "account settings" page. For a finer level of control, you can append #UBTEST=[project-name] to the URL for your test. This will restrict your test to only users who have not already done a test for that project. Both of these options will speed up the length of time it takes to get results back as there will be more users available to complete your tests.
5. What am I allowed to test.
You can ask users to do tasks on a website or an app. The website (or app) can be yours or a competitors. The purpose of the test should be to understand what users think about the site. Do not create a test where the purpose is to get a user to do something on your site such as clicking on ads, posting to social media, or downloading spyware. We do not run tests that we think many users would find offensive. If you think something might not be acceptable, please contact us to discuss what you would like to test. UserBob uses Amazon's Mechanical Turk service for recruiting users. What you ask users to do must also not violate mturk's policies. The first of their policies prohibits the collection of personally identifiable information.
6. Can I cancel a test after I start it?
You can cancel your test at any time and your UserBob account will be credited for any results that were not completed. You can use these funds to pay for another UserBob test or you can contact us to get a refund. To cancel a test click the "Abort" button for the particular test. It may take up to an hour for the test to be aborted because any users who have already agreed to do the test will still be allowed to complete your test. But users must complete the test in less than an hour. Once no more users are working on your test, you will be credited for any videos that were not completed.
7. How can I give users special instructions for completing my test?
Use the "Custom" test type and place your instructions in the text box either above or below the URL field. Users will be asked to read out loud the instructions that you place in the top box before they launch your website. The instructions you place in the bottom box will be read by the user as they complete your test. There is a "preview" link on the top right of your test's detail page that you can use to see how your test will be displayed to the users. There are also the following special tags that you can add to your test's url to give users extra instructions.
#TABS - warns users that your test will open new browser tabs and they may want to record their whole desktop.
#NODEA - instructs users not to use "disposable email addresses" such as a mailinator.com address.
#HIDESTEPS - hides your test's steps until the user has completed the previous step.
#UBLEVEL4 - only allows users who have the most experience doing user testing participate.
#UBLEVEL3 - only allows users who have some experience doing user testing participate.
#UB_NSFW - to warn users that your site contains content that may offend some users.
#SHOWFINGERS - instructs users to use a external camera to record their phone's screen so that you can see their finger taps and gestures.
Enter "requires burner phone number" in the "extra requirements" box if you need users to make or receive a phone call.
8. Is it possible to choose workers from demographic groups other than age, gender, and marital status?
Yes. However, it may take much longer for us to find a matching user if you get too specific. Use this link and select the Custom plan to see all the options.
9. Why is UserBob so inexpensive compared to sites like usertesting.com?
UserBob has no employees, no physical offices, and is not spending money on advertising. It's a very lean operation. Our biggest expense is paying people to record videos of your websites and apps. Someday UserBob might grow to do some of those things. But UserBob was built so that more people could afford to do user testing to make their apps and websites easier to use.
10. I love UserBob. How can I help it be even better?
Please tell others about UserBob. The more people that use it the easier it is to recruit users to participate. And the more participants, the faster you get your responses. A larger pool of participants also allows more targeted demographic filtering. Here are some specific sites where you can "like" UserBob:
11. How do I find out why users leave my site?
Run a first impression test and watch the results.
Frequently Asked Tester Questions
1. How do I become a tester for UserBob?
UserBob gets users from Amazon's Mechanical Turk service at mturk.com. You can get a better understanding from reading the wikipedia article. Once you are signed up as an mturk worker, you can find the UserBob tasks (HITs) by searching for UserBob on mturk.com.
2. What makes for a good review?
Be yourself, but try to put yourself in the frame of mind suggested by the test. As you use the site, think out loud. Try to pretend someone keeps asking you "what are you trying to do?" or "why did you do that?". But remember you are not being tested; it is the website that is being tested. If you hate the site, say so and tell us why. And whether you like or hate the website you are reviewing, try to always find at least one positive thing to say and one suggestion on what could make the site better. Here's a video that gives an example of what to do.
3. What time are UserBob HITs posted on mturk?
UserBob HITs get posted whenever a client orders one. This can happen anytime of the day. So, it's best to check when you first start turking each day and to use a HIT monitoring tool that alerts you when new ones get posted.
4. How can I record my smartphone screen for the mobile HITs?
Here are some tutorials that walk you though how it can be done.
- Android
- iOS 11
- iOS with a Mac
- iOS with second mobile phone
- 5 different ways to record iOS screen
Don't see your question? Contact us now.
Email: john@userbob.comPhone: 405 806 0070
Twitter: @userbob_com