BetaPunch - User Testing For Startups | Hacker News Reader

BetaPunch - User Testing For Startups

betapunch.com

28 pointsjmduke16 comments

I like the idea! One bit of knee-jerk feedback for you -- on Firefox (don't know about others), the "What our clients are saying" is moving really fast. Messages with longer text fly away before I'm done reading them!

If possible, I'd also like to see a simulated demo. "Watch users interact with your site" is very intriguing, but I'd like to see that in action, even before I commit to the first-is-free trial.

Edit: Expanding on that -- I signed up to see what the testing experience is like, and I see you guys have a stock website so you can confirm a tester account as legitimate. Why not take an example video from this process (one of yours, or maybe a tester's, with permission) and provide that as a demo so that people can see exactly what they'll be able to expect out of their site's review?

As an aside, out of curiosity, what's the point in having varied pricing plans if they all cost the same per unit? You have '5 for $50' or '10 for $100' or '15 for $150' -- why not just say "each test is $10" and let us choose the number of tests we want?

Same problem with the "What our clients are saying" bit on Chrome using Ubuntu

As a designer who also enjoys critiquing sites, I would gladly try this out (as a tester and customer) - if it weren't for you requiring feedback to be in video/audio form. There are just so many problems with this.

Namely:

* Video recording is cool. But I'd much rather have a hotzone graph of mouse activity than having to waste my time watching each video manually, with the option to review each video.

* Not all offices that might want to use this are SF startup environments. I could never get away with wearing earbuds/headphones in my office to listen to testers. And I work at an office smaller than many startups.

* I can't name one designer I know that would have the patience to listen to 50 minutes of people talking about their website, no matter how constructive it is. * Your average tester will not speak very good English. If I'm purchasing your service I would be pissed if I couldn't understand what they are saying.

* Most people express themselves much more clearly and concisely in text. Since most (if not all) of the people testing will be from generations that grew up with IM and texting, I am sure this will lead to a much, much higher average review score.

I'm ranting a bit here, but basically TL;DR - Text reviews by testers is simply a better option for your business.

You make a lot of really valid points. We allow our testers to summarize their videos with written comments prior to uploading their video. Many of our testers write very thorough critiques to be submitted alongside their videos.

I feel videos are far superior to written feedback because I pay very close attention to what users DON'T do when navigating my website. I think that's just as valuable as watching what they actually do (if not more valuable). And you just can't get that from somebody writing their feedback mostly from memory.

One thing that made me blink here is that there's no economies of scale in the pricing - there's no benefit for me to sign up for more tests at once. It's likely there's a good reason for this but I thought I'd bring it up as users can always just keep buying Starter packs.

[edit] Also, does having experienced web users as your usability testers not defeat the object? I always thought that the idea of usability testing was to see how well non-technical users could navigate and use your site or app?

You're absolutely right that the pricing doesn't make a whole lot of sense right now. I am still experimenting with price points. Some of our competitors are charging $39 / test. I plan on increasing the pricing in the near future, so buy up for cheap now while you still can ;-)

As to your second point we need to do a better job of marketing the fact that we do get "average joe's" to review your website. Not everyone that tests websites for us is a usability expert. The only thing I make sure of (before approving a tester) is that they know how to be critical of the website they are reviewing.

Please kill that red text on blue background, it's brutal on the eyes

I can't help but notice there isn't a support link, or support@ email. Should we be publicly disclosing bugs to BetaPunch over twitter? :-p

WHOAH! Security issue! my password was just sent back to me in plain text! Fix this now please.

My review was denied with the reason on "Denied due to not being able to understand what you were saying." Cool, that is what visitor is saying... Is the review done by robot?

God, that testimonial scroller is brutal.

If you absolutely must use a scroller, scroll down from top and show the testimonials for at least 5 seconds.

It is brutal. It will be fixed soon!

got some good feedback from a few people on this for one of my sites. Wish there was a lower price point but was happy with the results

Love love love the colors on the website. Catchy. I'll be using the service soon too!

Danielle Morille had a troubling encounter with them, as documented here: http://www.daniellemorrill.com/2013/01/why-i-wont-be-using-b...

As of 25 minutes ago, they were still publicly trashing her in Twitter.

Also known as a clinic on acting as judge and jury for your own "death by social media" judgement.

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