December 4, 2024
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Bye-bye Beta 👋🏼 Hello Prototype Testing 🚀

After months of invaluable collaboration with our incredible community, we're thrilled to announce that Prototype Testing has officially graduated from beta and is now available to everyone on the Individual+, Team, and Enterprise plans!

Reflecting on the Beta Journey ⭐

The Prototype Testing Beta was launched with a singular mission: to gather feedback from our community to help shape the future of the tool. Over the past few months, we've been privileged to work alongside a diverse group of customers and UX leaders— who provided invaluable feedback, completed many Usability Tests, and helped us refine the tool.

From the initial rollout to the most recent updates, your input has shaped our decisions, from design tweaks to functional improvements. Together, we’ve tackled challenges, explored creative solutions, and built something that truly aligns with user needs.

Highlights from the Beta 🥳

  • Figma OAuth Integration: One of our most anticipated features, this seamless integration enabled testers to connect their design workflows directly with our platform, paving the way for smoother collaboration.

  • Improved security with password management: A new "Password settings" button allows users to manage stored passwords, which participants receive before starting their Prototype Study. Additionally, users are prompted for a password when importing protected prototypes.

  • Improvements to usability: Your feedback was taken onboard, and we’ve updated the buttons, including "Re-sync to file" and "Change prototype," to improve usability.

  • Results sharing: You can now easily share specific sections (e.g., analysis, tasks, clickmaps) via a URL with your stakeholders in just a few clicks. With the added protection of a password for secure access.
  • Participant data view: To speed up your data analysis and improve your workflows we’ve added task metrics in the "Results > Participants" table, showing tasks completed, skipped, and success percentage.

  • Notes tab in analysis: Users can now take notes directly in the Analysis section for Task Results, Click Maps, Paths, and Questionnaires.

What's next for Prototype Testing ❓

Introducing Video Recording

We're thrilled to announce our most requested feature is coming to Prototype Testing: seamless video recording that captures the full depth of user experiences.

A Frictionless Experience

  • Browser-based recording - no plugins needed
  • Automatic consent management for screen, face, and voice recording
  • Seamless integration with your existing test flow
  • Secure storage and easy access to recordings

Why video changes everything

Video recording transforms your research by:

  • Capturing authentic user reactions and emotions
  • Understanding the "why" behind user behaviors
  • Sharing compelling user stories with stakeholders
  • Building deeper empathy across your team

Beyond video: The road ahead

Your feedback during the beta has shaped an exciting roadmap for 2025 and beyond. While we can't reveal everything just yet, know that every feature and enhancement planned has been inspired by your needs and suggestions.

A thank you from our team 🫶

To our incredible beta participants: your partnership has been invaluable. You've shared your expertise, challenged our assumptions, and helped us build something truly special. Every piece of feedback, every suggestion, and every bug report has contributed to making Prototype Testing a tool that truly serves the UX research community.

Join us on the journey

This is just the beginning of our mission to make expert research accessible to all. Stay tuned for regular updates as we continue to evolve Prototype Testing based on your needs and feedback. Here's to the next chapter of creating exceptional digital experiences together!

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Sarah
Flutey

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Insights & AI Beta

As part of our beta release, you'll gain access to the newest enhancements to our Qualitative Insights tool (previously known as Reframer).

  1. Insights: A dedicated space to create, organize, and communicate your key takeaways. Create Insights on your own or with AI.
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Our new Insights and AI functionality streamlines your qualitative analysis process, allowing you to quickly summarize, create, and organize key takeaways from your data.

Help documentation

  1. How AI Insights clustering works in Optimal
  2. Create an Insight with and without AI
  3. How AI generated Insights work in Optimal
  4. Our AI guiding principles
  5. How to set your preferences for AI
  6. Analyzing & sharing your Insights
  7. Learn more about Qualitative Insights

Notes on AI Privacy & Security


Optimal uses AWS Amazon Bedrock, which is the fully managed service that makes large language models (LLMs) from Amazon and leading AI startups available through an API, for AI generation for Qualitative Insights.


Amazon Bedrock meets industry-leading standards for compliance, including: ISO, SOC, CSA STAR Level 2, GDPR, and HIPAA eligible. Learn more about Amazon Bedrock.

We take your privacy seriously. When you use AI Insights: 

  1. Your data stays within your organization
  2. We don't use it to train other AI models
  3. You control when to use AI for insights
  4. AI features can be turned on or off anytime

Questions & feedback

If you have any questions, please reach out to our support team via live chat.

We appreciate any feedback you have on improving your experience and invite you to share your thoughts through this feedback form at anytime. Our product team will also be in touch mid-late October to to gather further insights about your experience.

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From Design to Decision: Unlock Deeper Insights with Video Recording for Prototype Testing

We’re excited to launch our video recording functionality for prototype testing, enabling you to dive deeper into the “why” behind user actions and empowering you to make data-informed decisions faster and with greater confidence.

See User Actions Come to Life


Capture the nuance of user interactions with screen, audio, and/or video recording. With Optimal’s video recording feature, you can:

  • Understand Intent: Watch users in action to reveal their decision-making process.
  • Spot Friction Points: Identify moments of hesitation, confusion, or frustration.
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Drive Value with Video Recordings and Prototype Testing


By combining video recordings with prototype testing, you can unlock actionable insights that make a real impact. 

Here’s how they drive value for your initiatives:

  • Higher Conversion Rates: Optimized designs based on real user feedback lead to increased engagement.
  • Greater User Satisfaction: Tested prototypes help to better align your experiences with user needs and expectations.
  • Reduced Development Costs: Catch issues early to avoid costly fixes later in the development process.
  • Faster Time-to-Market: Resolve design flaws early to accelerate project timelines.

Recruit the Right Participants for Richer Results


Optimal combines the power of video recording, participant recruitment, and a comprehensive UX insights and research platform to elevate your product and research process.

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Thank you, Beta Testers


We’re grateful to our early adopters and beta testers for shaping the future of video recording and prototype testing. Based on your valuable feedback, we’ve made the following updates:

Video recording updates

  • Additional recording controls: You can now control whether to reject participants or forward a participant to a non-recording study link if they do not meet your recording criteria. 
  • Translations: Set your study language and translate the recording instructions into 180+ languages.
  • No video expirations: We’ve removed video expirations, ensuring your recordings remain accessible as long as you have an active Optimal subscription.
  • Improved participant experience: We’ve improved the technology to reduce technical errors, creating a more reliable and user-friendly experience.

Prototype testing updates

  • Collapse/expand and move tasks: Increase prototype visibility by hiding or moving tasks, making it easier for participants to view and interact with more of your design, especially for mobile prototypes.
  • Option to end tasks automatically: When enabled, tasks will automatically end 0.5 seconds after a participant reaches a correct destination, removing the need for participants to confirm that they've completed the task. This can improve the overall participant experience, removing steps and making tests faster to complete.
  • Increased Figma frame limit:  We’ve increased the Figma frame limit from 30 to 100 frames to support larger, more complex prototypes.
  • Expanded task results: Task path results now indicated completed and skipped tasks for better analysis.
  • Time-saving improvements: Auto-select the starting screen after importing a Figma prototype, and enjoy task selection persistence across tabs in the analysis view.
  • Enhanced security: We’ve updated Figma authorization for expanded security for your prototypes.

Ready to unlock the power of video recording?
Get started with a prototype test
in Optimal or visit our help documentation to learn more.

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Optimal vs Useberry: Why Strategic Research Requires More Than Basic Prototype Testing

Smaller research teams often choose lightweight tools like Useberry for quick userfeedback, but enterprise product teams need platforms that deliver both speed and strategic depth. While Useberry offers basic prototype testing, Optimal provides the deep features and flexible participant recruitment that leading organizations need to make better product and design decisions.

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Rapid Feedback vs. Comprehensive Research Intelligence

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Key Platform Differentiators for Enterprise

  • Limited Methodology Support: Useberry focuses primarily on prototype testing with basic surveys, lacking the comprehensive research methodology suite enterprise teams need for diverse research requirements.
  • Complete Research Platform: Optimal provides full-spectrum research capabilities including advanced card sorting, tree testing, surveys, prototype validation, and qualitative insights with integrated analysis across all methods.
  • Basic Security and Support: Useberry operates with standard security measures and basic support options, insufficient for enterprise organizations with compliance requirements and mission-critical research needs.
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When to Choose Optimal vs. Useberry

Useberry may be a good choice for teams who are happy with:

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  • Limited participant targeting without sophisticated segmentation
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  • Standard security needs without enterprise compliance requirements
  • Small-scale projects without global research demands

When Optimal Enables Research Excellence

Optimal becomes essential for:

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  • Advanced Analytics: Teams requiring AI-powered insights, statistical modeling, and predictive analysis
  • Quality-Critical Studies: Where participant verification and data integrity are paramount
  • Scalable Operations: Growing research programs needing enterprise-grade platform capabilities

Ready to transform research from basic feedback to strategic intelligence? Experience how Optimal's enterprise platform delivers the comprehensive capabilities and global reach your research program demands.

Seeing is believing

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