Accelerate Study Creation with the New Study Flow

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:
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• Understand Intent: Watch users in action to reveal their decision-making process.
• Spot Friction Points: Identify moments of hesitation, confusion, or frustration.
• Test Your Ideas: Leverage user insights to make informed decisions before moving forward.‍
• Track Task Success: Combine video insights with quantitative data to understand what works and what needs refinement.
• Share Compelling Insights: Use recordings to drive alignment across your team and key stakeholders.
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Drive Value with Video Recordings and Prototype Testing

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‍By combining video recordings with prototype testing, you can unlock actionable insights that make a real impact. 
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Here’s how they drive value for your initiatives:
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• 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.
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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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Use Optimal’s recruitment service to quickly connect you with millions of people in 150+ countries ready to take part in your study. Our in-house team handles feasibility assessments, sends reminders and confirmations, reviews personalized study setups, and conducts human checks to ensure high quality participants to maximize the value of your video recordings.
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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:
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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.
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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.
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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 Surveys helps product, design and research teams capture the user insights that actually drive decisions—from feature validation to user journey optimization. Now it's getting even smarter.

Research shows that when surveys are customized, people give more thoughtful answers and are less likely to drop out.

‍That’s why we’re really excited to roll out one of our most requested survey features: Display Logic!
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This new capability creates truly dynamic surveys that eliminate irrelevant questions and reduce drop-off rates. Instead of moving users through generic questionnaires, Display Logic shows each participant only what matters to them, giving you higher-quality data and more targeted insights.

Combined with our existing branching logic, you now have complete control over creating survey experiences that feel personal, not repetitive.
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Why Dynamic Surveys Matters

Better data quality

When participants only see relevant questions, their answers are more thoughtful and accurate. More focused questions mean better insights.

More targeted insights

Use previous responses to drill deeper into specific topics—or skip over areas that don’t apply. You’ll uncover richer insights without extra noise.

Faster, more focused studies

Customizing the survey cuts out extra questions, keeps participants engaged, and helps them move through faster. Plus, a better experience means they’re more likely to take part in your future research.

What You Can Do with Display Logic

• Set multiple logic conditions for one question
• Show or hide questions or answers based on earlier responses from radio, Likert, and dropdown questions
• Apply logic across screeners, pre- and post-study questions, and survey questions

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Smarter Optimal Surveys

We've been doubling down on making Optimal surveys both user-friendly and best-in-class for delivering insights. To help you get the most out of your surveys, we’ve added AI Simplify to suggest clearer, more effective question wording to help you engage participants and get higher-quality data.

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We’ve also recently launched automated Insights for open-text responses. This feature takes the grunt work out of analysis by instantly surfacing key themes from open-text and matrix responses.

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These are just a few of the ways we’re shaping Optimal into one of the most thoughtful and effective survey tools out there. With powerful AI features like question writing and instant insights built right in, we’re making it easier than ever to go from idea to impact.

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Whether you're running usability studies, product tests, or market research, Optimal’s display logic and other survey tools help you create cleaner, more efficient surveys from start to finish. Start tailoring your surveys today to drive data-backed decisions.

Not yet using Optimal? Start your free 7-day trial and launch your first survey now.

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Investing in prototype testing and user-focused design isn't just about creating better products—it's a proven strategy to save costs, accelerate timelines, and drive customer loyalty. According to Forrester Research, companies that incorporate prototype testing in their design process can reduce development costs by 33% and cut collaboration time by 25%. UX-focused companies also see products hit the market 50% faster and loyalty rise by 240% (Forrester Research, Nielsen Norman Group)!

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Whether you're refining user flows, testing new concepts, or optimizing your onboarding experience or conversion flows, prototype testing helps ensure your designs hit the mark—before you invest too heavily in the build.

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With those benefits in mind, let's dive into how prototype testing can help you deliver user-centered designs efficiently and effectively. 

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Common Use Cases for Prototype Testing
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1. Test Onboarding and Sign-Up Flows
   How intuitive is your onboarding process? Prototype testing can help identify friction points, ensuring users can navigate and complete sign-ups seamlessly. For example, you can simulate different scenarios to determine whether users can easily register, set up accounts, or retrieve forgotten passwords.
   
   
2. A/B Test Email Designs
   Test different layouts, calls-to-action (CTAs), or visual elements in your email prototypes to discover what resonates best with your audience. Measure metrics like click-through rates or time spent engaging with content to refine your design.
   
   
3. Evaluate User Flows and Wireframes
   Whether you're testing a new feature, redesigning a user journey, or validating a wireframe, prototype testing gives you real-world insights. Observe how users interact with your design and identify areas for improvement before you move to development.
   
   
4. Test Concepts
   Before launching a new idea, validate it through prototype testing. Let users interact with your concept to gauge feasibility and potential impact. This can save time and resources by helping you focus on ideas that resonate.
   
   
5. Evaluate Conversion Flows
   Are users completing purchases or achieving desired outcomes? Use prototype testing to analyze conversion flows and pinpoint where users drop off. From landing pages to payment processes, you can optimize every step for success.
   
   
6. Test User Interfaces (UI)
   Ensure your UI elements—buttons, navigation menus, or forms—are intuitive and accessible. Prototype testing can help you identify design inconsistencies or usability challenges early in the process.
   
   
7. Conduct Usability Tests
   Have a new feature in development? Prototype testing lets you see how users interact with it, revealing insights that can guide refinements and improve overall satisfaction.

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Real-Life Prototype Testing Scenarios

Airline
Imagine your flight has been canceled. Ask how your customers self-service on the airline website to find new flight options. 

Bank
Have a prospect or customer interact with a prototype to open a business account online. Uncover usability issues and streamline the process.

Insurance
Imagine you’re interested in switching car insurance. Explore how intuitive it is for customers to view coverage details in an app, helping insurers improve navigation and accessibility.

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Prototype Testing Analysis & Insights

Optimal’s prototype testing gives you a variety of analysis options to help you to evaluate the effectiveness and usability of your prototypes. Use these to see exactly how users navigate, where they face challenges, and what areas are proving to be successful.
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• Task-based scenarios: Observe how users complete tasks like purchasing a product or updating account settings and set correction paths and destinations.
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• Clickmaps: See how users navigate and locate information. See hits and misses on designated clickable areas, average task completion times, and heatmaps showing where users believed the next steps to be.
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• Task results: Gather insights into how long it took to take a task (time taken), misclicks, directness score (considering backtracks or incorrect pathways), and success score.
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• Participant paths: The Paths tab provides a powerful visualization, including thumbnails, to understand and identify common navigation patterns and potential obstacles participants encounter while completing tasks.
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• Video, audio, and/or screen recording: See how your users interact with and respond to your prototype. Listen to their thought process and pick up on nonverbal cues, like hesitation, frustration, or confusion to pinpoint areas for improvement or exploration.  

Ready to use prototype testing to help your team reduce development costs and get a faster time to market? Get started in your account by creating a new prototype test.

Not yet a user of Optimal? Sign up for a free 7-day trial.