What gear do I need for qualitative user testing?

‍

UX, product and design teams face growing challenges with tool proliferation, relying on different options for surveys, usability testing, and participant recruitment before transferring data into analysis tools like Dovetail. This fragmented workflow creates significant data integration issues and reporting bottlenecks that slow down teams trying to conduct smart, fast UX research. The constant switching between platforms not only wastes time but also increases the risk of data loss and inconsistencies across research projects. Optimal addresses these operational challenges by unifying the entire research workflow within a single platform, enabling teams to recruit participants, run tests and studies, and perform analysis without the complexity of managing multiple tools.

‍

Why Choose Optimal over Dovetail? 

‍

Unified Research Operations vs. Fragmented Workflow

‍

Optimal's Streamlined Workflow: Optimal eliminates tool chain management by providing recruitment, testing, and analysis in one platform, enabling researchers to move seamlessly from study design to actionable insights.

‍

Dovetail's Tool Chain Complexity: In contrast, Dovetail requires teams to coordinate multiple platforms, one for recruitment, another for surveys, a third for usability testing, then import everything for analysis, creating workflow bottlenecks and coordination overhead.

‍

Optimal's Focused Research Flow: Optimal's unified interface keeps researchers in flow state, moving efficiently through research phases without context switching or tool coordination.

‍

Context Switching Inefficiency: Dovetail users constantly switch between different tools with different interfaces, learning curves, and data formats, fragmenting focus and slowing research velocity.

‍

Integrated Intelligence vs. Data Silos

‍

Consistent Data Standards: Optimal's unified platform ensures consistent data collection standards, formatting, and quality controls across all research methods, delivering reliable insights from integrated data sources.

‍

Fragmented Data Sources: Dovetail aggregates data from multiple external sources, but this fragmentation can create inconsistencies, data quality issues, and gaps in analysis that compromise insight reliability.

‍

Automated Data Integration: Optimal automatically captures and integrates data across all research activities, enabling real-time analysis and immediate insight generation without manual data management.

‍

Manual Data Coordination: Dovetail teams spend significant time importing, formatting, and reconciling data from different tools before analysis can begin, delaying insight delivery and increasing error risk.

‍

Comprehensive Research Capabilities vs. Analysis-Only Focus

‍

Complete End-to-End Research Platform: Optimal provides a full suite of native research capabilities including live site testing, prototype testing, card sorting, tree testing, surveys, and more, all within a single platform. Optimal's live site testing allows you to test actual websites and web apps with real users without any code requirements, enabling continuous optimization post-launch.

‍

Dovetail Requires External Tools: Dovetail focuses primarily on analysis and requires teams to use separate tools for data collection, adding complexity and cost to the research workflow.

‍

AI-Powered Interview Analysis: Optimal's new Interviews tool transforms how teams extract insights from user research. Upload interview videos and let AI automatically surface key themes, generate smart highlight reels, create timestamped transcripts, and produce actionable insights in hours instead of weeks. Every insight comes with supporting video evidence, making it easy to back up recommendations with real user feedback.

‍

Dovetail's Manual Analysis Process: While Dovetail offers analysis features, teams must still coordinate external interview tools and manually import data before analysis can begin, creating additional workflow steps.

‍

Global Research Capabilities vs. Limited Data Collection

‍

Global Participant Network: Optimal's 10+ million verified participants across 150+ countries provide comprehensive recruitment capabilities with advanced targeting and quality assurance for any research requirement.

‍

No Native Recruitment: Dovetail's beta participant recruitment add-on lacks the scale and reliability enterprise teams need, forcing dependence on external recruitment services with additional costs and complexity.

‍

Complete Research ROI: Optimal delivers immediate value through integrated data collection and analysis capabilities, ensuring consistent ROI regardless of external research dependencies.

‍

Analysis-Only Value: Dovetail's value depends entirely on research volume from external sources, making ROI uncertain for teams with moderate research needs or budget constraints.

‍

Dovetail Challenges: 

‍

Dovetail may slow teams because of challenges with: 

‍

• Multi-tool coordination requiring significant project management overhead
• Data fragmentation creating inconsistencies and quality control challenges
• Context switching between platforms disrupting research flow and focus
• Manual data import and formatting delaying insight delivery
• Complex tool chain management requiring specialized technical knowledge

‍

When Optimal is the Right Choice

‍

Optimal becomes essential for:

‍

• Streamlined Workflows: Teams needing efficient research operations without tool coordination overhead
• Research Velocity: Projects requiring rapid iteration from hypothesis to validated insights
• Data Consistency: Studies where integrated data standards ensure reliable analysis and conclusions
• Focus and Flow: Researchers who need to maintain deep focus without platform switching
• Immediate Insights: Teams requiring real-time analysis and instant insight generation
• Resource Efficiency: Organizations wanting to maximize researcher productivity and minimize tool management

‍

Ready to move beyond basic feedback to strategic research intelligence? Experience how Optimal's analytical depth and comprehensive insights drive product decisions that create competitive advantage.

Every month we have fun and informative “bite sized” presentations to add some inspiration to your lunch break.  These virtual events allow us to partner with amazing speakers, community groups and organizations to share their insights and hot takes on a variety of topics impacting our industry. 

‍

Join us at the end of every month for Lunch n' Learn.

‍

‍

Susanna Carman

‍

Leading design processes amidst a world in transition requires all practitioners to continuously invest in their own development. One aspect worth investing in, is an ability to integrate holistic thinking into our design leadership practice. This includes re-evaluating our own biases and how that bias is reflected in the tools we choose to work with when understanding and designing for/within complex systems.

‍

Recently our guest Susanna Carman, Strategic Designer and founder of Transition Leadership LAB, introduced us to a holistic approach to qualitative design research using Ken Wilber’s 4 Quadrant Model. Susanna explained the fundamental principles underpinning the framework, and showed how it can be used to ensure a multi-perspectival harvest of critical qualitative and quantitative data on any design project.  

‍

‍

‍

Speaker bio

‍

Susanna Carman is a Strategic Designer and research-practitioner who helps people solve complex problems, the types of problems that have to do with services, systems and human interactions. Specialising in design, leadership and learning, Susanna brings a high value toolkit and herself as Thinking Partner to design, leadership and change practitioners who are tasked with delivering sustainable solutions amidst disruptive conditions. 

‍

Susanna holds a Masters of Design Futures degree from RMIT University, and has over a decade of combined experience delivering business performance, cultural alignment and leadership development outcomes to the education, health, community development and financial services sectors. She is also the founder and host of Transition Leadership Lab, a 9-week learning lab for design, leadership and change practitioners who already have a sophisticated set of tools and mindsets, but still feel these are insufficient to meet the challenge of leading change in a rapidly transforming world.

‍

Grab your lunch, invite your colleagues and we hope to see you at our next Lunch n' Learn 🌯🍱🍜🍲

Summary: The equipment and tools you use to run your user testing sessions can make your life a lot easier. Here’s a quick guide.

‍

It’s that time again. You’ve done the initial scoping, development and internal testing, and now you need to take the prototype of your new design and get some qualitative data on how it works and what needs to be improved before release. It’s time for the user testing to begin.

‍

But the prospect of user testing raises an important question, and it’s one that many new user researchers often deliberate over: What gear or equipment should I take with me? Well, never fear. We’re going to break down everything you need to consider in terms of equipment, from video recording through to qualitative note-taking.

‍

Recording: Audio, screens and video

‍

The ability to easily record usability tests and user interviews means that even if you miss something important during a session, you can go back later and see what you’ve missed. There are 3 types of recording to keep in mind when it comes to user research: audio, video and screen recording. Below, we’ve put together a list of how you can capture each. You shouldn’t have to buy any expensive gear – free alternatives and software you can run on your phone and laptop should suffice.

‍

• Audio – Forget dedicated sound recorders; recording apps for smartphones (iOS and Android) allow you to record user interviews and usability tests with ease and upload the recordings to Google Drive or your computer. Good options include Sony’s recording app for Android and the built-in Apple recording app on iOS.
• Transcription – Once you’ve created a recording, you’ll no doubt want a text copy to work with. For this, you’ll need transcription software to take the audio and turn it into text. There are companies that will make transcriptions for you, but software like Transcribe means you can carry out the process yourself.
• Screen recording – Very useful during remote usability tests, screen recording software can show you exactly how participants react to the tasks you set out for them, even if you’re not in the room. OBS Studio is a good option for both Mac and Windows users. You can also use Quicktime (free) if you’re running the test in person.
• Video – Recording your participants as they make their way through the various tasks in a usability test can provide useful reference material at the end of your testing sessions. You can refer back to specific points in a video to capture any detail you may have missed, and you can share video with stakeholders to demonstrate a point. If you don’t have access to a dedicated camera, consider mounting your smartphone on a tripod and recording that way.

‍

Taking (and making use of) notes

‍

Notetaking and qualitative user testing go hand in hand. For most user researchers, notetaking during a research session means busting out the Post-it notes and Sharpie pens, rushing to take down every observation and insight and then having to arduously transcribe these notes after the session – or spend hours in workshops trying to identify themes and patterns. This approach still has merit, as it’s often one of the best ways to get people who aren’t too familiar with user research involved in the process. With physical notes, you can gather people around a whiteboard and discuss what you’re looking at. What’s more, you can get them to engage with the material directly.

‍

But there are digital alternatives. Qualitative notetaking software (like our very own Reframer) means you can bring a laptop into a user interview and take down observations directly in a secure environment. Even better, you can ask someone else to sit in as your notetaker, freeing you up to focus on running the session. Then, once you’ve run your tests, you can use the software for theme and pattern analysis, instead of having to schedule yet another full day workshop.

‍

Scheduling your user tests

‍

Ah, participant scheduling. Perhaps one of the most time-consuming parts of the user testing process. Thankfully, software can drastically reduce the logistical burden.

Here are some useful pieces of software:

‍

Dedicated scheduling tool Calendly is one of the most popular options for participant scheduling in the UX community. It’s really hands-off, in that you basically let the tool know when you’re available, share the Calendly link with your prospective participants, and then they select a time (from your available slots) that works for them. There are also a host of other useful features that make it a popular option for researchers, like integrations and smart timezones.

‍

If you’re already using the Optimal Workshop platform, you can use our  survey tool Questions as a fairly robust scheduling tool. Simply set up a study and add in prospective time slots. You can then use the multi-choice field option to have people select when they’re available to attend. You can also capture other data and avoid the usual email back and forth.

‍

Storing your findings
‍

One of the biggest challenges for user researchers is effectively storing and cataloging all of the research data that they start to build up. Whether it’s video recordings of usability tests, audio recordings or even transcripts of user interviews, you need to ensure that your data is A) easily accessible after the fact, and B) stored securely to ensure you’re protecting your participants.

‍

Here are some things to ask yourself when you store any piece of customer or user data:

‍

• Who will have access to this data?
• How long do I plan to keep this data?
• Will this data be anonymized?
• If I’m keeping physical data on hand, where will it be stored?

‍

Don’t make the mistake of thinking user data is ‘secure enough’, whether that’s on a company server that anyone can access, or even in an unlocked filing cabinet beneath your desk. Data privacy and security should always be at the top of your list of considerations. We won’t dive into best practices for participant data protection in this article, but instead, just mention that you need to be vigilant. Wherever you end up storing information, make sure you understand who has access.

‍

Wrap up

‍

Hopefully, this guide has given you an overview of some of the tools and software you can use before you start your next user test. We’ve also got a number of other interesting articles that you can read right here on our blog.