Online meeting and conferencing technologies make remote usability testing a possibility when geographically dispersed participants are required, but travel budgets are limited. Remote usability testing is usually best with websites or products that require little to no installation by users.
In field remote usability studies, we take portable lab equipment on the road to conduct testing in participants’ homes or workplaces, at a client location, or where many users gather at once such as at a conference or promotional event. Field testing is recommended when user environments significantly impact how a product or service is used, when users are difficult to observe outside of their own environments, or when representative users are especially difficult to recruit.
Setting up a portable usability lab and/or observation room and testing at a client’s office or facility can be beneficial both as an introductory usability demonstration or when a company or organization wants to raise its own visibility to the users invited as study participants.