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5-Second Test: A web app

While trying to catch up on all things design, I found a great tool via Robert Hoekman’s recent post at the IXDA site. It’s called 5 second test, a product who’s sole intent is to help facilitate and manage Jarod Spool’s 5-second test model for usability testing.

How it works: Creating a test is simple

The product is tight, simple and seems to be an incredibly valuable asset for quick, off the cuff insight & feedback from a user community. To start I’ll walk through how the product works from the perspective of the test moderator or manager. To start, you only need two simple things. One screenshot for which you’d like to gain some feedback and insight, and an email address. Here’s how it works:

1. On the homepage your prompted to enter your email address & upload an image for testing
2. Submit this information and you’re immediately provided with a short, unique URL for the test. This is displayed on the next screen and emailed as well.
3. Email each participant with the instructions they should follow and include the link.

Essentially it’s that easy.

Now for the end user. It’s also quite simple.

How it works: Conducting a test is as easy as email

The other side of the product of course is to display the single screen to the test participants and collect their input after the screen is presented. This too is simple and straightforward.Here’s how the test participants would interact with the product:

1. The participant would click the link from the email you provided (hopefully reading your thorough instructions first)
2. The user is sent to a landing page, and given some instruction about how the test is conducted
3. The user clicks “Start Test” and is presented with provided screenshot.
4. After Five (5) second the display dissolves to reveal five form field to input the items they remembered based on the instructions you provided
5. You’re done

I’m curious to see how the User Experience community and testing community make use of this product as I could see it becoming a fairly strong asset being that it’s so stripped down and simple. Obviously for more complex or intricate insight, a more traditional approach should be taken, but for quick, minute details such as accuracy of “Call to Action” buttons or copy, this could certainly be invaluable. We’ll see how the product evolves in featureset and experience, but thus far, it hits the nail on the head.

Oh, and to protect the client, the site enables the test creator to disable/delete the test upon compilation of results. Obviously useful.