Although it might seem that the UX designer’s workflow is dynamic, in reality, it often becomes repetitive due to constant corrections after the client’s feedback. Countless changes – not only does it become monotonous, take a lot of time, but it also consumes much of the creator’s energy.
To avoid these interferences, it’s crucial to understand potential users’ experiences, actions, and reasons justifying these actions. Here’s where user and usability testing comes in handy.
In our recent blog, we listed the best Sketch Plugins for User and Usability testing; therefore, this time, we aim to facilitate Adobe XD users search too. So, if you are looking to maximize web or app design prototypes before entering the actual development phase, scroll down and find the best Adobe XD plugins to run user and usability testing.
If you are pretty new in the world of plugins or user and usability testing, that’s fine; keep on reading because we’ll explain everything to get you “on board.”
Installing Adobe XD Plugins
Simply put, a plugin is a tool that adds a specific function to the software, program, or website, enhancing its performance and capabilities.
Thus, whether you are a UX/UI Designer, Web Developer, Text Editor whose work is dependent on certain software, plugins become very helpful in optimizing your workflow.
Adobe XD is a powerful and one of the most commonly used vector-based design platforms, which becomes even more efficient with additional plugins. Therefore, there is an excellent variety of different kinds of plugins to improve UX/UI designers’ productivity.
Regardless of which plugging you decide to go with, the installation procedure is straightforward. It takes only a few simple steps:
- Download your preferred plugin
- Unzip the file and locate the .xdx extension in the same unzipped folder
- Open Adobe XD
- Double-click the .xdx file and click on the install button
- Once installed, you’ll see a pop-up “successfully installed.”
Why it is essential to run usability testing and research
To better understand why it is vital to run user and usability testing, let’s start by clarifying both processes.
User testing is a procedure to get to know your product users better – who they are, their habits, and their reasons for certain actions. User testing helps developers and UX/UI designers to know if there is a demand for a product they create.
If user testing is about understanding a user as a persona, usability testing is very much about understanding the user’s interaction with the product. Usability testing favors gathering insights and findings, which help you identify issues and improve your product.
The importance of running user and usability testing is pretty obvious – it’s all about making sure that the product is in its best version for customers to use it.
“People ignore design that ignores people".
Therefore, these procedures are the key things to do before developing the product and releasing it to the market.
Top Adobe XD plugins for User and Usability testing
Mupixa
Mupixa is a remote, web-native usability testing platform that provides detailed insights and performance measurements in minutes, following only a few simple steps.
Key features:
Heatmaps – show which parts of the design catches users attention the most. You can choose the type of heatmap from Eye Tracking, Hover, Click/Tap, and Rage.
Statistics – usability metrics that show the success of the design. It’s measured in percentage, shown in charts and diagrams to make it all clear and simple.
Session Reply – this feature allows you to go through each individual session and see what the user has done while using the product.
Interaction flow – shows the paths taken by test users to complete the scenario.
Live session – ability to invite people for a live testing session which allows you to see real-time users’ emotions and reactions.
Pricing:
A free plan for individuals includes all basic features.
Pro plan for businesses costs from 39$/month and includes all the Free plan features and more advanced characteristics.
Enterprises plan for companies. This plan price is customizable, and its features include everything from the Pro version plus advanced security, multiple licenses, and priority support.
The use of this platform and its plugins is pretty easy and quick. No application or complicated setup is needed. The whole testing procedure is entirely hassle-free. Get to know Mupixa more here.
Attention Insight
Attention Insight is AI-powered design analytics that use heatmaps to test product design usability. It generates instant heatmaps that allow you to know where users look when engaging with your design.
Key features:
Attention Heatmaps – that are generated instantly and show the most eye-catching parts of your design product. This visual representation helps you to determine whether users view and notice certain elements.
Percentage of Attention – allows you to define an Area of Interest (AOI) that needs to be tested and shows the exact percentage of predictive reach.
Automatic Percentage of Attention – this feature recognizes the CTA button automatically and shows the percentage of attention it gets.
Clarity Score – demonstrates how clear the design is for new users. It shows the score of clarity – whether your design is too overloaded with elements, or it is nice and clear.
Pricing:
A free plan is suited for people who want to know attention patterns first.
Solo for individual creators that costs from €48/month.
Team plan for a group of creators that costs from €320/month.
Enterprise plan with its customizable prices is suited for larger companies.
Attention Insight plugin integrates with Adobe XD seamlessly giving valuable testing results in seconds. Learn more about it here.
Useberry
Useberry enables UI/UX pioneers, agile product teams & ingenious marketers to get user’s rich feedback and actionable insights in minutes. This testing process is natively integrated into one of the most popular design platforms – Adobe XD. Without the workflow being interrupted, you can test your designs and share them with other testers, teammates, managers, or collaborators.
Useberry plugin can work as a prototype testing plugin and help Adobe XD users test innovative UX ideas and collect users’ feedback and rich insights right on the spot.
Useberry
Useberry enables UI/UX pioneers, agile product teams & ingenious marketers to get user’s rich feedback and actionable insights in minutes. This testing process is natively integrated into one of the most popular design platforms – Adobe XD. Without the workflow being interrupted, you can test your designs and share them with other testers, teammates, managers, or collaborators.
Useberry plugin can work as a prototype testing plugin and help Adobe XD users test innovative UX ideas and collect users’ feedback and rich insights right on the spot.
Key features:
Heatmaps – predict which design parts will be the most eye-catchy;
User Flows – show the navigation throughout the design;
Video Recordings – show testers’ real-time interaction;
Time Bars – indicate the longitude until certain action is made;
Answers feature – provides the feedback through scale and open type of questions.
Pricing:
Free Plan which includes all the key features;
Basic plan with principal features costs from 33$/month;
Pro version plan – costs from 67$/month;
Team package – costs from 84$/month.
Also, you can get in touch with Useberry for custom plans. Visit https://www.useberry.com/ to learn more.
Stark
Stark is a suite of integrated tools, which makes product design with accessibility in mind very easy. Stark plugin is best known for its remarkable function for color contrast checking.
Key features:
Contrast Checker – in just a few seconds, it shows whether the choice of colors picked is contrasting well;
Colorblind Generator and Simulations – helps to ensure the maximum design product accessibility for everyone;
Smart Color Suggestions – suggests the colors that are most suitable for the design project;
Access to Stark Beta Community – helps to find valuable advice as well as inspiration to create impactful designs.
Pricing:
Free plan with its basic features for starters – an option to get to know this tool;
Pro plan with more features that costs from $6/month;
Custom plan for teams that comes with all the features, more control, and support. Cost is customizable.
Get to know Stark and its pricing more here.
Userbrain
Userbrain is a go-to remote user testing tool that is perfectly compatible with Adobe XD. It provides detailed findings of users’ experience in just a few simple steps.
Key features:
Full-screen capture. 5-15 minute videos of users’ experience recordings that allow you to observe their actions and certain solutions.
Audio commentary – helps to understand the reasons for certain clicks while hearing what users are thinking when trying out the product.
Personal devices – to test the website, Userbrain’s testers use the same devices as they use in their daily routine.
Natural environments – Userbrain’s testers run testing in their natural day-to-day environment. Like the feature of using personal devices, this feature provides more accurate insights as if the website was already running and real customers would use it.
Pricing:
You can start with trying out your first user test for free
“Pay as you go” deal – one-time payment, the price per user test is €29
“Subscribe and save” deal – €19 per user test, billed monthly, unused tests rollover, ability to cancel it anytime.
Learn more about the Userbrain testing tool and its pricing here.
Preely
Preely is a user testing platform for remote user and usability testing. It allows you to test your design products with unmoderated users and provides insights to validate your ideas.
Key features:
Performance metrics that show:
Prototype’s success rate;
Testers time spent on the task;
Different paths taken to see testers navigation;
Action & Heatmaps that indicate the tester’s mental models of the prototype and predict their navigation process;
Screen Statistics – average time to the first action, total visits, average screen time, hotspot hit ratio, and Top 3 next screens to show where your testers look for relevant information;
Interaction cost – can be calculated by using information about numbers of paths, strolls, clicks etc.;
Learnability – comparison of the above metrics and track of learning path.
Self-reported metrics allow you to ask questions and define which types of answers you want. You can choose from:
Opinion scales;
Closed-ended questions (multiple choice and yes/no options);
Open-ended questions (free form response);
Post-test: Net Promoter Score (NPS) – the overall rating of the experience using prototype.
Pricing:
Free plan for people who want to try out and get to know Preely;
Pro plan with more advanced features costs from 46$/month;
Team plan for a group of creators costs from 99$/month;
Enterprise package with all the features that price is customizable.
With the Preely plugin you get access to the Preely platform and in-depth analytics of your design prototype. Get to know more about it here.
Conclusion
User and usability testing is critical when it comes to developing a product. Not only does it save time and energy, but it also keeps the costs low.
Adobe XD is a great platform to create website or app product design and very easy-to-use, especially with some additional plugins installed.
We listed the best Adobe XD plugin options for user and usability testing, now it’s your turn to pick up the most suitable one and speed up your progress.
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