I recently created some test on fivesecondtest.com. The site shows its users a screenshot for 5 seconds and you can then ask them questions about it. Just take a look by doing a random test now.
The 5 second tests are part of usabilityhub.com, they also have two other types of tests there.
So here are my experiences:
The site in general
You need karma to create a test on the site, you get karma by giving answers on other people’s test. In my experience you can easily get 10 karma points per day if you check for new quizzes 2 or 3 times a day. Each karma point allows you to get one response on your own test.
You can expect about 1 response per hour, but it is hard to get more than 20 responses. I had a test stalling at 36 answers for several days before I ended it. This might be different if you use one of their paid offers.
The site is a bit buggy, e.g. I couldn’t give answers to tests for a while. I did not encounter any problems like not being able to create tests or data getting lost.
The quality of answers
The answers were a lot more useful than I expected and there was basically no spam. I grouped the answers in 3 categories:
- Great: people who comment on specific parts of the page and tell you what you can do to improve it (e.g. “make the navigation more independent”, “make that color brighter”)
- Helpful: people who say what is wrong with the site but don’t help you to find a solution (e.g. “sleeker”, “change the colors”)
- Useless: spam, not related to the question
Here’s a yummy pie chart (based on 66 answers):
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Tips for creating quizzes
- Make sure that users don’t have to scroll when viewing the screenshot (i.e. no whitespace on the sides)
- Be specific in your instructions, tell whether you are more interested in comments on design or content
- If it’s not in the instructions, don’t ask about specific site elements (except maybe in the first question, use this question well!), I forget a lot of stuff
Most of the time I asked what the first impression was and how the design could be improved. The answer to the first impression sometimes was the same as the answer to what you can do on the site.
All in all, I’m happy with the answers I got. Give it a try!
