2 min read Research

Which test participants should I choose when user testing a B2B site's navigation experience?

Which test participants should I choose when user testing a B2B site's navigation experience?

Scenario: You have been asked to evaluate whether visitors find the most important parts of your company's site and where in the navigation experience the most crucial pain points are to be found. But how do you decide which type of users that are best suited as participants?

To design a great test you need to define the right type of users for the test, i.e. your testing target group. These are the users that you think would maximize the results of your test. That could be people without any previous knowledge whatsoever of your site/company/brand/offering, people with some knowledge that aren't yet clients (also known as leads) or existing clients. On top of that you might add the distinction between customers vs users, i.e people that are making purchase decision vs pure users of whatever you are offering as a company in your products/services.

The key here is to think hard about what would "maximize the results of your test". Normally the answer derives from the main goal of the project or overlying initiative that the user testing fits within. That's the problem you are trying to optimize for. So next question is:

  • What is the goal of the project/initiative you are involved in?
  • What would make your stakeholders happy and why?
  • What is it that we are trying to achieve here really?

Surprisingly often the last questions above is what it all comes down to. To help you out in your potential struggle of finding an answer:

  • Is your overall goal to get inbound leads to convert to clients faster and more easily?
  • Is your goal to point more visitors (any type of visitor) in the right direction on who to talk to at your company?
  • Or is it to help existing clients serve themselves?

The answer to what you are trying to achieve is the answer to who to define as your ideal participants for your test. So once you have that defined, how do you recruit these people to show up for your test and maximize your result? Stay tuned for a future article on that topic...