Hi. I am the Founder of Validately. Validately is a tool to help you get quick user feedback on websites or prototypes. @callmevlad and I are doing research on a potential partnership between Validately and Webflow. We would love your feedback on whether this is a service that you would want to use with Webflow sites?
Some specifics:
About Validately: Validately is a low cost, quick user testing platform. We offer ways to get feedback on existing users or test on a demographically targeted panel. We record the userās activities for playback in mobile or desktop (without requiring a download or a plugin). In addition to user activity recordings, we also produce funnel reports and allow you to ask qualitative questions. You get answers in minutes. Here is our pricing. And here is a 1 minute video overview of our solutions: Validately HomePage Video on Vimeo
About the Partnership:
We would integrate Validately into Webflow in a way that would allow single-sign-on and easy testing of Webflow sites. You could launch a user test within a few minutes and start getting feedback immediately.
Questions:
Would you use this service on a Webflow site?
Why? Why not?
How frequently would you want to get user feedback on a Webflow site?
First of all, thanks for trying to make our workflow and products better. Great to see that youāve got a working product that enables people to better (experience) the web.
Personally I wouldnāt need the functionality of Validately for my clients, as my Webflow project arenāt combined to webproducts/environments that are in any way more sophisticated than a website.
With Webflow I (try to) build websites that are mainly very good looking digital flyers. For what I know of the WF platform now, is that there are limited possibilities to have a lot of user interaction without custom code or āhackingā the webflow functions. I can imagine that the guys at WF are working to integrate more and more functions that allow for user interaction (such as more sophisticated forms, login-functionality, user focused content, and what more) testing would be something of my interest in the future.
As iām not quite sure who the testers are in your platform, Iād say:
Big data = more better.
I would want data from every user that visits, maybe summed up in a nice daily report.
Iām a bit confused on itās functionality. Would it be for users to correspond with clients during a build or for us to correspond with the webflow team when betas or new features are launched?
Hey @callmevlad thanks for asking
Personally I think I would only make use of this if a client specifically requested it, Iām pretty happy with my current user testing methods - so itās not something I would want to pay a monthly fee for. I wouldnāt mind paying a one time fee whenever I need to use it to user test a client site, and of course Iād have the client pay the additional fee in the end. But probably not something Iād use often Love the concept though!
Sadly, I have to agree with @jaidenraleach. This is not that kind of feature that will make me wanna pay monthly fees. That would be a great feature that could let Webflow Staff check the beta software, how we use it etc, but I donāt think itās necessery. Webflow Team has a great community that tests their new features before official release and Iām sure they get enough feedback.
If this is about us - regular Webflow users - I, personaly, canāt find a suitable moment to use this kind of feature. Everything that has to be tested I test myself on different devices before I release it. I also use Google Analytics Advanced that letās me check almost everything about my visitors.
Iām not saying that this app is not useful, itās just I donāt find it nessecary to use. But good luck with this project :)
Definitely not something I would pay for. I already have the ability to have the client test the site in the subdomain and get back to me via email/chat about any issues or changes. I really donāt see anything you are offering that is any different.
My workflow: the initial design drafts are done with Sketch. When we agree on a design, Iāll create the webflow project. When itās time to show the webflow-project (or parts of it) to the client, Iāve already done the feature testing. If at that stage thereās anything not implemented or working yet, Iāll let the client know before I show him the project. Otherwise weāll communicate directly (phone, mail, skype or meeting).
As mentioned by @Diu, primarily webflow is a design tool. When it comes to more complex projects (outside of webflow), Iām using Pivotaltracker.
I question how Validately would help me finish a webflow project.
Hi Everyone. Thank you for your replies so far. Great community!
I wanted to clarify two points:
Validately is built for quick User Testing. What most of you are
describing if functional testing and getting client input, not User
Testing. Do you do User Testing on your sites?
We can offer a pricing option that does NOT require a monthly fee.
It can be 100% on usage basis so long as you are getting feedback
from our demographically targeted panel. The cost is $10/response
and you get a recording of the userās activities, a funnel report
and charts of qualitative responses.
Being able to do real user testing quickly and simply must be a good thing.
The fact that it currently isnāt that easy to do is probably the reason why I donāt do it much (personally, I donāt have book of people in various demographics who I can contact at any time, waiting to do a user test!).
When done well, user testing it great for helping deny or confirm the types of things you have a hunch about but arenāt 100% sure and also to help settle those in-house ādiscussionsā about what is the right approach.
So while I think its got potential (how could genuinely easy user testing not have?), I would have to evaluate it on itās own terms to really assess itās worth. If I found I was getting genuinely insightful, actionable feedback that improved the effectiveness of my designs then it would be much easier for me to assess how much I would be prepared to pay for the value it provided.
To answer your questions:
1. Would you use this service on a Webflow site?
Yes and no, depends on the site and the effectiveness of the tool and itās cost.
2. Why? Why not?
Why: because user testing can be powerful in improving the effectiveness of designs and makes us better designers in future. Why not: User testing is not really necessary or appropriate for all projects.
3. How frequently would you want to get user feedback on a Webflow site?
Depends on the type of site but if I found it worked well, Iād probably use it more often. Makes me think of the Steve Jobs quote āpeople donāt know what they want until you show it to themā - if it worked well and made me and my designs more effective, then Iād use it!
Practically, I have a problem with webflow in that the only link I can share with clients (or testers) for feedback is the published site (the āpublic linkā which shows the webflow interface is not suitable to send to clients) - of course, this means I have to actually publish the site live - not very good for trying stuff out for feedback or testing. We need a staging/UAT URL so we can share stuff for feedback prior to making it live.
Hi @jaidenraleach. If we offered testing without the monthly fee but with the per response fee on our panel, would you be interested in using it for User Testing your webflow pages?
Hey @spcohn if it didnāt have the monthly fee it would be something I would offer to my clients as an addon option, so if they chose to have it added on then I would use it at the $10/tester price that I would charge to the client.
Iām not sure I understood it wellā¦ What exactly could I test using this feature? Any example? Could you please help me @spcohn understand it? I might have misunderstood it at the beginningā¦
One feedback campaign as an audit for a new project, then another feedback campaign when the new website is implemented. Each feedback campaign can include a variable number of respondents.
Q: whatās the advantage over usertesting.com? How is a single-sign-on going to help? If I want quick and cheap feedback I just use mTurkā¦ How is Validately better?
Iād be happy to test out Validately if you need early users.
