When businesses decide to conduct consumer research for a new website, they usually hire a usability testing company to set up, run, and analyze the actual tests. This User Research is invaluable in ensuring that the final site meets all the company’s sales and branding needs. There are several broad types of testing that can be employed so businesses can choose the one that will provide the best data set for their needs.

Hallway testing is a common form of usability testing. It selects random people from a public location rather than relying on trained testers. This testing is done in a laboratory setting, where testers can observe all aspects of the user interaction, even recording the tests for detailed analysis after the test subjects have departed. Expert Review is the opposite of hallway testing . It utilizes experts in a subject, industry, or trained in usability factors. A variant of this is Automated Expert Review which subjects a site to the same rules of usability and design, but it conducted by an automated program rather than actual users.

Asynchronous usability testing or remote usability testing provides data from much larger samples, since it is not tied to a centralized lab or test center. Data is collected from users using an online survey or by remote video and computer recording of the tests. The larger sample size can provide data sets that can be divided by demographic and geographic segments as well as attitudinal and behavioral types.