Top User Experience (UX) Tools
User experience tools are a tried and tested way to deepen your understanding of your audience’s needs and expectations. UX tools can be deployed for several reasons and at different stages of your project lifecycle.
UX designers may conduct extensive customer research right at the start of the design process, for example. Being able to survey targeted users, ask them questions and understand their expectations before spending time on a design is a more efficient way of working than seeking input at the final approval stage.
As a marketer, you may be concerned about how many visitors drop out of your funnel before converting. It could be that you’ve noticed a sticking point during the checkout process. Carrying out user experience testing can help uncover the underlying issues provoking dropouts. You can then take steps to remove the friction for happier customers and better conversions.
If you’ve ever wondered what tools do UX designers use? Query no more. From free tools like Google Optimize to more premium solutions, we’ve rounded up the most helpful and innovative of the bunch here. If you’re looking for additional tools to save you time and improve project outcomes, check out our top local SEO tools or local SEO resources.
Google Optimize
Ensuring users enjoy a seamless experience when visiting your website can dramatically boost conversions and sentiment. Getting that experience right requires extensive testing. Google Optimize is a free UX design tool that can help you deploy carefully controlled experiments that deliver helpful, reliable data.
Whether you want to test a different welcome message on your homepage or change how your checkout process flows, you can use Google Optimize to trial your planned changes and gauge visitor reactions. Testing different variations and comparing results can help you get closer to offering more engaging experiences that delight your target market.
Please note: Google is sunsetting Google Optimize in September 2023
Google Optimize: Cost, Trial, and Features
How much does it cost?
Free
Does it have a free trial?
It’s free to use.
What makes it unique?
You can connect Google Optimize to your existing Google Analytics 4 account for more detailed, user-centered reporting.
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Fomo
If you’ve ever visited a website and seen a box pop up advising you that someone has just purchased a particular product from that site, you’ll know the power of social proof. Fomo automates that process with a wide range of different messaging options.
You can customize what shows to your website visitors to ensure you’re providing them with helpful information to aid in their decision-making. To improve every user’s experience and reduce friction, Fomo will display messages in up to 29 different locations based on user location. What’s more, it can provide other helpful information based on the user’s actions, allowing them to enjoy a more personalized experience every visit.
Fomo: Cost, Trial, and Features
How much does it cost?
$19-$199/mo.
Does it have a free trial?
Yes. 14 days.
What makes it unique?
Fomo is highly customizable but can also auto-generate social proof messaging based on automated pattern identification.
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Visual Website Optimizer (VWO)
If your website visitors feel uneasy about any aspect of your design or navigation, they will likely bounce back to the search results in search of an alternative. Visual Website Optimizer is one of the most innovative tools for UX research available today, with lightning-fast testing and extensive insights gathered directly from your audience’s behavior.
By studying data from metrics such as heatmaps, form analytics, and session recordings, you can identify problematic bottlenecks detracting from the user experience. You can also track where users drop out of your funnel at a particular stage to zero in on areas of concern. Finally, VWO also has an on-page survey feature, so you can ask your visitors directly what they thought of their experience on your page.
Visual Website Optimizer: Cost, Trial, and Features
How much does it cost?
Contact sales.
Does it have a free trial?
Yes. 30 days.
What makes it unique?
Regardless of the programming language or structure your site is built around, VWO promises that it will be compatible.
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Crazy Egg
We’ve included Crazy Egg as one of our top UX tools and on our list of the best CRO tools. Why? Because it’s just as handy for performing A/B tests to improve conversions as it is for rooting out problems hampering the user experience.
Heatmaps, recordings, and snapshots enable you to get to know your visitors better. This data can help you design frictionless experiences with fewer sticking points in navigation or through your funnels. In addition, unresolved error tracking flags up issues at a glance so you can rectify problems that fall below the experience level you wish to offer.
Crazy Egg: Cost, Trial, and Features
How much does it cost?
$29 – $249/mo.
Does it have a free trial?
Yes. 30 days.
What makes it unique?
The data visualization on offer means you can study your data in a way that suits your preferred information style.
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UserTesting.com
What better way to understand how you can enhance and enrich your user’s experience than by asking and listening? UserTesting is a user experience management tool with a difference in that it empowers you to see and hear real users as they engage with your brand via video recordings. Cues such as facial expressions and tone of voice provide a level of insight that’s hard to beat.
Even if you don’t have your own market research capability, you can get high-quality user experience data from UserTesting’s own Contributor Network. Those participants are matched to your demographics to generate valuable feedback, so you can plan your next move.
UserTesting: Cost, Trial, and Features
How much does it cost?
Contact sales.
Does it have a free trial?
Contact sales.
What makes it unique?
The Contributor Network makes instant market research possible, with no need to source your own candidates or arrange costly focus groups.
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UsabilityHub
UsabilityHub allows you to embed user experience considerations into the earliest stages of your design process. With an eye on giving your visitors exactly what they need and expect from your site from day one, you’re less likely to go back and make significant revisions.
UsabilityHub’s testing tools include design surveys to understand your intended visitor better. By surveying, you can remove the guesswork in the design process and benefit the overall user experience.
You can additionally use UsabilityHub to carry out helpful preference tests. This entails showing your audience designs and asking them directly which they prefer. Another useful test for crafting an elevated user experience is the five-second test. Deploy this via Usability Hub to gather data-driven first impressions.
UsabilityHub: Cost, Trial, and Features
How much does it cost?
$89 – $199/mo.
Does it have a free trial?
There is a free version of this tool available.
What makes it unique?
Usability hub offers an excellent blend of tools that let you survey, carry out preference tests and implement short five-second tests to improve your UX.
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Hotjar
With Hotjar, you can gather data from heatmaps, recordings, customer surveys, and on-page suggestion boxes. The heatmap tool gives an easy-to-interpret visual representation of which areas of your site are most attractive to visitors. And which areas they don’t interact with. Scroll maps also show where a visitor stops scrolling and exits the page or site, giving you further intel on which elements aren’t meeting their needs.
Helpfully for today’s multi-device times, you can also compare behaviors across desktop, mobile, and tablet. You can then track how the experience differs and where areas of concern exist. This intel is invaluable when it comes to refining your offering.
Hotjar: Cost, Trial, and Features
How much does it cost?
$32 – $80/mo.
Does it have a free trial?
There is a free version of this tool.
What makes it unique?
Hotjar offers a trio of heatmap types; click, scroll, and move to provide a complete picture of what real visitors do when they land on your site.
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Lookback
Lookback’s motto that seeing is believing can be taken quite literally. One of the standout features of this agile UI UX tool is the ability to run moderated, private video interviews with real users. The calls are backed with timestamped notes and virtual observation rooms, allowing marketers and designers to get to the bottom of what really matters to real users.
Videos and notes made during the video call can be shared with the wider team for collaboration and interpretation. They can also be turned into highlight reels for easy reference later.
You can also set tasks for users to work through and record their experience. This can help identify problem areas that may cause your visitors to feel frustrated and unhappy with your site.
Lookback: Cost, Trial, and Features
How much does it cost?
$25 – $344/mo.
Does it have a free trial?
Yes. 60 days.
What makes it unique?
The moderated video recording feature, with private notes and an observation room, can offer up a wealth of useful user experience insight.
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Dovetail
When setting out to create a flawless user experience, there’s no more valuable data than your audiences’ opinions.
Dovetail provides a central repository for each piece of customer research you carry out. As a result, you can easily reference existing data and customer surveys to inform each stage of your decision-making process. This is made easier with collaboration and search tools.
Dovetail will transcribe customer interview videos and then help you discover patterns in your research data thanks to its advanced analytical capability. You can tag text sections across your research to build a highlights reel that offers evidence-backed user experience insight.
Dovetail: Cost, Trial, and Features
How much does it cost?
$8 – $900/mo.
Does it have a free trial?
There is a free version of this tool.
What makes it unique?
Their centralized data hub is an excellent way of having all your user feedback in one place.
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