Impression testing
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Impression testing

Tag(s)
Research & testing
Cook(s)
Kat McGeeRebecca Blakiston

Nutrition profile

Impression testing or concept testing is a quick and easy way to know if your idea or design is as awesome to others as it is to you.

Cooking time

About 5 seconds! (Per user). That's why one variation on this method is called the "5-second test."

Though depending on how many questions you want to ask and if they are multiple choice or open-ended, it might take a few additional seconds. But the goal is for these to be short and focus on just initial impressions.

Designer asking for a participant's impressions of a webpage.
Designer asking for a participant's impressions of a webpage.

Perfect for

When you have a design and want to observe initial reactions to an idea to validate (or reject) it early on, decide if a new service or product is valuable in concept, or decide if current ideas are headed in the right direction.

Prep work

Get your product ready to share

Get started on an idea that you are interested in, or identify something that already exists that you want quick feedback on. If you're creating something new, make sure it's something that can quickly be examined by others, often in a visual format. For example, you might have:

  • A visual prototype or sketch
  • A written description of a product, website, or app
  • A screenshot or photo of something that already exists

Identify your goals

What do you want to learn? You can articulate this in the form of research questions, such as:

  • How does my design make people feel?
  • How do people describe this website?
  • Are people generally feeling positive or negative about this idea?
  • What percentage of people say they would use this app?

For more about research questions, see our Research planning recipe.

Ingredients

  • An idea, concept, design, or product that is ready to be tested
  • A medium for people to submit their feedback (e.g. survey tool, UserTesting.com, Zoom room)
  • A place to document and analyze the feedback you receive.

Directions

Create one or more questions you would like to ask your participants. They can be multiple-choice, open-ended, or both. You usually want at least one multiple choice question so you can have quantitative data around user impressions.

Good multiple choice questions could be:

  • Do you think you would use this? (yes, no, maybe)
  • How likely are you to use this? (very unlikely, unlikely, neutral / unsure, likely, very likely)
  • What adjectives best describe what you're looking at? (exciting, intriguing, boring, confusing, useful)

Open-ended questions could be:

  • Tell us why you would or wouldn't use this.
  • How would you describe this product?
Two-question impression test of a website that asks, "What do you like about the website?" and "What would you like to change about the website?"
Two-question impression test of a website that asks, "What do you like about the website?" and "What would you like to change about the website?"

Plating

Keep the test simple and quick for participants - that's one of the greatest benefits of this method! Impression tests are often one-question online surveys. If that's the format you're using:

  • Give the survey a short, meaningful title that starts with a verb, e.g. "Tell us your thoughts on our makerspace idea" or "Help us redesign your classroom."
  • If the survey includes a visual, make sure it works well from mobile devices.

If you are recruiting people in person through something like a Tiny Café, make sure it's easy to quickly document responses from participants. Google Forms and Airtable are good options. Alternatively you can use a talk-back board which allows participants to see other's responses.

An impression testing talk-back board that showed images and descriptions of new spaces in the library and asked students what they would envision in these spaces
An impression testing talk-back board that showed images and descriptions of new spaces in the library and asked students what they would envision in these spaces

Pro tips

  • Review the recipe for surveys for tips on writing good questions and designing surveys participants are likely to complete.
  • Get creative! Try writing a list of adjectives and asking participants to underline words that describe the product and cross out those that don't. If you're presenting a homepage, ask participants to circle things they would use and cross out things they wouldn't.
  • For purely open-ended feedback, try the traditional 5-second test where you show your design for 5 seconds then ask participants to list out what they remember about it.
  • For group feedback from visitors to your space, try a talk-back board. You can have a visual for passersby to respond to. This can work well if you want people to build on one another's ideas, but be aware it can also lead to groupthink.
  • If you have a few different ideas, try preference testing, where you can gather both user impressions and preferences.

Resources

Yale University: Impression Testing

Survey Monkey: Concept Testing

UsabilityHub: Five Second Tests