In the wild testing

In a remote study, it is possible to send participants out into “the wild” and ask them to test an interface in a real situation. Imagine an app for browsing a conference program and navigating within a conference center. Testing the app in the participant’s home will probably not yield the same insights as compared to when they are actually using it in the conference halls and trying to find the lecture they are interested in via the built-in GPS function. Another example is a scenario where a customer is ordering ahead and picking up their order in a store or restaurant. Study participants are first asked to use an app or a website to order something and are then asked to go and pick it up. These types of studies provide insight into the broader customer experience, such as how easy it was to match up the order with the orderer, whether the order was ready at the time promised, and so on.