Impression Testing

Analyze the way your site’s design impacts the impressions users form about you.

Method 1: Picking Adjectives

Once you’re in the design phase of your product, it may be a good idea to conduct impression testing. This is where you ask participants to talk about how the design makes them feel, or what adjectives they would use to describe the site.

Get together with your colleagues and clients to come up with a list of adjectives that you would like your site to convey. Try to narrow it down to 10 adjectives. Gather 6-8 participants and ask them to describe the page for you. Print out our sample adjectives worksheet and give participants the following instructions:

  1. Step 1: Read over the following list of word and underline the words that best describe your experience with the website design. You can choose as many words as you wish.
  2. Step 2: Now look at the words you have chosen. Circle five of these words that you think are most descriptive of the website.

Method 2: Five Second Test

Usability Hub’s Five Second Test lets you show your design to participants for 5 seconds. After presenting your site design, you can ask participants for their first impressions, or ask them to list anything they remember about your site.