What Is Playbook UX? Read Here To Know

What Playbook UX Is About

Playbook UX describes itself as an international UX testing tool. It offers the software for handling the manual tasks of UX testing, namely recruiting and paying incentives to testers, scheduling tests, transcribing and analyzing videos of test sessions. Therefore, it is one website you must see if you want to take part in usability testing gigs. Yet, before you give any personal information to sign up, read this post so you know what the ins and out of this platform are.

Similar to other platforms that offer usability testing services, such as Appcoiner, Testapic, Testfairy, Mycrowd, Usersense, Beta Family, Testerwork, Ubertesters and Testbirds, Playbook UX helps owners and developers of websites, products, prototypes and concepts to gather valuable feedback from testers worldwide. It offers both unmoderated and moderated research services.

Types Of Tests You Might Do

The services offered by a platform like Playbook will dictate what kind of job its employees and independent contractors would do. If it accepts you as a tester, you are a contractor who would perform various kinds of tests. You will see from this section that working as a tester for Playbook could help broaden your horizons as you can test more than apps and websites.

1. Prototype testing is for evaluating any prototype (that has a link) prior to its development.

2. Testing to identify the target audience so the client will understand the people to whom his product or proposition appeals.

3. Website testing is for helping clients identify which areas of the website need improvement and optimization. Navigate through a live website to see its design and content and then give your feedback about them.

4. Content and navigation testing is when you need to spot what frustrates and confuses the users of a website such as an e-commerce site. Find out what could drive customers away or stop them from purchasing. This kind of test usually involves tasks set by the client with questions you need to answer.

5. Marketing and ad copy testing involves evaluating advertisements to determine if they truly call the attention of the target customers and if they can turn prospects into customers effectively. As a tester, you must tell the client what you feel about his advertisements.

6. Price testing involves providing feedback to clients about the pricing of their products and what value you perceive from the pricing.

7. Competitive intelligence testing is testing the brands and products of competitors. The participant should have significant experience with the client and with the competitor’s brands and products so they could have some comparison. If you are among the participants, you must provide feedback about what you feel and think about the products and brands of the client’s competition.

8. Email templates testing will involve the assessment of subject lines, CTA buttons, body text and images inside the marketing emails to help the client in ensuring a successful email marketing campaign.

From Figure 1, you'll know which companies Playbook UX has worked for and you might work for.

Figure 1

This image also shows that Playbook UX provides clients with video feedback and other related test services like transcribing and analyzing the content of test videos.

This tells you that there are unmoderated tests (without a present researcher or client and up to 15 minutes) that will require you to permit the recording of your screen and audio while answering questions. If you have qualms about such access, look elsewhere for a job to earn side income.

You could also participate in moderated tests (last up to 30, 60 and even 90 minutes). You will speak to a researcher personally at an agreed schedule. The client may also set the tasks for testers to perform and could also interview them further. As with other similar platforms, you must set a practical expectation about the number of jobs you could complete, especially at Playbook UX where clients may bring in their own participants into the project rather than the Playbook testers to perform the tasks at hand.

Tester Recruitment

Playbook UX offers clients the advanced service of recruiting participants. When a client wants to use such service from Playbook UX, it can set the demographic details that will control the testers’ selection. Playbook UX uses demographic and employment filters depending on the characteristics of the target market of the client. Therefore, you might not have eligibility for all tests and projects because it selects participants based on job titles, industries, company size and seniority. Playbook UX even has a 2-step verification process at work (verifying LinkedIn profile + manual checking).

A client might want to further screen a participant so he could ask some qualifying or screener questions.

Figure 2

Playbook UX seems to be an excellent platform to join since it claims to recruit international test participants. However, be sure to check out on its website or from the figure above if your country is one of the over 50 countries that Playbook UX accepts testers from.

Doing An Excellent Testing Job

Doing an excellent job as a tester will depend on what types of output you need to produce. On platforms such as Playbook UX where video/audio recording is the output that the client pays for, you must speak your thoughts loudly throughout the study.

Do not just read the content of the page. Instead, make sure you will talk about insightful comments. Talk about what you find favorable or unfavorable about the product you are testing. Offer suggestions that could further improve the product you are assessing.

· Answer all the questions.

· Do the test in a distraction-free room.

· Allot enough time to finish the study.

· Do not just say "ok." If you will say so, be sure to follow it up with a suggestion to make it better.

· Do not suspend or pause the test for a very long time.

How To Apply/Join

I feel that I should mention how I found the page for testers to sign up because I did not quickly find it, unlike in other platforms. The "Get Started button" on the upper right corner of its homepage is for researchers/clients. You could read through the Help Articles On "Testers FAQs" wherein you will find at the bottom the link for testers sign-up. At its tester page, https://www.playbookux.com/tester/, you will not see instantly any registration form to fill up. Rather, this is where you could do some more reading before finally signing up.

You can read about the types of tests you could perform and how much money you could earn from them.

You may also watch examples of tests, as you see from the figure below.

Figure 3

You will read about how Playbook UX works for testers. It says here that you should first fill up a form. Then, Playbook UX will send you an email if there is a test matching your profile.

When you do receive a notification email, take action fast as slots could quickly deplete.

When you finish reading and if you think you really want to join, click on the blue Sign up for PlaybookUX button to open a new window for https://www.userinterviews.com/opt-in/JupGECLiFJ8mqYh3xZNd4KCR.

This is where you need to fill up a form to provide details like your email address, first name, last name and phone number. When you provide a phone number, you may opt to receive text messages that are related to the test projects.

Provide your time zone, gender, age, job role, company name, industry where your company belongs, size of your company, country you live in, and what smartphone you will use for the study.

From this short form, you will gather more insights about what requirements you must meet to become a tester.

One is that the device you should have is a smartphone (iPhone, Android, other). Another is that you must have a Paypal account prior to registration because this is where they will send your payment.

The form also asks about your previous UX testing experience, if there is any. Perhaps because they might exclude you from the list of eligible participants if you mention you have already tested a particular website.

In retrospect to the details you have read earlier, Playbook UX will verify testers details through their LinkedIn profile so you might need to have one properly updated.

Potential Income

Figure 4

This screenshot above shows that you will get your payment days after the completion of a study you took part of.

Expect to get $15 for every 15 minutes of unmoderated session; $40 for every 30 minutes of moderated interview and $70 for every 60 minutes of moderated interview.

Not because you finished a session does not mean you could expect to receive payment. Do not count your money, unless it is already in your PayPal account, because sometimes a tester will not receive his incentives. These instances include:

a) not answering all questions

b) not speaking audibly for most of the session

c) not having a clear audio (crackling audio or background noise)

d) receiving a call during a mobile study

e) when the video recording is short because you did not go through all the tasks.

Work Schedule

You just have to wait until a notification reaches your inbox about a paid study to work. Playbook UX offers no guarantee of when you will exactly receive a notification or if you will ever receive one during weeks or months.

You have a flexible schedule that you may also spend on other things such as checking out other UX testing platforms like Netizen Testing, Playtestcloud, User Testing, Userfeel, Analysia, Whatusersdo, Validately, TryMyUI, Userlytics, Intellizoom, Respondent, Loop11, Intuit, Enrollapp, testIO, uTest, Checkealos, Userbrain, Testingtime, Usercrowd and Ferpection.

Benefits / Bonus/ Increase/ Training Provided

The types of tests that you might perform are considerably an advantage because it lets you discover other things apart from testing apps and websites.