Usability Testing Kit

Run your first usability study this week — with templates, not a $99/month research tool

Research platforms charge $99+ per month, and the cheapest annual plan on the market is $299 — for the privilege of running one study. The method itself is the part they rent you: test scripts, screeners, scoring, reports. This kit gives you all of it to run with your own users — eight ready-to-read playbooks, recruiting templates, moderation scripts, spreadsheets with working formulas. One payment of $42 — no subscription.

Get the kit — $42
One-time payment · ≈ ฿1,490 · free updates for v1.x · instant download

What's inside the kit

One zip, 32 files: playbooks, templates, scripts and spreadsheets — plain Markdown you can read anywhere plus XLSX calculators that open in Excel, Google Sheets, Numbers or LibreOffice. No software to install, nothing to subscribe to.

Playbooks

8 test scripts, word for word

SaaS onboarding, pricing page, e-commerce checkout, mobile first-run, B2B dashboard, signup form, docs & search, site navigation. Each with a recruit profile, ready-to-read tasks, probes and the success signals to record.

Recruiting

Your own users, in 72 hours

A 5-question screener, invitation templates for customers, community and referrals, fair-pay benchmarks in USD, and a day-by-day SOP for finding 5 testers without paying a panel middleman.

Moderation

The session, scripted

A word-for-word moderator script, the think-aloud handout and coaching lines, a plain-language consent template (with a have-counsel-review note), a recording checklist and the printable do/don't card.

Scoring

Spreadsheets with live formulas

The note grid with D/A/G and severity dropdowns, the 0–4 severity rubric with scoring rules, a SUS calculator that computes scores from raw 1–5 answers, and a task success & time sheet with automatic summaries.

Synthesis

Findings → fix list

The one-hour affinity-mapping SOP, a two-page findings report template with writing rules, a highlight-reel checklist with a privacy pass, and the finding-to-backlog conversion table.

For agencies

White-label audit included

A client-branded usability audit report you can deliver and invoice for, per-engagement pricing ranges in USD, and the phase-by-phase engagement process — run studies for clients from day one.

What this kit is not

Not a panel. No testers are included — the kit recruits from your own users, which is the point: your customers are more representative than a rented panel, and the templates get you five of them in about three days. Panel services remain the paid option for hard-to-reach profiles.

Not a platform. There's no recording hosting, no analytics dashboard, no screenshot service here. Sessions run on the video tool you already pay for; scoring happens in spreadsheets you own. If you later outgrow that, the platforms will still be there.

Five users is a heuristic, not proof. Five sessions reliably surface the most frequent problems in what you tested; they don't catch rare edge cases, they don't prove the product works for everyone, and they say nothing about demand. The kit is built around those limits — small studies, shipped fixes, then re-test.

Work, not magic. The whole first study takes about 6–8 hours of your week, most of it the sessions themselves. The templates remove the blank-page problem and the method mistakes; the thinking and the fixes are still yours.

How your first week looks

From zip to prioritized fix list in five working days — about 6–8 hours of hands-on time.

Day 1 — set up

Pick a playbook, recruit 5

Choose the script that matches what you're testing, send the screener and invitation to your users, book 7 people for 5 slots. The 72-hour SOP carries the schedule.

Days 2–4 — run

Five 30-minute sessions

Read the moderator script, let them think aloud, fill the note grid as each session ends. Hints are allowed — they're logged as findings, not failures.

Day 5 — decide

Score, report, backlog

Score severities with the rubric, compute SUS in the calculator, cluster themes on the affinity board, write the two-page report — and leave with three fixes queued.

One price. The method is yours.

Research platforms bill per month and per seat, forever. This is a one-time purchase for a workflow you keep — and rerun every time you ship.

$42 one-time payment

≈ ฿1,490

  • 8 test playbooks + recruiting templates (English)
  • Moderation scripts + plain-language consent template
  • SUS calculator, severity rubric & note grid (XLSX with formulas)
  • Agency white-label audit report · free updates v1.x · 14-day refund

Secure checkout via Stripe · card payments · taxes calculated at checkout

Frequently asked questions

Is this a research platform, like the $99/month tools?

No — and on purpose. Platforms sell panel access, recording hosting and analytics, billed monthly per seat. This kit sells the method those subscriptions assume you already have: the test scripts, the screener, the moderation words, the scoring discipline and the report structure. It works alongside any platform you already use — or with nothing but a video call and a spreadsheet.

What exactly do I get?

A zip with 32 files: the start-here guide, 8 test playbooks (each with 4–6 scripted tasks, probes and success signals), the recruiting set (screener, invitations, USD incentive benchmarks, 72-hour SOP), the moderation set (script, think-aloud handout, consent template, recording checklist, do/don't card), the scoring set (note grid in MD+XLSX, severity rubric, SUS calculator with live formulas, task sheet), the synthesis set (affinity SOP, report template, highlight-reel checklist, backlog conversion) and the agency white-label report with pricing guidance.

Where do I find test participants?

From your own users — that's the method. The recruiting kit includes a 5-question screener, invitation templates for existing customers, community posts and referrals, fair-pay benchmarks (roughly $25–50 for a 30-minute consumer session) and a day-by-day SOP that books 5 testers in about 72 hours from a list of 50+ customers. For hard-to-reach professional profiles, the benchmarks include what panel services typically charge.

Is 5 users really enough?

For finding the most frequent problems in a specific flow — yes, and that's the published small-sample heuristic behind this whole method (Nielsen & Landauer, 2000): the majority of frequent usability problems surface within the first five sessions. Five users won't catch rare edge cases, won't statistically prove anything, and won't measure demand. That's why every playbook ends with fix hypotheses and a re-test plan: study, fix, re-run with five new people.

What is the refund policy?

If the kit doesn't fit how you work, write to us within 14 days of purchase and we refund in full — the files are yours to keep or delete. One refund per purchase; we only ask for optional feedback.

Do I get updates?

Yes — every v1.x update (new playbooks, template improvements, spreadsheet fixes) is free. Re-download any time from your download page with your email and password.

This week: five users, real findings, a fix list.

$42 one-time · ≈ ฿1,490 · free updates v1.x · instant download

Get the Usability Testing Kit — $42