Usabilla Blog

If you look at the test detail view (http://usabilla.com/tests/view/name+of+your+test) and scroll all the way down, you will notice the export options have changed. We basically used two approaches in this update. The first approach is to offer a simple straight forward export that is usable in every experience level. The second approach is to give more experienced user full access to their data in a very flexible way.

Simple exports with CSV (Comma-Seperated Values)

CSV is a simple text format for database table data and is readable by most common spreadsheet applications like Microsoft Excel, Open Office Calc and Google Docs. Simply click on the data you want to get out of Usabilla and a spreadsheet with the data is generated.

All the CSV export options follow the same format and settings. They all start with the fields “page”, “task”, “participant”, followed by the requested data. We use a unicode (UTF-8) character set, fields are separated by a comma (,) and strings are enclosed in double quotation marks (“…”).

Advanced exports with structured XML

The XML export includes all the data of a test in a structured format. We have two options, one for the content and one for the results. By combining these two exports your are able to generate any report you want.

All data is contained in a root element called usabilla. To make debugging a bit easier, we included a version attribute (current version) and a success attribute to tell you if the request was successfully executed.

Content export

The first child element indicates the type of response, in this case content and then shows you the unique id of the test you requested the content for and the language of the content. Here is an example of what it looks like: <content for="7719893004c6e" language="en">. The data follows the structure of a test, so a test has pages, and page has tasks. Here is a simplified example response:

Exporting results

In this case the first child element looks something like this <results for="7719893004c6e" language="en"> to indicate you are receiving the results of a test. The results a split up in to two sections average, which includes task completion times (calculated with geometric mean), followed by a section participants with the data per participant. Here is a simplified example of what a response might look like:

Accessing your data from other applications

Getting your data in other applications, like Google Docs for example is made pretty easy. Go to your account page and click on “Generate a new token”, you can now use any of the addresses below to get your data:

• XML content:
  http://usabilla.com/tests/export/UNIQUE_ID/content/xml/?token=API_TOKEN
• XML results:
  http://usabilla.com/tests/export/UNIQUE_ID/results/xml/?token=API_TOKEN
• CSV results points:
  http://usabilla.com/tests/export/UNIQUE_ID/results/csv/points/?token=API_TOKEN
• CSV results notes:
  http://usabilla.com/tests/export/UNIQUE_ID/results/csv/notes/?token=API_TOKEN
• CSV results context:
  http://usabilla.com/tests/export/UNIQUE_ID/results/csv/context/?token=API_TOKEN

The easiest way to find out the UNIQUE_ID of a test, is to click on “Invite participants” on the test detail page. It is the last past of the address shown under “Your test is available at the following URL:”, and looks like: http://usabilla.com/rate/UNIQUE_ID

To disable API access to your data, just click “Clear API token” on account page and access is revoked.

Enjoy!

Hope you enjoy these new featured and find them useful in your projects. As always we appreciate any and all feedback so feel free to leave comment below or tweet us any suggestion or questions at @usabilla.

We have been working on some usability improvements in our frontend. These changes have been released last week and should enhance the user experience for your participants. Users get a clear introduction before they start the test. The toolbar has been simplified, the dimming on the mockups has been removed and users no longer need to register before they can rate a page. These improvements should push up the conversion rates for your tests.

Since the launch of our first release about one month ago we spend a lot of our time on killing bugs and fixing small glitches. Most bugfixes have been silently released in the past weeks. Fortunately we have been working on the development of some interesting new features, which will be launched in about two weeks. Expect a better flow in our backend, some small improvements to guide the participants of your test and a widget to easily promote your test on your website.

Some changes in the backend
We’ve created some new designs to guide our users a bit more in creating their tests. A test contains one or more pages, which contain one or more tasks (questions). To start collecting feedback a user has to create a test, select one or more pages and add tasks for each page.  When a user adds a new page, we will automatically add some sample tasks. In the current situation the relation between a test and its pages is not entirely clear. With this new design we hope to create an improved overview of your test and better illustrate the relationship between a test, the pages of a test and the tasks for each page.

Sign up and receive more info on our updates
We’re working on more exciting features. We hope to launch some big updates in the upcoming months. Sign up for our closed beta if you want to be the first to test drive our tests and collect valuable feedback from your users.