peek Usability Testing of Coyote Music Website

peek by User Testing - evaluation of CoyoteMusic.com

peek by UserTesting is awesome

I recently stumbled upon a super-cool resource for web developers, business owners, marketing staff, and generally anyone who runs websites.  It’s peek, by UserTesting. peek lets you submit your website for a free usability review.

What you get in return is a video (mine was 6:42 in length) of your website being used by a tester. You watch their mouse movement around your site, and they provide real-time commentary as they answer a few basic usability questions.

Here’s the video of Coyote Music’s peek evaluation:

Coyote Music’s usability test results video on peek

Regarding CoyoteMusic.com, I launched a new design of the website in March 2014. Credit for the design itself goes to Luis Zuno. I also credit Danh Hoang, who provided valuable input as I implemented the design. But in implementing any theme, choices must be made by the website developer/owner: what aspects of the design to use, not use, the site’s architecture, content, images, etc.

Regarding the peek results, I was delighted to hear that someone really enjoyed Coyote Music’s website. This is about the fifth iteration of the site, and I’ve worked really hard to try and create something that is helpful to musical artists.

From the video…

This is a place to learn about music for people who are cutting edge, for people who are not sheeple, to learn about what’s going on in [underground music], getting ahead of the curve.

I like all the photos. [They give the site] an edgy feel, up-to-date with what’s going on.

[Coyote Music] is for the cutting edge of music. It’s deep-in.

peek by User Testing - evaluation of CoyoteMusic.com

The tester live-comments their evaluation in a handy lil’ video

The evaluation touched on a couple specific pages. The tester read some of Ace J‘s bio and played the first few seconds of his song, “Victor Cruz.” She also checked out the News post about the #IRespectMusic campaign, featuring Marisa Tomei, Joe Perry, Blake Morgan, and others.

It was really validating to hear that Coyote Music is “a place to find out about really cool musicians” and is “very easy to navigate.”

I think even had the site been shredded and destroyed usability-wise, I’d be singing similar praises of peek. This sort of truly objective feedback is hard to come by. peek’s co-founder (and former Apple.com manager) has achieved his goal of finding a way to bring usability testing to all. For free, even.

I like [Coyote Music’s] site. It’s really easy to navigate, displaying the artists in an artistic way, not sacrificing functionality for the aesthetic. Artists look really good, their songs presented in a flattering way.