2/23/2020

Amazon Mechanical Turk (Paid tasks Platform)

 
Nothing good about this program unless you live in countries where 1 or 3 American cents, or 1 dollar, if you are lucky, are a considerable amount of money in you local currency.

Amazon has opened a platform and made possible slavery salaries to be paid for tasks. Right, some of them are easy, but some of them take a lot of time, and paying 1 cent, or 3 or 5 in a developed country for something that requires more than five minutes is ILLEGAL. This would not be legal in the EU ever.

They have basically made possible for people who you want to work for them for almost nothing, to do so, so they pay you a misery, take your time, and can take up to 30 days to pay you. If you are lucky. Amazon just provide the house, so to speak, but get out of it and doesn't want to be that much either.

You won't be able to make considerable money unless you sleep on your computer and keep doing gazillion cent tests/tasks/surveys.

They ask you for your tax details and personal details even though they don't provide you with a contract or with any sort of decent anything.

How is that legal?

I love Amazon, the shop, but this 'work' rather slavery platform shouldn't exist.

2/22/2020

Userlytics (Online Platform, Paid Tests)



This is a review of my experience as tester.

Userlytics is a legit company offering UX tests to testers from around the world. In fact, this is the only site that got me a test on the same day I registered. 

 POSITIVE
Unlike most usability tests companies, they don't require an entry test. It is great for testers. If they perform well, no test was needed; if they don't perform well, they'll get low ratings and won't get many paid jobs. 

They don't ask for too many personal details when you join. That is, they don't profile you as hardly as other companies do. 

You can cancel your account any time on your own if you aren't happy with the opportunities they offer. 

They have a nice simple app recorder for Android. You don't even have to login, because, when you get an invitation, there is a unique code with your details that you can use instead; this makes the login into specific tests way faster.Their desktop recorder is easy to use, very intuitive, and also works by code.  

They do send you tests and pay you for them.

Customer support is existent and relatively fast. 

NOT SO GOOD
The fact that they don't make you do an entry test tells me that their panel of testers is way inferior to any other company's panel.

For the test to be considered payable, one has to produce a proper recording. That's totally fair. However, as they provide the recording programs, and they aren't very good, any malfunctioning due to their incompetence, will result in you spending your time in producing an unusable test that won't be paid.  
  
Both their Android and Desktop recorders are sub-par, full of bugs and a clear indication of the company's caliber. If an UX company does not have a reliable system to record their tests, why would anyone want to pay for their services? My experience is that their Android app is not reliable, so you might end wasting your time for no income, and in my case also conflicted with my phone, and that's never good. The desktop recorder is bulky and interferes with testing. In my case, it started uploading my video without me touching anything and while I still was recording the test. Fortunately, I found a way to stop it. Then, the file, about 15 minutes long, took a good amount of time to get uploaded.


Customer support is really idiotic and unnerving. They are unable to provide specific instructions to fix any issue you might have with the app. "Check your settings for accessibility" is not a reply to the question, "What exactly do you want me to check for this specific problem?" You know, testers have the basics under control, that's why they are testers. It is innate. You would not bother CS for basic stuff on your phone.

You cannot update your PayPal email yourself, you have to contact CS. However, since they are quite incompetent, you will find problems to do something as simple as that. In addition, sharing personal info via email is a no-no for security reasons.  I had to exchange a considerable amount of emails for them to do that would not do it because I was writing from another email, the one I wanted to link to my new Paypal. I was so unnerved that I decided to erase my account without being able to change anything. They could not find me in the system, even though I provided them with a valid email account.  

IN SHORT
The company line is "The most advanced user testing platform". Having been a tester for them, and having experienced many other UX testing companies and platforms, the tagline is just bragging not something that reflects what I have experienced. I do tests for many online companies and this is perhaps the less advanced, the buggiest. 

They are a legit company, so I don't think you have anything to fear, if you get a test and do it, and their recorder works, you will be paid. However, there are greener pastures out there. Just saying. 
 
REPLY FROM THE COMPANY ON 9/1/24
Thank you for sharing your comprehensive feedback about your experience as a tester with Userlytics. We appreciate your positive remarks regarding the ease of entry, app recorder functionality, and prompt customer support. However, we understand your concerns and frustrations with the number of available tests, the quality of recording programs, and the challenges with customer support.

Your insights are crucial for our continuous improvement, and we're actively addressing the issues you've highlighted. We apologize for any inconvenience caused and value your continued support as we work to enhance our platform.

Best regards,
Userlytics

2/11/2020

2/07/2020

Respondent (Online Platform, Paid Tests)


 
 
This review is as tester for this site.

There are a few paid tests, studies or surveys available on this site, at least for some parts of the world.

Truth be told, the projects they have pay more than well, but they are directed to super specialised business and professional people in leading positions in their companies, those who are already earning a fortune, so why would they want to waste their time doing a paid test or survey?

Unless you work on very specialized fields, you won't be able to take any test even if you have a high level of education.

I was there for several months and never got a project I could take. 

The surveys to participate in upcoming projects never actualized in anything concrete, even though they were asking for every-day sort of things for which you don't require any preparation, education or nothing.

If you want to earn some money this is not your site unless you are already a well-paid individual in top leading jobs in certain companies, specially tech.
 
I didn't like the fact that they somewhat force you to put a photo of you, even though don't provide you with anything.  

Besides the member area as buggy, which says a lot about a company, as every time I would log in, I would get the message that I had already had three screeners on a day and I could not take more. In fact, I had taken none that day or most days. So that's a bug, right there. 


It has been a waste of time for me, and I don't recommend the site at all. I guess they collect your personal data and that's their biz, playing with it, or using it, or whatever. 

 Avoid.