#their calculations are never accurate but hey i'm down to check it out

[aetheternity]

Hard pass 2 (Levi x Reader)

I'm a little concerned about how little time I took on the ending for the last part so I'm gonna put a little more time into this one. Hope you guys enjoy. :)

Synopsis: Levi is forced out of his comfy dorm room and in a strange twist of events right into your arms at a college party.

Levi was transfixed to say the least. He'd spent the past hour that he'd been back in his dorm room staring into a freshly made cup of black tea. The small jingling of keys in the door shaking him from his daze.

"Hello, Hello Leviathan." Mike greeted, tossing his bag to the side haphazardly.

Any other time Levi would've rolled his eyes but he just let out an agitated huff.

"Uh oh.. I know that look." Mike announced plopping down onto his unmade bed. "Who's the lucky girl?" He asked his smirk bright.

Levi's hair whipped against his cheek as he turned to Mike. "What are you on about? Who told you?" Probably Hange. Damn four eyes could never keep her mouth shut.

"No one had to." Mike laughed "You've just told me basically everything I need to know. Your distracted gaze when I came in the room, having very little reaction to me calling you Leviathan, your tea cup is still full and my side of the room is still messy." He seemed a little too pleased about that last bit.

"I know you went out tonight." He continued

"And what about it?"

"Who is she?!" Mike stood coming closer to sit on the edge of Levi's desk.

Levi rolled his eyes setting his cup down.

"Come on, I'm curious about some mysterious girl that has Levi Ackerman wrapped around her finger."

"Just shut up already." Levi replied turning his gaze to the window with a small pout.

"Fine, fine I'll shut up." Mike stood heading back towards his side of the room. An idea suddenly popped into his mind and he turned on his heel. "But.. I think I'll give Hange a call. You know.. cause I haven't talked to her in a bit-"

"When did you become so annoying?" Levi grumbled

"You're more aggressive tonight I like it. Is it because of her?"

As much as Levi wanted to fight it, Mike was one of those people that always got information about literally anything if he genuinely wanted it. Even if he didn't find out from Hange or Levi he was definitely going to find out from even the weirdest sources.

"Hange's friend.. she's not ugly I guess.." Levi could feel his face growing warm and he pulled his feet up onto his desk chair to hide it.

Mike laughed obnoxiously, "It's like watching a little kid finding out what a crush is." He chuckled "Super cute. So when are you going to ask her out?"

"Never."

Mike crossed the room again, seating himself on his bed. "You can't be serious! This is the first time I've ever seen you interested in girls and you're just gonna let her get away?"

"Stay out of my business, Michelangelo."

Mike just huffed reaching into his pocket to pry his phone out of his pocket. The room quickly grew quiet as Levi turned to his laptop though he was quickly distracted again by Mike's little chuckles. He turned his head in Mike's direction quickly catching the other male's gaze.

"By the way, Hange agrees with me." He said pointing to his phone.

Levi groaned, tugging at his hair. "Eat shit."

~ ~ ~ ~

Levi stared down at his watch with a soft tch.

It was 4pm and Hange was late again. He turned to Erwin who's face was currently pressed into a book. Thumb sliding along the sentences as he read.

"Where the hell is she?" He grumbled, shaking his mouse back and forth as the screen began to dim.

"She said she had to do something after class so she'd be a little late." Erwin replied, without looking up from his book.

"That's her excuse every time." Levi replied with a roll of his eyes.

Erwin just shrugged. Hange was always late. Sometimes she just showed up 30 minutes late with no real explanation and sometimes she showed up an hour late saying she had, had something to do after class. But every time the three of them got together to study she was late.

"Yo! Levi!" Hange greeted as she walked into the library ignoring the chorus of shushing that followed her.

Levi's scowl deepened, "Were you stuck on the toilet waiting for someone to fuck off?" He asked

"I have a great surprise follow me." She clapped in delight.

Erwin looked to Levi and then in the direction Hange had left in. He slowly pushed his chair out looking at Levi's irritated scowl.

"Are you coming."

"Whatever it is, is definitely stupid knowing Hange." Levi retorted, packing his belongings up in an orderly fashion.

The two of them quickly left before Hange could come back to ruin the peace again. They pushed through the library doors and standing against the wall with a somewhat bashful expression was Y/N with Hange who smiled brightly as if she wasn't currently disturbing Levi's peace.

"Oh hello Y/N." Erwin greeted, he looked over at Levi before asking. "What are you doing here?"

"Oh well Hange invited-"

"Ah ha ha! Y/N has homework to do so I figured she could come study with us. Though today me and Erwin have a thing." She quickly grabbed Erwin's arm yanking him over to her.

"But I was-" Erwin tried but was instantly silenced by Hange's hand over his mouth.

"You and Levi can study. Levi's great with everything! Right Levi? Ok me and Erwin will go now, by you two!"

"Hange!" Levi tried, his face already flushed with heat over the whole situation. Hange was surprisingly fast though, managing to drag Erwin away so quick they were a couple of dots within seconds.

Levi and Y/N stood in silence for a couple seconds before Y/N let out a deep exhale. "I feel as though we've been set up." She says, toying with the zippers on her back.

Levi can only manage a grunt in reply. Not daring to look into her eyes. "Well I mean.." she starts turning to Levi. "I actually do.. have to study so.. I wouldn't mind if you don't." She shrugged

"Mm.." Levi pulled open the library door for Y/N and lead her over the seats that him and Erwin had been sitting in only moments before.

He made a mental note as he opened his laptop again to keep the door locked next time Hange said she was coming over. Around 10 minutes went by of complete silence and Levi was incredibly happy for it.

Not because he was focusing, no his attention had been completely taken away from any possible work he could've gotten done here. There was no way he was actually going to be able to do anything when your scent was trapped in his nose and his eyes kept staring over his screen at your fingers.

Knuckles that Levi honestly wanted to kiss and fingernails completely devoid of dirt which Levi was instantly captivated by.

"Hey-"

He sat up straight, his own hands slightly curling around the aged wood of the table. Your book came sliding toward him and he looked down at it before looking back at you.

"I don't really get this? Could you help me a bit?"

Levi nodded before his brain could properly process what you'd asked. He almost thought he imagined the way your lip tucked itself under your teeth. And he felt dazed as your scent washed over him all at once as you slid into the seat next to him.

You pointed to your book and Levi tried to pay attention to your question but your notes threw him a bit. All the words were written in different colors and there were squiggly lines around definitions and texts. Small doodles between paragraphs as a way to properly space them and stars next to the most important words.

You scratched at your scalp and he took notice. "I paid attention when my professor was going over this I swear. But I don't really get it?? It can't be as difficult as I'm making it in my head." Your giggle of nervousness took Levi back a little.

The warm pit in his chest deepened and he sighed, trying to accurately assess the situation.

"Y-you made a small.. mathematical error." He explained, his fingers pointed to the equation as he tried to push away the ball in his throat. "You don't need these numbers."

Her smile hit Levi like a truck as it was instantly directed towards him. "Ah, you're so smart." Y/N said "What about this? I checked with the calculator but my answer was way off."

It was hard for Levi to ignore the way your shoulder rubbed up against his sending sparks all through his body like a tidal wave. It was honestly a little overwhelming.

"Oh sorry, am I too close?" You moved away and Levi gulped. He stared at your fingers, he didn't want you to move away.

He was surprised when he looked up and instantly made eye contact with you. "Stay." It probably didn't come out the way he'd wanted but he'd managed it and on some level he was proud of himself.

You smiled, "Sure."

After a while Levi felt himself loosen up a bit but the knot in his stomach was still very much there and alive. He found himself chuckling at your little jokes and he was mostly able to look you in the eyes. (As long as you didn't smile directly at him).

The first hour had been studying with small quips from your end that Levi found he enjoyed. Though around the third hour it turned into horror stories about present and past roommates.

Your laugh was so bright as you tapped your pen cap against the table. "And then Sasha just cracks the window open though it's definitely too late cause Connie had already created a war zone in our room." You were shaking so much from laughter that Levi was honestly a little worried you'd fall out of your chair.

He shook his head where he was resting it in his palm. "I still think Mike forgetting the do not disturb sign was worse." He shrugged

"Mm well maybe someday I'll have a story that bad. Considering Connie and Sasha have been playing a dangerous game of cat and mouse for two years now."

Levi shook his head. "You don't want to walk in on your roommate having sex. No one does.."

He felt his cheeks flush over again. Whether it was from the story or the way you'd playfully pushed his shoulder though he couldn't tell. He watched as you positioned yourself back in the seat next to him.

"Ok, ok. You told me about your roommates relationships. Now tell me about yours."

"What?"

Y/N playfully rolled her eyes. "You know the in and out of Levi. I'm curious."

Levi's gaze fell to the table. "There's nothing to tell."

Y/N's voice immediately softened. "Sorry, didn't mean to try and pull it out of you."

Levi picked up his head closing his laptop. "I-I just.. never felt that way.." he tried

"Not everyone goes to college and high school and stuff for the parties, drugs and sex." You said, laying your elbows against the desk. "I commend you for having a goal and sticking with it."

Levi's heart stuttered at your words. "Did you come.. or well.. umm? What did you-"

He was interrupted by your hand on his shoulder again. "To answer your question." You leaned in closer your breath tickling Levi's earlobe. "Yes I did come specifically for the drugs."

Levi's eyes practically bulged out of his head. This time when you laughed you were met with shushing and stares. "Sorry." You whispered, popping a hand over your mouth. "I'm completely joking." You then said to Levi who's shoulders relaxed with the information.

Levi's signature deadpanned expression was starting to make an appearance now. "That's not funny."

"Hmm.. well I'm laughing so." Y/N laid her head on the table.

"Your humor is shit." He said

"Funny you say that." She laughed back a smirk was playing at Levi's lips. "Hey." Y/N broke the lingering silence.

"What?"

"Give me your number."

"Tch, nice way to ask."

Y/N pretended to be shocked. "Oh, would you prefer I beg?"

Levi already knew how red his entire face had become. No need to check a mirror. "H-hand me your p-phone."

Unsurprisingly even her phone wa as cute. And Levi honestly wanted to admire the case and how warm it felt after being in your pockets. Oh.. you'd touched it with your warm hands. Levi couldn't help but think about how warm your hands must feel. How the spaces between your fingers looked so perfect. Like they-

"Hey." A voice shook Y/N and Levi.

"Jean, what're you doing here?" Y/N asked as she stood moving closer to him.

"You've been gone all day. I had to ask Sasha where you were."

"No, you didn't because you didn't need to come here." Y/N crossed her arms over her chest, pulling her hands into the sleeves of her hoodie. Her eyebrows scrunched together.

"Who's this?" Jean asked gesturing to Levi with his head. Levi felt his chest flare a little.

"Ugh, it doesn't matter because it has nothing to do with you!" She quickly grabbed her bag stuffing her notebook inside. "I'll talk to you later Levi." She explained her face still completely unamused. And with that she was pushing Jean out the door following him right out.

Levi's fingers dug into his palm. Who was that? It couldn't have been her boyfriend right? No, no that didn't make sense.

He started to pack up himself when he noticed your pretty phone sat next to his ordinary black one.

~ ~ ~ ~

Levi practically slammed into his dorm room scaring Mike who had his music blasting. Levi set his bag down on his chair, placing his phone on the desk.

"Hey man." Mike greeted as Levi quickly unpacked his other stuff. "I heard Hange forced you to go on a study date."

"I'm going to murder her." Levi turned, practically slamming his notebook into the desk. So hard that he could've sworn Mike jumped.

"Yeah what else is new?" He laughed trying to clear the air. "But did you at least get in close?"

Levi rolled his eyes. "She's.. there's this guy.."

Mike grew quiet for a few seconds. "You think she's with him?"

Levi normally wouldn't indulge Mike like this but his chest felt so tight that he was pretty sure he was going to burst. "She didn't seem happy to see him. She was like rolling her eyes when he came."

"Maybe he's just some guy then?"

"What if he isn't?"

"By the way you're describing it they'll break up soon anyway." Mike said "But that's great my plan worked."

Levi narrowed his eyes, "The library thing was you?"

Mike shrugged, "Hey, It could've been worse! Hange wanted to lock you guys in a supply closet for the night."

"Sleep with one eye open." Levi huffed, placing your phone down on his desk.

Mike immediately noticed, sitting up and placing his own phone to the side. "Don't tell me you murdered her and stole her phone for having a boyfriend that wasn't you." He chuckled

"Tch, she accidentally left it."

"How are you gonna return it?"

"I'll ask Hange for her dorm number tomorrow and I'll hand it over then."

"Ooo, well I would tell you not to go looking through her phone while you have it. But you're not like me so.." Mike shrugged, laying down with both hands holding his phone above his head.

Levi looked at Mike and then at your phone sitting on his desk. He silently looked away, putting away the rest of his stuff with a huff.

[nervousmendes]

Drunken Haze | Shawn Mendes

Shawn x reader (smut)

a/n: this was a failed attempt at writing smut for the first time. (it's very mild, mostly just sexual tension and making out) do check out more of my work on my masterlist right here

summary: Shawn sees the reader at a bar and makes a move.

warnings: mild smut (making out) and very little swearing

Cez does his fair share of research when it comes to choosing a bar to spend the night at, and when you're in Paris (yes, with a French accent) it's totally worth it. Brian walked in first, Shawn and Cez not far behind. "Man I'm so getting shit-faced in here." he sighed as the three of them observed the fancy lights, furniture and wall hangings, taking in the scent of alcohol and cigerettes suspended in in the warm air of the closed space. Cez being the only bright one in the three, quickly spotted an empty booth in the lounge but Shawn's eyes fell straight on a blond haired women, her black dress hugging her hips so well and her toned legs crossed one over the other while she tipped her head back, letting the expensive wine in the glass she was holding flow into her system.

There was something about her that intrigued him. Maybe it was the confidence she radiated, the way she sat with her back poised, the way her silky hair flowed down her shoulders or maybe it had something to do with how her skin glowed in the dim lighting. He felt the urge to approach her, like she pulled him towards her. And it was as if his legs knew what his heart wanted when they started making calculated steps towards the bar counter that she was facing. His thoughts went every which way trying to figure out what to say as he took the stool exactly beside her's, completely ignoring the five (or more) empty stools on his other side.

"Hey." He internally patted himself on the back for sounding a lot more confident than he actually was.

"Do I know you?" Her face broke into a polite smile, and her thick french accent dripped with the words she spoke out of her red stained lips.

"Maybe?"

Too cocky.

"You don't give me a businessman vibe." She said looking at him from head to toe. Looking. She saw the black denim that covered his toned legs, his satin, white shirt that hugged his broad shoulders and the little scar on his cheek that gave his soft facial features a more rugged look. Shawn watched her keenly. His hand went to his hair, fingers pushing a stray curl out of his eye.

"What makes you think I'm a businessman?" He turned in his stool and rested his arm on the bar counter to make her shift her vision from his face to his forearm that flexed under the thin fabric.

"They're usually the cocky ones." He was searching for what to say slightly taken aback by the fact that someone found him cocky, considering that no one has ever called him that before, not in a bad way. He wasn't offended, just surprised. In fact he liked that the whole 'be confident' thing was working.

"But you seem nice, I'll give you that." She chuckled while twirling the empty wine glass in her small hand.

"Will you let me buy you your next drink?"

She considered it, and almost nodded yes for affirmation but then her brows drew in an L shape. "I think I've already had too much to drink." She was mentally trying to count how many times the bartender filled her glass with Chartreuse.

"So why don't you tell me your name, mysterious, handsome, American man?" She said leaning close to him. The already deep cut neck line of her dress plunged down even further, dangerously low, making Shawn draw in a sharp breath through his mouth.

"I love mysterious and handsome, but I'm actually Canadian." He narrowed his eyes at her with a smirk and she couldn't help but smile.

"And nice to meet you, I'm Shawn. Et toi?"

"I can tell you skipped your french classes often back in school." She broke into a chuckle, making Shawn grin right back at her, his face very close to hers.

"You know nothing about me, but I'm afraid this one's true." He whispered, his minty breath fanning her face. She laughed again while placing her hand on Shawn's toned bicep that was rested on the countertop.

"You're funny." Her gaze burned into him.

"I wasn't even trying." Liar.

"I'm guessing that's a lie." They never broke eye contact.

"For someone that guesses a lot, you're pretty accurate."

"You know nothing about me." She said just like he did a minute ago, her lips almost grazing his making sure to not touch them. What a tease.

"How about," the tips of his calloused fingers went to her bare shoulder, "I start with knowing what those pretty lips of yours taste like?" and stroked the soft, supple skin on her arm, leaving a trail of goosebumps behind.

"That's a good start." She inched closer.

"So is that a yes?"

Instead of giving him an answer, she touched his lips with hers, hands going to either side of his neck. He covered her mouth with his, tasting the expensive alcohol she had been drinking all night. He nudged closer to get a better angle, his large hands taking purchase on her waist. Their tongues danced with each other's, deepening the kiss. He moaned under his breath when she licked the roof of his mouth, and he used that as an opportunity to suck on her lower lip. Her nails scratched his scalp, tangling her fingers in his long, soft curls and she quickly figured how much he liked it from the way he kissed her harder in response to tugging his hair. She broke the kiss for air, he assumed but then when he pulled her in again, she opened her mouth to speak.

"I live only ten minutes away, let's get out of here." She was breathing heavily. He nodded and gave her a quick kiss on the lips before getting off the stool and helping her down shortly after. He left a quick text to Brian asking them to carry on with whatever they were upto and rolled his eyes at Brian's response telling him to "not bust that nut too quick". They got in an Uber and sat beside each other, lips red and swollen, breath heavy, and their thoughts everywhere. They didn't say a word to each other. They didn't know what to say but they were both trying to reach out for some sort of connection. She cleared her throat in an attempt to gather the right words before she spoke. Her eyes were set on her hands that played with the hem of her dress.

"Is now a good time to tell you.." He looked up at her, signalling for her to go on. She gulped, "that I actually know who you are, and I acted like I didn't because I didn't want you think of me as someone who would see you as an object just because you're a celebrity." She made air quotes on the word 'celebrity', like it was such a weird thing to say, a word that gives a human, with a little fame they never knew was coming their way, the title of an object.

"That is the best decision you ever made. If I knew you knew I'm sure I wouldn't even have made a move. You have no idea how glad I am that you did that."

She finally dropped the hem of her dress and looked back at him through her long eyelashes. That was it, there was no holding back anymore. Shawn's lips crashed into hers and she kissed his mouth back with that much force, curling her fingers into the collar of his shirt. His one hand went around her waist, palm flat against the small of her back, and the other was tangled in her beautiful, blond locks.

Their lips didn't leave other's even while unlocking the door, and just like you see in the movies, they kissed their way into her bedroom until Shawn's legs hit the cot and his butt landed on the soft spring mattress of her bed. She kicked off her heels and threw one leg to his other side, her knees on either side of his legs, straddling him. His hands slid down from her waist to fill his palms with the flesh of her toned bum. He cooed as he kneaded them with every movement she made sitting right on top his hard-on that strained his tight denims. Shawn drew his lips away from her mouth to leave wet kisses down her jawline and along the expanse of her throat. He attached his lips to the spot under her ear and sucked on the skin there, causing a shivering moan to tumble down her plump lips. He explored her neck and her chest with his hungry lips, tasting the lavender flavour of the soap she lathered on herself earlier that evening. Somewhere along kissing and a lot of exploring later, all the clothing they helped each other get rid of were scattered on the floor, sweat covered bodies moulding and crashing to give each other the climax they longed for.

(I cannot write smut for shit so I cut the crap out and got to the point.)

She woke up to the warmth of the sun shining on her golden skin through the half drawn blinds, feeling a mild headache from all that she had to drink the previous night. That's when she remembered him. She jutted her head out of her pillow to see that his clothes weren't on the floor anymore. She shifted under the sheets to find an empty bed beside her and a post it note neatly placed in the centre, exactly where he slept. She took it in her hand, squinting until she could read what it said.

Sorry, I left without saying goodbye. I'm playing a show today and I have to be there early. Last night was really fun. x

- S.M

Her lips formed a shy smile and her cheeks were tinged a shade of red as she recollected the events of last night. She folded the piece of paper in her hand contemplating whether she had to throw it or save it. She looked down at it one more time, and that's when she noticed that something was written on the other side. She turned the post-it around, to find a phone number written on it and under it he'd written, "maybe I'm glad I didn't say goodbye".

She laughed to herself, carefully placing the paper in her journal, already excited by the idea of seeing him again. She met Shawn less than twenty four hours ago and hardly knew anything about him, but there something about him that drew her in, made her want to get to know him better and of course feel that pretty mouth of his between her legs once again.

_______________________________________________

I'm thinking maybe I'll do a part 2 to this so let me know what you think. Hope you liked this one. Reply to this or leave me a message if you want to get added to my taglist!!

[topicprinter]

Hey guys. As I mentioned, I'm a UX Consultant / Product Designer. I work with early stage startups creating digital products.You seemed to enjoy my last post about building a user onboarding sequence, so I figured I'd share some more.Many teams I work with have no concept of how valuable user feedback can be to help them build a better, more user friendly and successful product.Most have simply asked their users "hey do you like it?" and when the user says "yeah it's great!" then they feel all happy inside. This isn't how user feedback works.You can check out the full post, with images and examples, here on my blog. (no popups)10 Types of User Feedback You Need to Build a Better ProductHave you ever asked a user of your product how they like it, and had them tell you it's fantastic, super easy to use, and they love it?I bet it made you feel great didn't it?Well… bad news… that kind of feedback sucks, and hearing it does nothing for you besides making you feel all warm and fuzzy inside.In order to get feedback you can actually use to build a better product, *you need to know the *right questions to ask, and the right answers to look for.Simply asking your users how they like your product is a waste of time because it will always get the same response.A number of years ago, I was working as Lead UX Designer at one of the first startups I ever joined. We were a small team of 6 people, and I was the lone full time designer / UX guy.We had a very close, personal relationship to the majority of users so getting user feedback was easy.The problem? Almost everyone said same thing.WE LOVE IT! IT'S SO GREAT! AMAZING! INCREDIBLE!But their behaviour showed a different story. Many sections of the product remained untouched and barely used. It was clear that people were confused about what certain features were for, often using them for the wrong thing.But when asked about it?WE LOVE IT! IT'S AMAZING!So why was this happening?It the same reason almost everyone answers this way when asked "how do you like it?"It's because they feel compelled to say yes, since it's obvious that's the answer you want to hear.For example, let's say your kid, or friend's kid, or any kid, runs up excitedly to show you their awful finger painting they did in class.They look at you with those puppy dog eyes and say….I made it for you! Do you like it?I hate it!! What a horrid pile of shit! is clearly not the expected answer in this situation.The child is now crying and you have cemented yourself as "emotionless monster" in the eyes of all around you.The correct response is to praise the child then throw it away a day later (the drawing, not the child).The point is, this is called asking a leading question, **because the way the question is phrased leads** the person in the direction of the expected answer.If all you're asking are these types of leading questions, you're not getting accurate feedback from people about your product.But don't worry, hope is here! By the end of this article, you will know the exact types of feedback you should be collecting, and how to go about getting it without the use of leading questions or becoming an emotionless monster.Now I'm going to cover 10 of the most important pieces of user feedback you should be collecting, how to collect it, and exactly why it's so vital to the success of your product.1 – How likely are they to recommend your product to a friend?If this sounds familiar to you, that's because it should be. It's probably the most widely implemented "feedback collection" strategy used by digital products.It's called the Net Promoter Score*® *and it's a great way to gauge exactly how satisfied a user is with your product.Why is NPS Score So Important?NPS Score is an important metric because research shows that people are only willing to share, or recommend a product, when they're happy with the product themselves.Why? Because recommending something means you're putting your reputation on the line. If you tell a friend to use something and they end up hating it, they might never trust you again (especially after that whole finger painting thing).I consider NPS a strong indicator of your user's "happiness level", and a good indication of how effective your UX and Product Design is.On top of that, user's are also asked why they gave the answer they did. This opens up a conversation between you and these users to further investigate why they might be unhappy.How can you collect your NPS Score?The method of collecting this bit of feedback isn't overly complicated. You can simply send out a survey to your users asking the question:"How likely are you to recommend this product to a friend?"The answer is in the form of a number rating from 1 – 10.After a user gives a rating, they are asked for an open text answer on what the reason is they gave that answer. This question is optional, since all you really need is the number.Afterwards, users are separated into three groups:Promoters (9 – 10 rating)Passives (7 – 8 rating)Detractors (0 – 6 rating)You calculate your score by subtracting the percentage of detractors from the percentage of promoters.For an exact, step by step guide on quickly setting this system up for free, check out this article and video tutorial I wrote.2 – What bugs or problems are they running into?In my experience, I find that some Founders and Product Managers are deathly afraid of shipping anything that is less than perfect.Before they release a new feature, they want to test it again and again and again until they've ironed out every single bug.It's as if a user running into a bug is going to make the entire company fold right then and there due to sheer embarrassment.The reality is, it's almost impossible to track down every single bug before you release something, and trying to is an enormous waste of valuable time.Why is knowing about software bugs so important?The problem with constant product testing is that it costs a ton of time and money.For most startups, time is the most precious resource they have. The more time you spend chasing bugs, the less time you have to collect valuable user feedback which will influence the satisfaction of your users.Believe it or not, running into a bug isn't a make or break type thing for a user. Being unable to figure out how to **use and get value from your product **however, is a huge make or break type thing.How to uncover bugs faster in your product?Make your users your product testers. Sound crazy right? But think about it. You have an entire ARMY of people using your product each and every day.Hundreds, thousands, possibly hundreds of thousands of people could uncover 300 bugs in 3 days, where it would take your team 6 months to track them all down.Giving your users the ability to quickly and accurately report a bug means you can have bugs tracked and fixed in lighting time.I just stumbled across this great product called BugMuncher on Reddit the other day which gives users the ability to quickly screenshot a bug, and records the important stats along with it like operating system, browser type, version, etc.Consider implementing this product, or a similar solution of your own, that allows user to *quickly and easily *report bugs.I don't mean a big text box where you ask them to describe what happened, I mean a simple way to report it with under 15 seconds, which doesn't take them away from the page they're currently on.3 – How happy are they with your customer support?Your customer support team is like the bridge between unsatisfied user and super satisfied user. Super satisfied users are more likely to turn into *promoters *of your product, meaning they will recommend it to others.Promoters are good. You want promoters.That's why it's extremely important to constantly be monitoring if people are happy with the support they receive.Almost as equally as important is *how you go about *collecting this data. It needs to be quick and easy for someone to rate a customer support interaction.Often times I'll get a follow up email saying something like_ "please help us and rate the support you received…"_I never respond to these emails, simply because a new email appearing in my inbox just means another thing I need to deal with, and since I know I can skip it, I do.How can you make it easy for users to rate their support experiences?Groove uses one of the best solutions in my opinion, and that is giving users the ability to rate their support interactions at the bottom of each email.You know those little "please rate our experience" things you see in email signature like this?Those are a great way to give people the ability to rate their experience while at the same time keeping the effort required very low.Clicking on any of these links brings the person to a pre-populated, one question survey with the option to explain more. This is a perfect setup.Groove then calculates your user's "satisfaction score" by subtracting the "not good" ratings from the "good rating".4 – Have they searched for alternatives since signing up?If your product is even semi-successful, it means you've picked a niche which has a high amount of demand for what you're offering.This is good. It means people actually want your product, and you didn't just invent the idea out of thin air.But, this also means that you're almost guaranteed to have a number of competitors who have a similar, if not identical product to yours.This is also good. Don't forget, competition means demand.Much like any other traditional business, your users always have the option to switch to a competitor should their satisfaction level start to decrease.Sometimes, users will "flirt" with the idea of switching without actually taking the plunge. If you can catch these people in time, chances are you can convince them to stay.Why is this so important?Collecting this feedback is important because it presents the perfect opportunity to uncover major problems with your product that are so severe they are causing you to lose a user.It's highly unlikely a user who has been searching for alternatives is going to tell you… "Everything is great! I love it!"A user at this stage is the *perfect person *to collect feedback from.If you can fix every single one of these problems, it means you can greatly reduce your churn rate (the amount of users who leave and never return) and keep more users coming back month after month.How to find out if users have been searching for alternatives?Simply ask them. There's a number of ways your can do it, such as by sending out a survey through email, or using a product like Intercom to ask a question right in the product interface.The important part is you ask them 2 questions:Have you searched for an alternative since you joined?If so, what were you looking for in a competitor's product that we don't have?Why not simply ask them the reason why they're looking at competitors? Because it's just not direct of enough of a question. Asking big questions with indirect answers will scare people away who feel tried by the idea of having to answer in such detail.These open ended answers can be a gold mine of information you had never considered. Perhaps your prices are too high? Maybe your product is too slow, too old, or doesn't have a specific feature they're looking for?Consider following up with these people on a live Skype call to dive further into their problems and possible solutions that could get them to stay.Just keep in mind that listening to a user and doing what a user says are completely different things. Don't do what users say they want, instead listen and then give them what they need.5 – What are their results from using your product?People signed up for your product because of one single reason… you promised them it was going to improve their lives in one way or another.Either by saving them time, money, stress, effort or increasing their happiness.They signed up because of exactly what you promised them in the headline of your highly converting startup landing page you recently implemented (wink wink plug plug).If your product has done its job properly, after a certain amount of time, their lives *should be better. *Just how much better is exactly what you want to learn from collecting this type of feedback.Why are case studies so important?Success stories from users are going to help you out in 2 ways:Uncovering benefits of your product you might not have realized.Providing you with a huge boost to your landing page conversions by offering results oriented testimonials.In landing page design, a big part of the battle in turning a visitor into a user is first making them understand the benefits of using the product, then convincing them that you can actually deliver what you're promising.That's where user success stories come in.Uncovering new benefits that users experience will give you an opportunity to write more effective copy on your landing page, or better yet, attract an entirely new set of users to your product.As for convincing them you can actually deliver? That's where testimonials come in.Featuring a story from a user that details the exact results they got is going to help increase the trust factor for people who are on the fence about signing up.How can you collect successful user case studies?Start this process by pinpointing power users of your product. People who use it far more than others, and who have invested a lot of money and time into it.This will be a good indicator that they're getting a large amount of value and great results.Next, reach out to these people individually, through email, and ask if they'd be willing to share their story.If they say yes, follow up with them. Prepare a list of questions you need answers for, but try not to structure it like an interview.Don't forget to get permission from them to feature them in your marketing.6 – How satisfied are they?Remember at the start of this article where you learned about NPS Score and asking a user how likely they were to recommend your product to a friend?While I think this is a fantastic indicator of user satisfaction, it doesn't hurt to have a backup. Why? Because not everyone can accurately answer the "_how likely are you to recommend this product…" _question.To some, it might be the case that they simply don't know anyone who would be interested. Others might just be against recommending anything at all.This is why asking a user straight up "how satisfied are you?" can also be a great indicator of how well your product is working.Why is user satisfaction so important?Simply put, users don't keep using things they don't like.Chances are, if a large number of users have told you that they've been searching for alternatives to your product, it also means that your "user satisfaction" score is going to be low.Keeping your users satisfied is the most important part of your product design. It's the ultimate goal of every feature you add (or don't add), and every redesign you implement.How to find out if your users are satisfied?Jakob Nielsen suggests simply asking them to answer this question by choosing a number on a scale of 1 – 7."Averaging the scores across users gives us an average satisfaction measure."Says Jakob, the Godfather of UX.This could be done by sending an email survey using Survey Monkey, or using a product like Intercom to ask them directly in the product interface.Don't forget to wait until they've had a chance to explore your product before asking this question. A brand new user won't have enough experience to give you an accurate response.7 – What do they think about a newly released feature?Here's the process I've noticed a lot of digital startups follow:Spend hours building initial product.Release.Immediately start thinking of NEW ideas to include in product.Spend hours building and releasing new features.Get disappointed that people aren't flocking to the product.Decide it must be because there isn't enough features.Release 4,000 new features.Attempt to deal with bugs, usability issues, updates, and customer support problems that come along with every single new feature.Run out of money.Is it obvious how much I hate adding features?I hate them.Next to how much I hate the default setting of releasing features instead of focusing on user feedback, is what happens once a feature is released… NOTHING.After releasing a new feature, you must follow it up with a process that validates the existence of the feature.If no one uses it, and no one wants it, it shouldn't exist in the product. That's why we want to know everything we can about how user's are interacting with it.Why is feature feedback so important?Bloated, unused features dilute the value of your product, and they add to poor usability.The more things you add to your product which don't add value for a user just become a big pain in the ass obstacle they need to navigate around in order to get to that nugget of value that still exists.Collecting feedback on how well users understand, or respond, to a new feature is a vital part of this feature validation process.How to find out if/how a feature is being used?The quickest and easiest way to do this is by looking at your analytics. Are people navigating to that page of your product or not?This will give you a small idea of how much people are navigating to the feature, but it won't tell you if they understand how to use it, or what it's even for.The way to achieve this is by performing user testing.Set up a user test and give your users a set of tasks to complete. Include the new feature as part of one of those tasks, and see if they're able to find it, and use it, on their own.Analyze their behaviour, and encourage them to think out loud as they navigate.Don't forget that testing anything over 5 people can be a waste of time in most situations.8 – How much effort is it taking them to perform specific actions?This is the exact opposite of asking a high level question like "are you satisfied?"Instead, this question focuses on the small detail of how hard it was to do one single thingFor example, let's say a user just went through the process of integrating a payment system, like Stripe, with their account.When the process finishes, a small notification, directly within the product, would ask them to rate the amount of effort it took them to perform the task, rated on a scale of 1 – 10.Why is user effort so important?The goal of building a usable product is to minimize the amount of effort it takes for users to reach their goals.That's why it's important to continue to test, iterate, and improve upon the various features you've built.By asking a user to rate how difficult a task was, it gives you the opportunity to focus on features that users are currently rating as "very difficult" instead of focusing on building new features, or trying to fix things that aren't really a problem.It's kind of like the way users can rate support emails, except it's directly within your product.How can you find out how much effort tasks are taking your users?Keeping track of exactly how much effort it takes users to perform all of the different tasks on your product is time consuming.You need to be running constant user surveys, user tests, observing behaviours on each task, and then combining a ton of test data to determine what features are requiring the most effort.This is called task level satisfaction measurements.The result of executing these properly is a set of analytics that show you exactly what areas of your product design need attention first, and which areas are having the biggest impact on your user's experience.If you want to learn more about the types of task level satisfaction measurements, check out this article on ConversionXL.9 – How often are they using your product?What is the average amount someone uses your product, and what is the reason that is the average?Every day? Every week? Once a year?Is there any reason it seems unusually low or high?Why is the amount a user logs in so important?Increasing the frequency your product is being used by a user may be extremely important, or it might not be that important to you at all.It really depends on the goals of your product.For a product like Facebook, the more frequently the person visits their site, and the longer they stay on the site, the better it is. Why? Because they're exposed to more advertising.But for someone running a business to business targeted product, like web hosting for example, this might not matter as much.Regardless, it's** important to have a benchmark** in order for you to be alerted if average use starts to drop, or increase.How can you find out how much people are using your product?First, the easier approach is to simply check your analytics. This won't give you much beyond a daily number, but it's a start.In order to go deeper, check out a product like Intercom (which I've already referenced 100 time now - not getting paid to either). It will automatically segment your users into lists based on their behaviour.This allows you to communicate with groups of users in order to find out why they're falling into the "slipping away" category.Intercom automatically lists users who may be slipping away.Speaking to users who are starting to "slip" will enable you to learn about specific problems users have with your product you may have never considered before.10 – What are they searching for and why?Do you have a support FAQ? A site wide search function? Maybe even support guide analytics?Have you ever look at what people are searching for?Search boxes are gold mines into uncovering usability issues you might not be aware of that are destroying the user's experience.Why are search analytics important?In User Experience Design, in order to make a product more user friendly, we perform tests with a live user and observe their behaviour.But… how do we decide what to test?This is more difficult. Testing your entire product just to uncover problems can be expensive, time consuming, and not always as insightful as you want.But knowing about a "problem area" that needs iteration and testing is a huge advantage. That's where search analytics come in.Users tend you use the search function as a "scapegoat" when they get confused or lost while attempting to perform a task.This means any phrase that's searched for over and over is a direct indication of a widespread usability issue.Once you know the problem, go out and recruit 5 users to test and watch how how well they can perform. This feedback should give you a clearer picture of *why *people are all searching the same thing.How can you collect search analytics?Unfortunately, this isn't something as simple as sending a survey out to your users and asking them a question.You will need to set up your own product to track search phrases.If that's outside your current scope, consider using a 3rd party which you can install to make search tracking a bit easier.I recommend checking out SwiftType, which I have personally used with a great deal of success.On top of that, you should also be sure to have a properly design search function (and search engine result page).Collecting and implementing user feedback in the only way to successfully improve your productBut simply asking a user "hey how much do you like this?" is a great way to feel good about yourself without actually learning anything important.This post should have given you some insight into the types of feedback you should be collecting, and they way that feedback will inform your decisions on how to build a better product.Want to hear from me more often? 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