Many of you are familiar with UserTesting.com – a service that takes the pain out of recruiting users and allows you to see how users interact with your site or application.

At Iteration Group, we think UserTesting.com can be useful if you do a lot of homework upfront. Specifically, you need to understand precisely what you want to learn, set recruiting criteria very closely, and take qualitative opinions with a BIG grain of salt.

Working with UserTesting.com can be great for quick feedback, but it’s no substitute for thoughtful, in-depth, contextual inquiry sessions run by trained UX researchers.

For those who do need quick, general feedback, though, we recommend checking out Peek, a new service from UserTesting, that’s free.

Just type in the URL or application that you would like to get tested, and within 24 hours you will receive a short 2 to 5 minute video of someone using your site or app.