Authoring an unmoderated usability test

Learn how to build a simple unmoderated usability test activity. This topic walks you through the key survey elements you need to include and how to configure them.

Authoring an unmoderated usability test is the second step in the unmoderated usability test workflow. The first step is screening and finding usability test participants.

An unmoderated usability test can include:

• An introductory welcome message
• Introductory questions that collect quantifiable data points and provide further context
• A Recording action (placed where you want to start recording)
• A Usability Task question
• Follow-up questions that allow participants to provide further context

Example

1. Create the survey.
   Tip: The survey must be a modern survey. You can choose single response or multiple response depending on your methodology.

2. At the beginning of your survey, add welcome messaging and any questions that should precede the unmoderated user test.

   Give participants more context about the goal of the study or the task. You can ask questions such as "Have you used this product before?" or "How often do you use this product?" which will provide helpful contextual data points in your analysis later.

   
3. Under Survey Actions, click Recording.
4. In the Table of Contents, click Recording Starts Here.

   Here's what you need to know about the Recording action:

   • There can only be one Recording action per survey.
   • Place the Recording action where you want to start recording. The Recording action must be its own top-level item and cannot be nested under anything else or on a survey page. It should be placed before the Usability Task question in the Table of Contents.
   • Starting from the Recording action to the end of the survey, participants have 60 minutes to complete the task and any follow-up questions.
   • If participants exceed 60 minutes, they will be marked as incomplete and the recording will not be available in the report. Participants will have to begin the task again.
   • Recording is supported on desktop devices only, not mobile devices.
   • Screen recording is always on.
   • You can select or clear Camera Recording (to record participants through their web cameras and capture video footage) or Microphone Recording (to record participants through their microphones and capture audio). Both are selected by default.
   • Recordings are considered sensitive and will adhere to your data purge configuration.

   For more information, see Create a Recording action.

5. Click Usability Task.
6. In the Table of Contents, click Usability Task.
7. Click the Task name field and type a name for the Usability Task question.
8. Add a question image.

   Adding an image can make the Usability Task question more visually appealing. Select the image from the Assets Library or upload a new one. For this example, we've uploaded a screenshot of the Alida homepage.

   

9. Click Task instruction and type the task instruction text.

   For example, "Imagine you are looking for information about career opportunities available at Alida. Go to Alida's website and try to find it. Please return to this browser tab once you find the Join the Team page. Alternately, if you are unsuccessful in finding the Join the Team page, please return to this browser tab after 3 minutes."

   For more tips on writing Usability Task questions, see Writing effective unmoderated usability test questions.

   

10. Click Task link and type the link to the usability task.

    For example, if you are testing whether participants can find the Career Opportunities section of your website, you'd type the homepage URL here.

    

11. Click Task success question and type the question text.

    For example, type "Were you able to complete the task successfully?"

    

    Here's what you need to know about Usability Task questions:

    • You can have as many Usability Task questions as you want in an activity.
    • Each Usability Task question must be on its on survey page, and that survey page can only have the Usability Task question.
    • The task success question is a quantifiable measure of whether participants were successful. We recommend leaving this on so you have the data point in reporting.
    • Task success questions can be used in survey logic and quotas.

    For more information, see Create a Usability Task question.

12. Add follow-up questions after the Usability Task question.

    This is an opportunity for participants to provide additional context or comments. For example, you can ask "Was there anything about this task that surprised you?" or "Do you have any final thoughts on this task?"

    For more tips on writing follow-up questions, see Writing effective unmoderated usability test questions.

    

After you author your activity, the next step is distributing the unmoderated usability test.