Screening and finding usability test participants

Learn more about how to establish a pool of usability test participants and find the right people to participate in your usability tests.

Screening and finding participants is the first step of the unmoderated usability testing workflow.

Think about your community as a whole and the diversity it represents. Chances are that some members are better suited or more willing to participate in usability testing than others. It's a good idea to identify who those members are before launching your usability test. That way, you have a pool of members whom you know you can engage for initial and subsequent usability testing.

When you're putting together your usability testing pool, think about their availability, willingness, and consent.

  • Have they expressed interest in participating in usability testing in the past?
  • Do they consent to being recorded?
Tip: Your usability testing pool should represent different ages, genders, ethnicities, regions, abilities, and demographics. You want to make sure your product is usable across the full spectrum of your customer base.

When you're screening for participants for a specific usability activity, think about the activity's goal and target audience. Be as specific as possible when you're answering these questions.

  • Are they available to participate during the timeframe the activity is open?
  • Which demographics are you trying to reach?
  • Which tasks do you want your audience to complete?
  • What is the desired timeframe for task completion?

Based on your answers to these questions, you can formulate a statement (for example, "We want to assess the usability of our product for 50-60 year old customers to complete checkout within 3 minutes"). This will help guide your research and analysis.

Tip: Aim for approximately 5-20 good responses when you're screening for participants for a specific usability activity.

How you conduct screening is up to you. Here are a couple of ideas to get you started:

  • Option 1: Create a separate screener survey that precedes the usability activity.

    In the screener survey, add a Recording action that precedes a small task for participants to do; this will record participants' screens and, if desired, audio and video. Alternately, add a Video Feedback question that records participants speaking on camera. You want to identify which participants are comfortable with talking out loud, being on video, and articulating their thought processes. Flag these participants with a Usability Testing Pool profile variable.

  • Option 2: If you have surveys that are about to be distributed, add a question at the end asking participants if they're interested in being contacted about usability testing in the future.

    Track their responses using a Profile action. That way, you have a record of interested community members.

  • Option 3: Add screener questions and survey logic to the beginning of your usability activity to disqualify participants.

After you have found your participants, the next step is authoring your usability testing activity.