Create a Usability Task question

Ask participants to complete a task in order to capture and understand their experience when interacting with a digital interface. You can also choose to ask participants a follow-up question about whether they were successful in completing the task.

Prerequisites:
Note:
  • This question type is available in modern view only.
  • This question type is intended for desktop participants only.

Including a Usability Task question in your survey is a key part of creating an unmoderated usability test. For more information, see The unmoderated usability testing workflow.

Tip:

Need to get started with unmoderated usability testing fast? Check out our quick start guides:

Sample modern view:

  1. In the Survey Builder Toolbox, under Questions, do one of the following:
    • Drag the Usability Task question to the Table of Contents.
    • Click the Usability Task question in the Survey Toolbox.

Tip:
  • Usability Task questions must occur after the Recording action.
  • Each Usability Task question must be on its own survey page, and that survey page can only have the Usability Task question.
  • You can have as many Usability Task questions as you want in an activity.

  1. In the Table of Contents, click the Usability Task question.
    Result: The Edit Pane appears.
  2. Edit the Task name.
    Task names:
    • Should be unique.
    • Can contain symbols and all alphanumeric characters.
    • Are not displayed to participants.
  3. In the Task instruction field, enter the instruction text.
    Note: The recommended character limit is 2500.
    Tip: Be clear in your instruction text about when participants should return to the survey tab.

    Since participants are completing the task in a new browser tab, you need to give them a clear end point to indicate when they should switch back to the survey tab (for example, "Once you're done exploring or you've been able to sign up to join, come back to this tab and click Next").

    The question text should also cover a scenario in which participants are unsuccessful (for example, "If you haven't been able to sign up to join within five minutes, please return to the survey and click Next"). You want participants to return to the survey and let you know they were unsuccessful instead of just closing their browser tabs and being marked as incomplete.

  4. In the Task link field, type the URL to the website or resource participants will visit to complete the task.
    This website or resource must be publicly accessible.
  5. Turn the Task Success toggle on or off.
    This setting controls whether participants are asked a follow-up task success question.
    Tip:
    • 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. You can build conditions using Yes, No, Has a value, or Has no value.
  6. If the Task Success toggle is on, type the Task success question text.
  7. Optional: Once you have authored your question, you can also:
  8. To preview the Usability Task question, in the Edit Pane, click Preview.
    Result: A preview of the Usability Task question appears.
    Note: Although you can toggle between desktop and mobile in survey preview, once the survey is distributed, mobile participants will not be able to proceed to the Usability Task question if there is a Recording action preceding it. They will be prompted to switch to a desktop to proceed.