Home > Tools & Templates > Think-Aloud Guidelines

Think-Aloud Protocol Guidelines for User Evaluations

In General

1.    When you are screening the participants for a study, notice how they respond to your questions. Decide on a strategy for engaging the participant before they arrive for the user evaluation.

2.    Be careful of the social dynamics you set up with the participant.

•  Don’t joke, indulge in sarcasm, flirt, or show your own nervousness.

• Maintain a professional, neutral persona.

• Keep yourself “small” in relationship to the participant. Sit slightly back from the participant, in a chair that is lower.

• Avoid wearing heavy perfume or aftershave. The participant may have allergies to the odor or find it distracting.

• Don’t wear suggestive, revealing, or tight, uncomfortable clothes.

3.    Be careful not to bias the participant.

• Don’t give your own views or opinions of the participant’s level of skill

• Don’t let the participant become aware of any bias you may have about the procedure.

4.    Avoid interactions with the user that can shift the focus from the user’s domain to the writer’s.

• Don’t expect the user to tell you how to fix problems

• Don’t expect the user to answer other questions

• Always keep the focus of attention on the user, not yourself. Avoid “I” statements and long explanations of how the system works.

• Stay in the relationship with the participant. Don’t worry about the next question you are going to ask.

• Write down ideas so that you don’t need to worry about forgetting them after the test.

5.    Don’t let yourself get impatient!

• When the participant seems to have a problem, they can often unravel it without your help.

• When you feel you should jump in, count to ten first.

• If you jump in too soon, you lose valuable data and they become dependent on your help.

6.    Learn to probe in a neutral way to get information on which to base your written improvements

Techniques that encourage thinking aloud

1.    Prompting

2.    Echoing

3.    “Conversational disequilibrium”

4.    Summarizing at key junctions

1.    Prompting

• Focus on tasks, not features

Don’t ask “Do you like the way that “Caution” note as written?” but “Did that “Caution” note help you reach your goal?”

• Focus on questions, not answers

• Explore user thinking in a neutral way

Don’t be too quick to assume that the user is lost or having a problem.

Don’t say, “What is your problem here?,” but ask, “What is your goal?” or “What are you thinking you should do here?”

Don’t show your own interests or point of view by your comments, emphasis, “waking up” and getting interested, showing in facial expression or vocal tones that you disagree

• Good user-focused questions:

What is your goal?

What did you expect when you did that?

How did you expect that to work?

Can you tell me what you were thinking?

What do you want to accomplish here?

Describe the steps you are going through here.

How did you feel about that process?

Tell me about your thinking here.

What did you expect to happen when you . . . .?

2.    Echoing

• Repeat their own word or phrase back to them as a question: “That message is confusing?”

     Echoing sets up a social dialog and reinforces social conversation expectations: they say something, you repeat it, they say the next thing because that is what is expected in conversation.

• Don’t put words in their mouth, or offer interpretations

    If they say, “I’m not sure what to do here,” don’t say, “So you are confused because the procedure is unclear?”

    If they say, “That didn’t happen like I expected, don’t ask, “So you thought that the an illustration would be displayed here?”

• Signal that you re listening (Mmm hmm  . . .)

3.    “Conversational disequilibrium”

•    Let your statements trail off and end in an upswing, as if you were asking a question. The participant will usually complete your statement.

  • “And you were expecting. . .?”    “And your goal is . . .?”

• Signal that you are there, you are interested, but that it is still their turn to talk (mmm hmmmm)

• Speak softly

4.    Summarizing at key junctions

• When you have learned something new that is key to understanding, summarize the event and the thinking that the user explored, very briefly. Users may offer more detail about their thought process.

• Keep the recorder on or keep taking notes after you think that the test session is finished. Users will often make interesting reflections about their processes during the casual remarks at the end of the session. 

Adapted from “Methods for successful ‘Thinking-Out-Loud’ procedures” developed by Judy Ramey, University of Washington, with additions by Usability Analysis & Design, Xerox Corporation (Pieratti, 1995).