By Gordon Rugg
This is one in a series of tutorials about reports. “Reports” in this sense involve respondents reporting what they’re doing or thinking, or what someone else is doing or thinking. We’ll post a separate overview of the different varieties of report.
The topic of this article is think-aloud technique, which involves getting the respondent to think aloud while performing a task.
This is particularly useful if you’re trying to find out what’s in the respondent’s mind while they’re doing a task, and for finding out about people’s reactions to a product or a behaviour that they witness. For instance, you can show people mockups of software or of a product you’re designing, and get at information which would be missed by interviews and questionnaires.