Six Tips for Better Unmoderated Scripts

How do you get high-quality data from a remote, unmoderated study? Start by thinking of your script as your stand-in.

By Yuling An

Remote, unmoderated research sessions enable you to reach more people and collect data more quickly than in-person methods do. Product teams at Facebook move fast and iterate often, and remote, unmoderated research is one method researchers use to collect actionable insights through the product development cycle.

But, remote, unmoderated research can also make you feel like you’re relinquishing control of your data collection. Who’ll make sure participants stay on track? What if tasks and questions need to be clarified? How can you be reasonably sure that you’ll get the data you need?

A well-written research script is the answer to all those questions. Creating an effective script for remote, unmoderated research comes down to six core principles.

1. Provide context

Don’t make assumptions about participants’ location, mobility, or the items available to them. Start your study by making sure the participants have all the items they need, know the background on the study, and are in the right location to successfully complete your study. Use additional screener questions to ensure participants are prepared prior to starting the session, and include an introduction within the study to set the tone and introduce the contents of the study, or both.

To illustrate this principle, let’s imagine that the goal of your upcoming study is to understand the process of making a snack. Providing clear context might look like this:

• Instead of: “Let’s get started — get ready to roll up your sleeves!”
• Try: “Go to your kitchen, and make sure you have your snack ingredients and microwave ready.”

2. Be specific

Participants may or may not be able to navigate ambiguous questions, decode jargon, know when to pause their task to answer a question, or spend the desired amount of time on any given task. When you’re directly speaking to a participant, your questions, prompts, and probes can help solve all those problems. In a remote, unmoderated study, your script has to do that work. Specificity is key.

In your snack-making study, imagine you want to understand how people decide which snack to make. Your script should clearly explain:

• How much time to spend on each task, and what to do if a task isn’t finished in the allotted time.
• The specific areas you want feedback on.
• How and when to share feedback and reactions.

Don’t confuse brevity for clarity. For example:

• Instead of: “Now, assemble the ingredients for your quick snack!”
• Try: “Spend no more than 2 minutes to assemble your quick snack, talking out loud as you do. Make sure to talk about why you chose the plate or container you are using.”

3. Be concise

Long blocks of text are harder for participants to read and remember. Keep in mind that the number of tasks and questions doesn’t correlate to session length. You can guide participants through a 20-minute session using 15 lengthy tasks and questions, or 25 shorter tasks and questions. The second script will be easier to read and complete, making participants less likely to miss a key question or task.

More tips for making your script easy to follow:

• Markdowns are your friend. Many tools offer bold, italic, and other markdowns so you can emphasize key words or phrases. You can use your own, too, like ALL CAPITAL LETTERS or ***asterisks***.
• Don’t combine multiple tasks or questions. By limiting each question to a single topic, you help the participant focus on each element of their experience.

Instead of: “Why did you choose to make this snack? Did the availability of a microwave factor into your decision? How long will it take you to make this snack? How do you know?”

Try:

• “Why did you choose to make this snack?”
• “Did the availability of a microwave factor into your decision?”
• “How long will it take you to make this snack? How do you know?”

4. Provide clear guidance

Practice extreme clarity when guiding participants through the session. Since you’re not there to redirect them when needed, a misunderstood or missing instruction can leave the participant lost for the rest of the session. Check your script for ambiguity, making sure each task and question is clear both on its own and in context.

Be careful with easily misinterpreted words like “it,” “this,” “that,” and “there.” Err on the side of detail when guiding participants to a landmark.

• Instead of: “Take a picture of it.”
• Try: “Take a picture of your snack before and after you put your snack in the microwave. You’ll be sharing these pictures later!”

Indicate when to stop a task, and whether or not the participant will need to continue the task later in the session.

• Instead of: “Take a bite. Tell us about how it tastes!”
• Try: “If your snack is done, take a bite and tell us about how it tastes! If you weren’t able to finish making your snack, skip this task.”

5. Lighten the cognitive load

Participants in remote, unmoderated sessions are multitasking — thinking and narrating while they complete tasks. As a result, they have less room to hold information in their working memory, and likely won’t remember every previous question or the details of their answers. When you need participants to take special note of an answer or recall a previous one, provide a little extra guidance in your question. Some examples:

Ask participants to write their answers down so they can refer to their responses later in the session.

• Instead of: “What are your top 3 favorite snacks?”
• Try: “What are your top 3 favorite snacks? You will be sharing more about your favorite snacks later, so make sure to keep them in mind or write them down!”

Remind participants of previous relevant tasks.

• Instead of: “How did making the snack match up with your expectations?”
• Try: “Before you made this snack, you shared how difficult or easy you expected it to be. Now that you’ve made this snack, how did the experience match up with your expectations?”

6. Get a second opinion

Always budget time to pilot your script to test how well it acts as your stand-in in your remote, unmoderated research study. In addition to giving you a chance to fix typos and ambiguous passages, a pilot also helps you anticipate how long your sessions will be.

Remote, unmoderated studies don’t have to feel intimidating! An effective script can work almost as well as being there in person — especially if you keep these six principles in mind. If you have your own tips to share for writing unmoderated scripts, please share them in the comments below.

Author: Yuling An, UX Researcher at Facebook

Contributor: Carolyn Wei, UX Researcher at Facebook

Illustrator: Drew Bardana