A think-out-loud usability test is a user research method where participants are asked to verbalize their thoughts, feelings, and decision-making processes as they interact with a product, website, or app. The goal is to gain insight into what users are thinking while they complete tasks—what they find intuitive, what confuses them, and how they navigate the experience.
Instead of silently observing behavior, this method allows researchers to hear the why behind users' actions in real time.
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When to Use Think-Out-Loud Testing
Think-out-loud usability testing is especially useful when you want to:
Understand how users interpret your interface or content
Identify points of confusion or hesitation in key user flows
Evaluate new designs or prototypes before launch
Gather qualitative feedback that goes beyond clicks and metrics
It’s often used during early design stages or when refining user experiences that are critical to business goals—like onboarding, checkout, or search.
Conducting a Think-Out-Loud session with Lookback
A Think-Out-Loud test can be done in a moderated or unmoderated session. In a moderated session, the instructions given to your participant aren't as important since you'll be there to guide them and remind them to share their thoughts verbally.
If you are doing an unmoderated session - SelfTest or Tasks - you'll want to add instructions for them to remember to think out loud. For example:
“Please think aloud as you complete the tasks. Describe what you’re looking for, what confuses you, and what you expect to happen.”
🚀 It doesn't hurt to include the reminders to think out loud in multiple places: your email invite, the Welcome Message, and instructions
Additional Tips
Prep Your Participant
If you're doing a moderated session, you can share this with your participants verbally after they've joined the session and you've had a chance to introduce yourselves. If you're doing an unmoderated session, again you can include these in your invite, welcome message, and/or instructions:
Remind them that you’re not testing them, you’re testing the product.
Encourage them to verbalize their thoughts—no filtering!
Let them know it’s okay to be confused; that’s actually helpful!
Prompt them gently if they go silent (moderated only)
“What are you thinking here?” or “What are you expecting to happen next?”
Example Use Case
Here's an example of what you might use for prompts if you were testing for an e-commerce site in a moderated session. These are just a starting point and could be easily adapted for other types of websites/apps/products and could be adjusted for an unmoderated test as well.
Intro Prompt (before tasks)
"Thanks again for joining! As you go through these tasks, please say out loud what you're thinking, what you're looking for, and if anything confuses you—even if it seems small. There are no wrong answers, and we're just interested in how you interact with the site naturally."
Task Prompts
🔎 1. Finding a Product
"Imagine you're looking to buy a [reusable water bottle / hoodie / wireless earbuds].
Where would you start? Go ahead and try to find one you'd consider buying."
Follow-up if needed: "What are you looking for on this page? Anything missing or unclear?"
📄 2. Evaluating a Product
"Click on a product that interests you.
What do you think of the information here? What would you want to know before buying?"
Optional prompt: "How would you compare this product to others?"
🧺 3. Adding to Cart / Starting Checkout
"Go ahead and add the product to your cart and begin the checkout process—but stop before you actually submit payment."
"How does the process feel so far? Is anything unexpected or confusing?"
🔁 4. Returning or Finding Help
"Imagine you ordered this product and want to return it or get help.
Where would you go to do that?"
"Is there anything you'd expect to see that you don’t?"
🧭 5. General Navigation
"Explore the site a bit—maybe look for a blog, about page, or customer reviews.
Just poke around as if you're browsing."
"What stands out to you? What’s easy or hard to find?"
✅ Wrap-Up Prompt
"Thanks! Is there anything else you’d like to say about your experience or anything that stood out—good or bad?"