How to Launch a Prototype Test

Step 1. Log in to Your Dashboard

Step 2. Create a New Study

Step 3. Select the Type of Study You'd Like to Conduct

Step 4. Choose Your Audience

Step 5. Build Test Plan

Step 6. Review and Launch Your Test

The following steps will help you effectively launch a prototype study.

Step 1: Create a new study

After logging in to your Dashboard. Select the Create test drop-down, then select Create a test to generate a brand new study.

You can also create a test using the Customize a template option as well.

Step 2: Select the type of study you'd like to conduct

A “What are you testing?” page appears, asking about the thing on which you want feedback. Select Prototype.

UserTesting supports different prototyping tools, such as InVision and Azure.

Step 3: Choose your audience

Click Build audience to test with people from our networks or your own. You can also create an Invite Network by creating a link to share with anyone outside of the UserTesting Platform. 

When you arrive on the overview page ("How would you like to reach your audience?"), you have the option to start either building an audience or creating your test plan. For our purposes, let's choose Select Audience first. You can use a saved audience(s) or create an audience of contributors from scratch. To learn more about building an audience, please review our Targeting Your Audience article.

Step 4. Build your test plan

From the overview page, select Build test plan to start creating a test. At the top of the Build... page, you'll see a Starting URL field.

For the starting URL, you have a couple of options:

• Enter the URL to your prototype (if using a prototyping tool, ensure it is a publicly accessible link, so contributors can see your prototype)
• Upload your prototype to be securely hosted by UserTesting (if this feature is available on your account)
• Check the A blank page box and insert a link to your prototype via the URL asset at the appropriate point in your test.

If you are using a prototyping tool you can point directly to the public link provided in your tool. For some tools, like InVision or Azure, you can export your prototype as a .zip file and upload it into the test plan (export your InVision prototype | export your Azure prototypes).

Some tips to consider:

• Add your URL, present tasks, and follow-up questions (such as rating confidence that they completed the task correctly), then add another URL before the next set of tasks. This ensures the contributor is at the “correct” page to start the next task, regardless of where they ended the previous task. 
• Set a password to control access. Some prototyping tools allow this. If you have a password set on your prototype and are sharing the URL, follow the URL Asset step in the test with a task that provides the password for the contributor to enter, then the other tasks you want them to complete.

Select the elements that you want to include by dragging them into your Test plan from the right sidebar. The URL of your prototype can also be added to your test plan anywhere in your test.

The URL of your prototype can also be added to your test plan anywhere in your test.

Once you've finished creating your test plan, click the Done button to return to the overview page.

Step 5: Preview and launch your test

The overview page should now display your audience as well as the test plan. Review the information and name and preview your test. When you are satisfied, click the Launch Test button. We recommend that you first launch a pilot test to one contributor. Add contributors to your test after you've gotten results back from the pilot and confirmed that contributors are able to access your prototype and provide the feedback you need.

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