At a GlanceThis article contains a list of demographic filters you can use to recruit contributors for your tests. |
While exploring the content in the UserTesting University, and when setting up and launching your test, you will come across a number of different terms. While you may be familiar with most of these terms, there are some that you may not have seen or are unclear about just what they are and how they function.
The following material is a comprehensive list of the demographic filters you can utilize when building and launching your test in the UserTesting Platform.
Glossary of Terms
Exclude Contributors from Prior Studies
Filters
When building an audience for your test, this is the section in which you set the criteria for selecting test contributors. You can filter contributors by age, job role, company size, and location, among other criteria.
Information is collected from each contributor when they join the UserTesting Contributor Network. By selecting these filters, you can control the distribution of your test. Only users who meet your requirements view and accept your test. In addition to filters, you can use a screener question to add greater specificity.
Note: Network contributors are prompted to update their profiles every six months.
Related Knowledgebase Articles:
- "Choose Your Target Audience from the UserTesting Contributor Network"
- "Select Your Audience"
- "Why Should I Segment my Customers?"
Age
Age is based on the birth year the contributor enters when they sign up; that age is automatically updated based on the current date. Endpoints can be adjusted in increments of one. If you need more specific ages defined, use a screener question.
The age range is set by default to 18–65+. For conducting tests with minors (US: 13–17 years of age; UK and Canada: 16–17), please contact your customer success manager or account rep for more information.
Household Income
Set the household income range for the contributors you wish to target for inclusion in your test. You can adjust the lower and upper boundaries of the range by increments of $20K up to $100K USD (then by increments of $25K up to $150K+ USD).
Gender
Decide whether you want to include male, female, or non-binary contributors. Note that by choosing one of the three Gender filter options, you will be excluding the other genders from your test. Do not use this filter if you want contributors from all genders. As with Age, use a screener question here for greater specificity. For now, testing with as few filters and screeners as possible can maximize your ability to reach non-binary contributors.
Employment Status
Do you want to test with contributors who work full or part-time? Do you need them to be self-employed, retired, or unemployed (students, stay-at-home parents)? A combination of some of these options?
This filter helps fill your test with contributors based on their present employment circumstances.
Industry
The Industry filter allows you to target contributors who work in specific industries.
Company Size
Use this filter if you want contributors who work specifically at a small, medium, and/or large business (or choose two of the categories—Medium and Large, for instance—to exclude people from the third).
Job Role
This filter is often used in tandem with the Industry or Job level filters. The Job role option is perfect for targeting a particular employment position or multiple roles in your test.
Job Level
Select this filter to recruit contributors based on where they fit within the company's hierarchy at which they work.
Countries
As its name suggests, this filter makes it possible to recruit contributors currently living in specific nations. The five options at the top—US, UK, Germany, France, Canada, Australia, and India—provide the largest pools of contributors, and you can filter prospective US contributors even further, down to the state level. Select the Rest of world option when you wish to test with contributors currently living in countries other than the six listed.
Note: Countries default to all if none are selected.
Some customers also have access to the Additional Country Filters features on their accounts. This feature expands the number of nations from which you can recruit contributors. (One caveat is that the testing in these countries will be more limited due to smaller network sizes. We are currently accepting new test contributors from each of these countries and hope to support additional/increased testing in the future.)
Web Expertise
Is the level of skill a contributor needs when using the internet an important criterion for your test? If it is, then activate this filter. Customers self-evaluate their web skills when they sign up for the test. You can then select if you want to include those who assessed themselves as "Average" or "Advanced."
Social Networks
This filter means that contributors who use whichever of the four platforms you check could qualify for your test. You can choose one Platform, multiple platforms, or all four platforms by clicking the Select All link.
Language Requirement
This filter requires contributors to speak in one of the available language options; the language requirement is set by default to English. Select this filter only if you are writing the tasks and questions of your test in one of the other language options listed—Spanish, French, or German—and you want to point that test to contributors who have confirmed they can read and speak aloud that particular language. If you'd like contributors to read the test in one language, but speak in a different language, please add it as an "Other requirement."
Related Knowledgebase Articles:
Parental Status
Choose this filter if including only contributors who do or do not have children serve your test objectives. “Children” are identified as minors (under 18 years of age) and living at home with their parents. Contributors who indicate that they have children can choose to provide information about each child (e.g., gender, age). UserTesting checks each month and automatically removes from the system teens who have turned 18.
Other Requirements
This open-ended field is visible to contributors before they decide to take the test. Use this field when you need to convey information unique to the test (e.g., the test will take longer than 20 minutes to complete, the contributors will be asked to take multiple tests, etc.) or to inform contributors of specialized requirements (e.g., they must be able to read German).
Operating System
For tests conducted with desktop users, select this option if you want to test only with Windows users or only with Mac users. When testing a mobile operating system (smartphone or a tablet), the two options to choose from change to “iOS” and “Android.”
Web Browsers
With this filter, you can specify which browser or browsers must be used for the contributor to complete the test. While you can deselect Chrome as an option, the filter is by default set to Chrome. Note that Enhanced metrics will only be available for sessions completed using a Chrome browser.
Related Knowledgebase Articles:
-
This Knowledgebase article gives an overview of system requirements and which browsers are supported.
Test Frequency
This option allows you to manage how often a contributor can take a test presented by your account. It can be especially useful if you want to prevent contributors from taking more than one of your tests—keeping feedback “fresh.” Click the Up or Down arrows to adjust the number of days incrementally, or manually enter the number of days (up to 365).
Related Knowledgebase Articles:
- See the Knowledgebase article “Fresh Eyes and Test Filters”
Exclude Contributors from Prior Studies
And you also have the option to just exclude contributors who took a specific test. This option allows you to control how much access past contributors have to a new test that you are looking to fill. Once you click on this filter, the names of the ten most recent tests launched by you or anyone working in the account are listed. Simply check one or more of these test names to exclude people who participated in these past tests from qualifying for the new one. See more details in this article.
Note: Choosing either the Test Frequency or the Exclude Past Contributors filter overrides the default Fresh Eyes feature.
Learn MoreNeed more information? Read these related articles.
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