DC103 WordCast: Verbal Protocols (Thinking Aloud)

Dr. Robert Youmans from George Mason University joins Tim Keirnan
for a wordcast episode on verbal protocols. Why and how do we ask
usability research participants to think aloud about their task
performance, and what does using this method do to our data? Dr.
Youmans covers four different methods of thinking aloud:
1. Concurrent Verbal Protocol
2. Retrospective Verbal Protocol
3. Interruptive Verbal Protocol
4. Prospective Verbal Protocol

The remainder of the episode covers research on how using
concurrent verbal protocol can affect your data. People do not
normally think aloud while doing tasks with products, and having
them vocalize during user research can change their behavior, but
the degree of change may not be a problem for the goals of our
studies. Sometimes thinking aloud can improve their
performance--which also affects your data. The result is not
obvious and the literature is conflicted.