How to use Task Questions in an Express Usability Test

Task Overview

Task questions are a question type in an Express usability test. Use a task question when you want the participant to complete a specific task on a live website or prototype.

You can include up to 10 task questions in a usability test. Desktop usability tests are continuously recorded and can record the participant’s face, audio, and screen. Mobile usability tests (beta) are not continuously recorded. Each mobile usability task question will be a separate video with a 10-minute limit and will capture the participant’s mobile device screen and audio only.

Desktop usability task question

up to 10 task questions with continuous recording
no duration limit
captures face, screen, and audio
time-on-task, user-reported success, auto success (web URL and Figma screen), SEQ score, and clicks
heatmaps through Figma integration

Mobile usability task question

up to 10 task questions with a 10-minute recording limit per task
captures screen and audio
time-on-task, user-reported success, auto success (Figma screen), SEQ score, and clicks (Figma only)
heatmaps and prototype clicks through Figma integration

Each task question has task-specific follow-up questions that can be toggled on.

How to add a Task to your Usability Test

Click Add and select Task from the question options. Note: task questions are only available in Usability tests.

Write your task question prompt. Learn more: Become a Task Writing Pro.
Click Add in the Task URL container to include Include a URL or prototype link (optional). Learn more about including task URLs below.
Optional: Turn on your desired power follow-ups on the right-hand menu. Power follow ups include self-reported completion and Single Ease Question (SEQ). If enabled, power follow-up results will be included in your task analysis. Read more about the power follow-up questions below.

Task URLs

In a task question, you can include a website URL or Figma prototype link. If included, participants will be directed to this link when they begin the task. URLs can be added at the mission or task level.

A URL or prototype link is not required for a task question. You only need to include a URL or prototype link in a task question if you’d like to control the starting point of the task.

The URL or prototype link should be included in the URL field, not in the question prompt or within checkpoints. Including the URL or prototype link in the URL field allows the mission to open the URL automatically when the task is started.

Participants are automatically directed to the link. When including the URL or prototype link in the URL field, the URL will open automatically for participants when they start the task.

The link will stay open in desktop usability tests, but not for mobile usability tests.

In desktop usability tests, the URL or prototype link will stay open for the scout until the mission is complete, until they are redirected to a new URL or prototype link in a subsequent task, or until a card sort question is introduced. This means it is not necessary to reintroduce links in each task.
In mobile usability tests, you will want to include a starting URL for each task question.

Manage Task URLs modal

Task URLs can be managed within your mission in one place: the Manage Task URL modal, which can be accessed by selecting the Task URLs button in the upper right-hand corner of the Create tab.

In the Manage Task URL’s modal, you can view all prototypes or web URLs in your mission and which task questions they are added to. You can also add, refresh, and delete prototypes. URLs added to a mission through an individual task question will automatically show up here.

Click the Task URLs button in the upper right-hand corner of the Create tab.
Click Add URL, select Website or Figma prototype, and include your link. If you are testing a Figma prototype, read more about using Figma prototypes and our Figma integration here: Figma Integration – Getting Started.

Add URLs through a task question

You can add URLs as you go by adding them directly to a task question.

Add a task question to your Usability test.
Select Add in the Task URL container and select Website or Figma prototype, or choose from an already uploaded task URL. If you are testing a Figma prototype, read more about using Figma prototypes and our Figma integration here: Figma Integration – Getting Started.

Setting a success screen or URL

If including a task URL, you will have the option to include a success URL or success screen to automatically determine the successful completion of a task. Success is determined by whether or not the participant visits the URL while completing the task. This allows you to capture your definition of success to complement the self-reported success power follow-up question.

Desktop usability missions can include either a web URL or Figma* screen to determine success. *Only available if you connect your Figma account with dscout.
Mobile usability missions can capture automatic success through a Figma screen using the Figma integration. Mobile usability tests cannot determine success with a URL.

After adding the starting URL for a task, select Add in the Set Success URL container.
Paste the URL on which you expect the scout to finish the task. You can also use wild-card URLs by using an asterik in place of a portion of the URL that will be ignored. Read more about setting a Figma screen for success here: Adding a Figma prototype to a Usability mission.

Power Follow-Ups

You have the option of including power follow-up questions for each task. These questions can not be edited and are tied to specific analysis metrics. They must be toggled on prior to launching your mission. You can toggle them on using the menu on the right-hand side of the screen.

Self-reported completion: Task questions have an optional Success Follow-Up Question that will ask the participant if they have successfully completed a task. If enabled, the task will display the completion percentage for that task with each scout response listing (a) yes - successful or (b) no - (technical issues, confusing prompt, or too difficult).

Single Ease Question (SEQ): Task questions have an optional SEQ that acts as a follow-up scale question measuring participant-reported success (1- very difficult, 7 - very easy). If enabled, the task will display an average effort rating and a rating distribution. It will also display the participant’s rating for each task.

SEQ Difficulty Follow-Up: Task questions have an additional SEQ follow-up option to ask the participant to describe “why was the task difficult” if the participant reports a difficulty rating of 1-4.

Task Question Metrics

You can access specific task metrics in the Analyze tab for your Task question.

Success: Measured using a set success screen. This number indicates the percentage of participants who reached your designated success screen.

Self-reported completion: Measured using the self-reported success question. If you toggle on the Success question power follow-up, the task will display the completion percentage for that task with each scout response listing (a) yes - successful or (b) no - (technical issues, confusing prompt, or too difficult).

Time on task metrics: Task questions will provide (a) average time, median, mean, upper quartile, lower quartile, and outlier time on task for all participants, (b) individual time on task for each participant response. Hovering over the task graph will show you the following information:

Min: The minimum amount of time it took to complete the task.
Q1: The lower quartile, or first quartile (Q1), is the value under which 25% of data points are found when they are arranged in increasing order.
Median: The mid- point of your data set.
Q3: The upper quartile, or third quartile (Q3), is the value under which 75% of data points are found when arranged in increasing order
Max: The maximum amount of time it took to complete the task.
Mean: The average time it took to complete the task.
Outliers: An outlier is defined as a data point that is located outside the whiskers of the box plot. For example, outside 1.5 times the interquartile range above the upper quartile and below the lower quartile (Q1 – 1.5 * IQR or Q3 + 1.5 * IQR).

Task Clicks & Navigation Insight (desktop + mobile with Figma) : Task responses will include data on the number of clicks, page elements clicked on, and URLs visited during the task.

Click Details (desktop only): For live websites, dscout will capture the name of the website components that a participant clicks on. The component name will vary in descriptiveness depending on how it was named in the website’s code.

Average ease rating: If you toggle on the Single Ease Question power follow-up, the task will display an average effort rating and a distribution of the rating. It will also display each individual participant’s rating for the task.

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