When recruiting from your own pool of participants, you have several options for how to get those participants on to dscout.  In this article, we’ll be outlining how to onboard participants to Express Media Survey via share link.

Once you have set up your Express Media Survey and sent the share link out to your pool of participants, they’ll go through the following steps to get onboarded on to the dscout platform:

Accessing the mission

Participants will see the webpage that will give them information about the mission.  On this page, participants will submit their name and email to create a dscout account.  They will be required to tick two boxes: one to indicate their agreement with the dscout Scout Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy and another to indicate their agreement that any information provided during sign-up may be disclosed to the researcher. 

Desktop:

Mobile:

Once participants select Begin research study on the desktop webpage, or Continue on the mobile webpage, they will experience one of two things, depending on whether their email address has been used to sign into dscout before:

1. If the participant email address has never been used to sign in to dscout

Participants will be brought directly to the instructions for the mission [below]

2. If the participant email address has previously been used to sign in to dscout

Participants will be brought directly to the instructions for the mission will be prompted to verify their email.

In the event your participant opens the mission webpage link in a mobile web browser, and your mission is programmed as a mobile mission, they will be required to download the app. If your mission is a desktop usability study, they will be required to switch to desktop before proceeding. See examples below:

Mobile media survey, opened in mobile web browser:

Desktop usability study, opened in mobile web browser:

Participants will receive an email from participate@dscout.com which contains the smart link.  Once participants click the link in their email they will be brought directly to the instructions for the mission.

Participating in the mission

Once set up on dscout, participants will first come to an instructions page specific to the mission type. This is where dscout will set some expectations and provide some coaching.

Media Survey

If completing a Media Survey, participants will see the following instructions and then be brought to Q1 of the Express mission.

Usability

If completing a Usability Test, participants will see the following instructions and complete a technology check before they can begin. 

After clicking *Begin activity* dscout will do a technology check, prompt the participants to install the correct items if they haven't already, and check that their webcam and microphone are working. 

Desktop:

Once the participant has reviewed the instructions and have their hardware set up, they will be brought to Q1 of the Express mission.