Looking to uncover insights to help you build better products? You’re in the right place! With our various research tools—both moderated and unmoderated—Dscout makes it easy to gather rich, human-centered data at scale.
But where to start? We’ve put together this guide to help you make some important first decisions to kick off your research.
Choose a study type
At Dscout, we refer to research studies as “missions.” And you have four mission types to choose from:
- Usability test: Quickly capture how users interact with your website, prototype, or app to uncover pain points and improve UX. For more information, see Set up a usability test.
- Media survey: Collect in-the-moment feedback through video, photos, and open-ended responses to bring your research to life. For more information, see Set up a media survey.
- Diary: Understand behaviors and experiences over time with longitudinal studies that capture real moments as they happen. For more information, see Set up a Diary study.
- Interview: Conduct one-on-one video sessions with participants to dig deeper, ask follow-ups, and explore reactions in real time. For more information, see Set up a live interview mission.
Still not sure which mission type makes sense for your research? Use the tables below for a more detailed breakdown:
| Usability tests | Media surveys | Diary | Interviews | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Method details | ||||
| Moderated | X | |||
| Unmoderated | X | X | X | |
| Continuously recorded | X (with the option of privacy blur) | X | ||
| Single-entry | X | X | X | |
| Multi-entry | X | |||
| Device support | Desktop or mobile (one device type per mission) | Desktop or mobile (one device type per mission) | Desktop or mobile (one device type per activity) | Desktop or mobile (one device type per mission) |
| Recruitment options | ||||
| Auto-recruit | X | X | ||
| Add participants from screeners (manual recruit) | X | X | X | X |
| Bring your own participants (invite via share link or email) | X | X | X | X |
| Add participants from Private Panels | X (via Dscout or Private Panels) | X (via Dscout or Private Panels) | X (via Private Panels) | X (via Private Panels) |
| Question types | ||||
| Multiple choice | X | X | X | |
| Typed response | X | X | X | |
| Checkpoint | X | X | X | |
| Scale | X | X | X | |
| Ranking | X | X | X | |
| Number | X | X | X | |
| Card sort | X | X | ||
| Task | X | |||
| Talk out loud | X | |||
| Photo | X | X (Up to 5 per entry) | ||
| Video | X (Up to 3 video/screen recordings per survey) | X (Up to 3 video/screen recordings per entry) | ||
| Screen recording | Continuously recorded | X (Up to 3 video/screen recordings per survey) | X (Up to 3 video/screen recordings per entry) | |
| Question groups | X | X | ||
| Analysis tools | ||||
| Auto-transcription | X | X | ||
| Playlist creation | X | X | X | X |
| AI summaries (add-on) | X | X | X | X |
| AI themes (add-on) | X | X | X | |
| AI notable moments (add-on) | X | |||
Choose a recruitment method
Whichever mission type you choose, it’s important to fill your study with the highest quality participants. To help, Dscout offers several options:
- Recruit using a screener: Build a screener directly in Dscout using targeting attributes and knockout questions to find only the right participants. You can keep your screener private and only send it to people you choose or make your screener public and recruit from Dscout’s on-hand pool of participants (called Scouts). For more information, see Set up a screener.
- Bring your own participants: Invite participants you’ve already screened and know would be a good fit for your study. These could be people you have on a mailing list, in which case you could generate a share link for your mission to grant them access. Or, these might be people on a panel you maintain for ongoing research in Private Panels. Either way, if you already have people in mind to participate, you can invite them to your Dscout mission.
Create a project
Once you’ve figured out which mission type fits your needs and how you want to recruit for it, it’s time to get started. The next step is to create a project (if you don’t already have one!).
Think of projects as folders to keep your research organized. You might need multiple missions or studies to get the insights you’re looking for, and you can keep them all together in a single project.
To create a project, click New Project in the top-right corner of the Dscout homepage.
Now, you’re taken to the blank project’s page where you can edit the project’s details, build missions and screeners, and invite collaborators.
Additional resources
You’ll find answers to nearly any of your Dscout-related questions here on our help center. But if you’re still unsure of where to get started, or if you need just a little bit of inspiration to get you going, here are a few other resources that might be able to help: