Unmoderated vs. Moderated
Moderated vs Unmoderated Research
It seems to be the neverending question and also quite possibly one of the most time consuming from my experience. And of course the more people on the team, the more opinions.
Let’s get to the basics and breakdown of what each is:
Unmoderated: The test participant is left alone to complete tasks
Moderated: A researcher is present during the test
And, that’s it in a nutshell. So which one is best? Well, that depends on the researcher as there are pros and cons to each process.
Unmoderated Testing Methods:
- A/B Testing
- Card Sorting
- Click Testing
- Diary Study
- Surveys
- Usability Testing
Pros: Unmoderated testing is most beneficial for gathering significantly more data over a broader area, provides better access to more people, and in a shorter time frame. It also allows researchers to conduct testing without the need to be trained in it.
Cons: Unmoderated testing will always require a tool to conduct, even if it is only a pen and paper. Additionally, you won’t receive real-time results or the ability to probe deeper into data retrieved.
Moderated Testing Methods:
- Card Sorting
- Click Testing
- Ethnographic Study
- Focus Groups
- Interviews
- Remote Usability Testing
Pros: With moderated testing, you have the ability to ask any additional questions as needed, you can go off-script for any follow up questions that the conversation may lead you through and you can have team members or stakeholders view live and see how the testing is being conducted, allowing them the ability to see the outcome of the design.
Cons: Moderated tests can become very time-consuming seeing as you can only interview one person at a time leading to smaller sets of data, increased cost due to either compensation of the participants or paying an agency. Bias can also be introduced which will skew your data.
I did some research and found there are many tools for both styles of testing, but I will just list a few: (https://uxcam.com/blog/5-usability-testing-tools/)
For organization purposes, I recently began using Airtable and really like it. Airtable is a cloud collaboration service can be used to store info in, similar to Excel, but it is also strong enough to be used for Customer-Relationship Management (CRM), tracking inventory, task management, and project planning, There are so many boards and templates for a variety of projects and provides a seamless team workspace for real-time team use. I have used Miro previously, but I do prefer Airtable and is more widely used by companies in the research field.
So basically, there really is no right or wrong way, it just depends on HOW you want your data to be delivered — wider results in a faster time or more in-depth data over a longer time. You can also combine a custom mixture of any of the two methods depending on your needs and expectations.
