A Guide to Think Aloud Comments | Antidote

Playtest feedback plays a major role in user experience (UX) development, and one of the best proven methods for player feedback are think aloud comments, or the active communication of a player’s thoughts as they interact with an interface or game.
This feedback style is sometimes described as “eavesdropping on someone’s thinking”, and though this method provides insightful feedback to developers when done correctly, it often feels awkward and unnatural for player’s to try and communicate what you are doing while you are doing it (at first, at least).
The purpose of this video is to showcase the basics of think aloud comments and provide helpful advice on how you can further improve your feedback.
[Kick-Starting Your Thoughts]
Ideally, think aloud comments should verbalize the stream of relevant thoughts that a player is having while interacting with a game. The key term here is “relevant”; only thoughts relevant to the interaction should be actually said, and unrelated comments should be filtered out. For example, talking about what you ate for lunch during a play test does not benefit a developer. However, explaining what you are doing in the game and why you are doing it provides useful information that can be used for further game development.
Sometimes, it seems difficult to determine what can be considered relevant and useful feedback. However, there are some questions you can ask yourself that can start your train of thought on the right track:
What am I doing within the interface/game, and why?
What catches my attention?
How intuitive are the controls and navigation?
Is there anything that is unnecessarily difficult/confusing?
Could certain changes create a better user experience? What changes?
These questions serve as a great starting point. As you become more comfortable with think aloud comments, you can begin to provide effective feedback without the help of these questions.
[General Tips]
Practice makes Perfect
Avoid Distractions
Be Yourself
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