Our study builder gives you the option between conducting unmoderated UX studies, or moderated UX studies. Both types of studies are effective and can help you gather a variety of insights about your brand’s overall customer experience. But each has its own set of caveats. Below we go over the ins and out of unmoderated studies and moderated studies:
Similarities Between Unmoderated and Moderated Studies
Unmoderated UX studies offer many of the same principal benefits as moderated studies. Both types of studies allow organizations to invite their own participants, participants provided by a third party user experience respondent panel, or participants from Userlytics’ global panel of over 1.5 million participants. Additionally, each type of study allows for the testing of either a website, mobile app or prototype.
Aside from the basics, both unmoderated studies and moderated studies offer state-of-the-art testing features like picture-in-picture, skipping logic, and customizable activity templates. Both types of studies make it easy to onboard participants, with personalized invitation links, participant filtering tools, and a customizable screener question to ensure participants meet the criteria for your study.
After completing either an unmoderated usability study or a moderated study, you will have access to the full video and survey question results, be able to share access to specific projects with clients and colleagues, and download videos, quantitative metrics and survey results for your own reporting format. Either type of study allows you to access a hyperlinked “Video Highlights” section with key comments and events linked to specific videos and timeline moments. You can download specific video clips with or without captions of annotation titles, create “Highlight Reels” of clips from different participants and/or studies linked by a common theme through the use of tags, and request an AI generated audio transcript of the videos with time stamped text for easy searching of videos and links to specific timeline moments. Additionally, both types of studies allow you to request an analysis and executive summary of your study, crafted by one of our Professional UX Consultants, of results with detailed recommendations.
Differences Between Unmoderated and Moderated Studies
Although the capabilities of both unmoderated and moderated studies span far and wide, there are some key differences between the two types of studies. In an unmoderated study, participants will not have anyone present with them while they take the study to help guide them or answer questions. In some cases, it may not be necessary for a moderator to be present. But in other cases, having a moderator present can help draw insights they may not otherwise be uncovered. If you choose to conduct a moderated study with your participants, you will have to select your moderator’s availability and create open and available sessions. Your moderator can either be a professional from your team, or a Userlytics expert. Invited participants can then confirm the specific date and time they will complete the study, and both the moderator and the participant will receive reminders prior to the selected study date and time.
