Curating & Testing a Participant Journey Check

How to Ensure your Participants will Experience your Playtest as Intended

Jonny avatar
Written by Jonny
Updated over a week ago

Why QA the participant journey?

QA on a participant journey is essential to any playtest project. The importance of this QA is to ensure that the participant is experiencing the playtest in the manner you want them to!

We need to check that the playtest flows how we want it to, and players are going to experience and encounter all the information required to take part, and see all there is to see in this particular playtest project.

It is also important to verify that the player facing versions of all the information involved is formatted to your liking, information such as the Screening format, the Surveys, Tasks and Special Instructions.

Finally, we have to verify that the flow itself is sequencing correctly, if we are directing the player to an external survey, we need to ensure this works as intended. If we are redirecting the player to a focus group booking etc, we have to ensure that players will gain visibility of this information as intended, to prevent issues down the line.

Steps Involved in QA of a Participant Journey Check

When conducting QA on a participant journey, it is important to review the playtest flow from screener to upload and check for any issues.

We must begin our participant journey check by reviewing all the steps we have curated in our test draft

Step 1: Review the "Platform" section to ensure the project itself is properly attached to the draft.

This can take a number of forms depending on the nature of the playtest you are running.

  • For a Web URL: Use the "Preview" button next to the URL to open the link (as pictured above)

  • For an Android APK: Ensure that the APK file is the correct version on your machine before uploading. Verify that any updates etc have been installed prior to uploading the build.

  • For a PC Steam Test: Double check the Steam Keys are input correctly and add an extra key for use when QA'ing the live journey.

Once this information has been verified, we can move into the next step.

Step 2: Verify the Test Plan

It is important to verify the Test Plan so that the player is delivered the correct information surrounding the playtest.

Take note of the following:

  • Is the playtest duration correct?

  • Is the playtest set to the correct amount of sessions?

  • Does the test need to be set to daily sessions?

Once this information has been confirmed, we can move to our Welcome Message & Special Instructions

Make sure that special instructions are clear and not overwhelming & easy to follow!

Step 3: Check Screener & Reward

If running a playtest that includes a Screener, you want to verify the Screener link to ensure it is correct, we also recommend doing a demo run of the screener to confirm logics are working as intended for accepting/rejecting players

Step 4: Tasks

In this step, verify that tasks are ordered correctly.

Additionally, make sure that all tasks make sense and will be straightforward for players to follow and complete.

Step 5: Surveys

The final step in verifying the information in our draft, ensure all surveys are ordered correctly and do a quick run over of all the questions within the surveys, to ensure the information is legible to players and will capture the intended feedback.

NOTE: Pay close attention to this step, as surveys will not be editable once the test has been launched.

Step 6: Launch the test!

To properly QA the live journey, we will need to launch the playtest project.

To the top right of your screen, you will see the LAUNCH TEST button.

Double check that all changes have been saved (as pictured above) and launch the test once you are comfortable with the information in the draft.

You will be brought to the live test on the GoTestify platform upon selecting this option.

Step 7: Distribute an invite

Now, you must send an invite to the designated QA tester for this participant journey.

Invite the participant via distributing a Playtest Link.

This is done by selecting the ellipses on the live test, and selecting "invite participants"

Be sure to select "Test Screener" if you are including a Screener survey in the test, otherwise select "Direct to test"

Final Step: QA the Test in Full.

Finally we are ready to test the participant journey in its entirety. We recommend the following actions when doing this

  1. When onboarding, verify all player facing information is correct

  2. Run through the screener and confirm players will be screened through into the playtest if they meet your criteria

  3. Confirm the game is downloading without issue

  4. When in the playtest, follow all tasks/instructions as a player would to confirm they are doable within the allocated time

  5. Finish the recording once all tasks are complete and confirm the Survey appears as intended

  6. Repeat steps 4-5 for as many sessions as required.

If any concerns arise during this QA process, they must be addressed before launching recruitment in order to ensure an optimal participant experience.

If you have any questions or would like to chat with someone, feel free to reach out to us via the chat function at the bottom right of this page or via support@gotestify.com.

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