Thinkaloud, a summary

We asked seven users to think aloud for us. Here are the two scenarios we put them through along with their thoughts.

First scenario. We ask the user to stand on one of the two boxes, both lights are on. The light on the box the user is standing on is turned off. Are the user changing box? Why?

All our users changed boxes. When they changed, the light was turned on, but turned off in the new box they’re standing in. Here were some of the thoughts:

“The floor apparently turned off, oops, where am I going? Should I get off the train? No, I keep going forward into the cart. Okay, the light here turned off as well. Well then, I might aswell stay here now.”

“Floor light turns off as soon as I enter. Did something break? I keep moving forward. Floor light turns on where I was, turns off where I am. I go towards the light, so I go back. I try to go back to the light.”

“I go to the back of the cart as fast as I can. Lights turns off but is lit at the door, so I go back to the light. It turns off there as well, and I don’t know so I choose to stay by the door.”

“I want to be where it’s lit, so when the lights turn off where I stand I go to the other light. I go back and forth to chase the light. I decide to stay somewhere in the middle, between the boxes.”

“I go on to the train. The light on the floor is on. It turns off when I stand there, is it full here? I go forward, to the light, but then it turns off and the first light goes on. I’m confused so I choose to sit down further into the train.”

“I go in through the door, the light turns off, so I go forward. But then the light turns off further into the train as well, so it must mean I can stay here. So I sit down.”

“I go on the train. Where should I go? The light turns off where I stand, is something broken? I try to go forward, the light turns off and the first light goes on again. So I try to go back, but nope. So probably I should stay where it’s dark, but then I am by the door, so I try the other box again, and stay there since it’s dark. I feel a little confused.”

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Second scenario. We ask the user to stand on one of the two boxes, no lights are on. The light on the box the user is standing on turns red. Are the user changing box? Why?

All our users changed boxes. When they changed, the red light was turned on in the new box, but turned off in the first box. Here were some of the thoughts:

“I go into the cart, the red light feels negative. So I go away further into the cart. The light turns red there as well, and this doesn’t feel good at all. Maybe you’re not allowed here? I keep moving. If this was at night I would be so afraid.”

“The floor is red. The floor is red. I move forward with small steps. The floor turns red here now. The floor is red. Hmm. I want to move away from the red light. I don’t know.”

“Feels unpleasant, the red color doesn’t feel very safe. I keep moving into the cart, but it turns red here as well, so I choose to go back and stay by the door.”

“Red feels like a bad floor color. Something is broken maybe? I go forward, but it turns red there instead, it feels like the light is tracking me. I don’t want to be where the light is red.”

“I would think that all the seats are taken since the light is red, so I go further in where it’s no light, but then the light turns red there as well, so I just sit down. I don’t know, really.”

“If the light is red, I go away from there, but then the light turns red there as well, so I try to go back towards the door. When that light turns red again, I realise that the red isn’t dangerous, so I choose to stay by the door anyway.”

“Hmm. Red is bad, so I go away from there, but when the next light turns red I go back towards the door, but it tells me to go away, so I go into the cart again. But then that light is red again, so I give up and stay. I feel that you want to direct people in a certain direction, but the color red feels bad and I feel confused about when it’s red no matter where I stand.”