Often, you'll want a visual reference for the participant to view while responding to questions. For example, an image, video, or table of text. Read on to learn about how to upload a stimulus, file format options, and best practices.
How can I upload a stimulus?
You can upload a stimulus with the "Add stimulus" button under the Probing instructions section.
What file formats are accepted?
You can upload the following as a stimulus:
Image files - either PNG or JPEG
Video files - MP4
Audio files (e.g., a song) - Save this as an MP4 with a blank or placeholder image
There is no limit to the file size, though be aware that large file sizes (e.g., a long video) could take slightly longer to load.
💡TIPS:
We do not have the option to upload Excel files, PDFs, PPTs, or Word Docs - if you have content in those formats, you should adapt and export the content to PNG/JPEG
Be sure to check the image resolution when testing your guide to confirm the image/ video quality is high
Visibly label content and options - for example, if you are getting feedback on 6 different products, label those products with titles like "CONCEPT A, CONCEPT B" or "IMAGE 1, IMAGE 2", etc. (see an example below)
Example of stimulus testing set-up
For example, let's say you're a pet company considering running an ad to support a donation campaign. You want to get feedback on which dog image is more compelling from these two images:
For each image, you could set up a guide section with the following questions.
What are your initial reactions to this image? What do you like or dislike?
What do you imagine this dog's life is like? Who do they live with? What do they enjoy doing?
On a scale of 1 to 5 where 5 is Extremely Cute, how cute would you rate this corgi?
For each of those questions, you can upload the relevant image as a stimulus.
💡TIP: Once you've added stimulus files, they will be available for reference to add on new questions. Double check you've selected the relevant stimulus for each question.
After getting feedback on each individual image, it's also common to want to get feedback on both images -
For example, you could do a multiple choice question where you ask which image they prefer (A or B).
Alternatively, if you have many different options, you could try a stack ranking question or a "select up to X" multiple choice
For this sort of comparison, people often put together a slide that labels each image, and then you can export the slide as a PNG or JPEG file for uploading.
Participant perspective
When the participant is taking the interview, they will see the stimulus to the right of the interview question for a desktop/laptop-based question.
They can click "Expand" to zoom in and view the image more closely.
Similarly, the stimulus image is also available for participants on mobile phone - the participant will first see the interviewer question, and then click "View image" to view the stimulus.
💡TIP: Test out the interview yourself ahead of launch to review how the stimulus looks to the participant.