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Testing & piloting

Test, deploy and share a study

Check a study, try it without recording data, connect it to a recruitment platform, deploy it, open it to participants and monitor it.

7 steps 10 min read

  1. Validate

    Validate is at the top of the builder. It checks the full design and lists errors and warnings. An error stops a deploy. A warning does not.

    In this clip, Validate warns that the last chamber has no segments. A participant would get to it with no task. A Thanks page is added, and then Validate shows no problems.

    You can deploy a study that has an empty chamber, but you cannot activate it.

    Validate flags the empty Thanks chamber. An instruction page fills it and the warning goes.

  2. Try it without recording anything

    Each chamber line has Playtest. Playtest goes through the line, segment by segment, in the builder.

    Instructions, surveys, selections and the other segments show as participants see them. Chats and agents show only as descriptions, because nobody is there to talk to. Carrier saves no data.

    A dry run through the welcome page and the survey.

  3. Point it at your recruitment platform

    Open Experiment Settings and go to Completion Redirect. Set two fields:

    • Participant ID URL Parameter: the name that your platform uses for its participant ID. For Prolific it is PROLIFIC_PID. The default is pid. Each participant keeps the ID that the platform gave.
    • Redirect URL: the page that participants go to at the end, for example the Prolific completion link with its code. Carrier adds the participant ID to it.

    If you keep Redirect URL empty, participants see a completion page.

    The participant ID comes in as PROLIFIC_PID, and participants who finish go back to the completion link.

  4. Deploy

    Deploy saves the design. It does not open the study to participants. The status stays Draft until you activate the study.

    If you deploy a study that is running, the change applies immediately. The study does not pause.

    The study is saved and is still a draft.

  5. Copy the link and activate

    Copy participant link is in the ⋯ menu of the builder and on the card of the study on the dashboard.

    If the study is not active, Carrier tells you. It lets you activate the study immediately, or copy the link and share it early. Activation does the same checks as the dashboard and lists each problem that stops it.

    A new study starts in testing mode. Its participants are test data, and the export does not include them unless you select this.

    Caution: you cannot undo Go live. Go live is in the menu of the card on the dashboard. It starts real data collection.

    Copying the link of a draft offers to activate it. The status changes to Active.

  6. What a participant from the platform sees

    Open the link as a participant does. Use a private window, and add the ID parameter that your platform adds.

    At the end, Carrier tells the participant the destination and redirects them. The address has their ID, so the platform can match their submission.

    A participant arrives with PROLIFIC_PID, answers, and goes back to the completion link.

  7. Watch it run, and pause it

    The page of the study on the dashboard shows:

    • Who started, and who is online, waiting or finished.
    • The rooms that are running.
    • The progress of each participant.

    The page refreshes every few seconds.

    Pause stops new participants from starting. Participants who already started continue to the end.

    One finished participant on the dashboard, then the study is paused.