In a thinking aloud test, you ask test participants to use the system while continuously thinking out loud — that is, simply verbalizing their thoughts as they move through the user interface.

("Simply" ought to be in quotes, because it's not that simple for most people to keep up a running monologue. The test facilitator typically has to prompt users to keep them talking.)

To run a basic thinking aloud usability study, you need to do only 3 things: