“Tell me what you'd do here.”
From Steve Krug · Author of Don't Make Me Think and Rocket Surgery Made Easy
Why it works
Krug's whole DIY-usability method rests on one move: get a real person in front of the screen and ask them to think out loud — to say what they're looking at, what they're trying to do, and what they're thinking. 'Tell me what you'd do here' is the cleanest version of that prompt because it doesn't smuggle in the answer. You're not asking whether they like the page or whether the button is clear — you're asking them to act, and then narrating intent reveals where the model in their head and the model on the screen disagree. Every misread label, every overlooked link, every 'I guess I would maybe click…' is a free bug report you would never have written yourself. The technique works because almost any normal person, given a screen and a polite request, will tell you more in five minutes than a thousand session recordings.
When to ask
In a usability session, the moment the participant lands on a real screen for the first time — before tasks, before prompting, before you accidentally tell them what it's for. Reach for it again any time the participant goes quiet; the silence is the data, the question is the recovery.
Good follow-ups
- What were you expecting when you clicked that?
- What does this page look like it's for?
- What would you try next if that didn't work?
Watch out for
Helping. The instant you nudge — 'try the top menu,' 'no, the other one' — you've replaced their thinking with yours and the data is gone. The recovery is Krug's: a flat, friendly 'what do you think you'd do?' and silence. The other failure is mistaking the participant's confusion for their fault; Krug is explicit that you're testing the site, not them, and a tester who freezes is telling you the page is broken, not that the user is.
Where to ask
- User interviewgreat
This is the think-aloud prompt — the entire technique is a live moderator handing a screen to a participant and asking them to narrate; in front of a real interface there is no substitute.
- Sales callworkable
Usable on a demo call when a prospect drives the screen for a moment — the unscripted hesitations are often more honest than anything they'll say afterwards — but a buyer under a pitch self-edits more than a recruited tester.
- In-product surveypoor
Think-aloud is a verbal stream, not a text field; asking for it asynchronously gets you a tidy retrospective that has already laundered out the hesitations and misreads Krug designed the technique to surface.
- Long-form surveypoor
An emailed survey cannot watch someone use the product; without the screen and the live narration there is nothing to interpret, and a written 'what would you do' becomes a personality test.
Stage: Consider · A question popularized by Steve Krug