A think-aloud (or thinking aloud) protocol is a method used to gather data in usability testing in product design and development, in psychology and a range of social sciences (e.g., reading, writing, translation research, decision making, and process tracing).
Think-aloud protocols involve participants thinking aloud as they are performing a set of specified tasks.
The second is the retrospective think-aloud protocol, gathered after the task as the participant walks back through the steps they took previously, often prompted by a video recording of themselves.
Nonetheless, some concurrent protocols have not produced such interference effects,[11] suggesting that it may be possible to optimize both completeness and authenticity of verbal reports.
This method is thought to be more objective in that participants merely report how they go about completing a task rather than interpreting or justifying their actions (see the standard works[which?]