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Adding tags/parameters to your maze URL

Laura Cunha
  • Updated

Maze allows you to add tags/parameters to your maze URL in order to record custom metadata on individual sessions.

Use cases

  • Communication. You can use parameters to identify the source of your testers (e.g. social media, website, ads)
  • Tester identification. If you already know who your testers are, you can use URL parameters to generate a unique tester link and pass in identifiable data about the tester (such as name, gender, email, etc.) in your results dashboard. This approach works best if you're using a third-party service to send out the maze links that allows you to pipe the identifying information into the link you share with them. Learn more about generating custom URLs
  • Completion tracking. If you need to track which participants completed your maze (for instance, for compensation purposes), you can pass an external tester ID as a URL parameters.
  • Language settings. You can force the testing UI to be translated into any supported language by adding a language parameter to the URL. Learn more about changing the language of the test interface
  • Disable tester tracking. This can be useful when sharing/testing your live maze internally and you don't want those interactions to be recorded. To disable tester tracking, add the ?notrack=true parameter to your maze link. Learn more about sharing options
  • Disable unique sessions. This can be useful when testing with multiple users on the same device. To disable unique sessions, add the ?guerilla=true parameter to your maze link. Learn more about sharing options

Before you start

  • You can only use tags when sending the maze URL to your own testers. URL tags are not available when using Maze's panel of hired testers.
  • URL tags are not currently supported in the PWA.
  • The tags id, createdAt, email and userId are already in use. Please don't use them as they won't register your information.

How to use parameters in your maze URLs

Maze uses a simple nomenclature to help you record data. To manually add your own URL parameters, you'll use the following nomenclature: ?key=value

This is an example of a maze test URL:

t.maze.co/74641933

This is the same test URL with a custom parameter:

t.maze.co/74641933?source=slack

By sending that second URL to a tester, we will record the following additional information in the Results dashboard:

  • Source: Slack

You can chain as many tags as you want, and we will automatically associate that data with your tester. For instance:

t.maze.co/74641933?source=newsletter&category=toast&testerid=12345...

Finding parameters data in the Results dashboard

Once your tester completes a mission, you'll be able to see the recorded data on the Results page. Here's how you do it:

  1. Once you've started receiving responses, open your Results dashboard.
  2. Navigate to the Testers tab.
    maze-results-testers-tab.webp
  3. Under each tester, click Show more to reveal the custom metadata recorded for that tester.
    maze-results-testers-tab-show-custom-metadata.webp
  4. Any data passed from the parameters will be visible under the Custom section.
    maze-results-testers-tab-custom-metadata.webp

Learn more about the Maze results dashboard

To pass this information back to the original panel provider, you can set up a redirect at the end of the maze.

Generating custom URLs

You don't have to manually add tags to each individual link you send.

If you send your test links via a third-party tool, they may have features that allow you to pipe the custom data in the URL dynamically.

For instance, you could send out URLs that include the following (example) syntax: t.maze.co/74641933?name={{firstName}}&gender={{gender}}.

While we don't directly support or endorse them, there are several products you could potentially use to generate and distribute custom URLs, such as:

Exporting

If you're on a paid plan, the data passed in the URL parameters is also available in the CSV export. 

You will find it in a single JSON object, under the meta column in the exported file.

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