Content
Cloze Testing
A practical UX and content method for testing comprehension by asking users to complete structured missing-word content.
How to run cloze testing to identify confusing language and improve readability, clarity, and task support.
What it is
Cloze testing is a UX and content method used to evaluate glossaryReadabilityReadability is how easily written content can be read and decoded, shaped by sentence length, vocabulary, structure, and typography. It measures the effort the text demands, not whether the meaning actually landed.Open glossary term and glossaryComprehensionComprehension is whether users actually understand the content, instructions, or interface in front of them. It is the outcome that matters, and it can fail even when the text is short, clear, and well presented.Open glossary term by systematically removing words from a text and asking users to fill in the blanks.
It helps identify which parts of content are confusing, unclear, or poorly structured.
This method is often applied to instructional content, help articles, product descriptions, or any text that requires understanding to complete tasks.
The focus is on glossaryComprehensionComprehension is whether users actually understand the content, instructions, or interface in front of them. It is the outcome that matters, and it can fail even when the text is short, clear, and well presented.Open glossary term rather than grammar or style.
The goal is to ensure users can understand and act on your content as intended.
Cloze testing reveals where users genuinely understand content versus where they are only skimming.
When to use it
Use this method when you need to test content glossaryComprehensionComprehension is whether users actually understand the content, instructions, or interface in front of them. It is the outcome that matters, and it can fail even when the text is short, clear, and well presented.Open glossary term.
It is most useful when:
It is less useful when:
Cloze testing is often used alongside readability testing and plain language reviews.
Key takeaway
Use cloze testing when language clarity directly affects user success.
How to run it
Set up properly
Be clear on the content you are testing, which words you will remove and on what rule, and who the participants are. Removing words by judgement rather than by rule turns the test into a quiz you wrote the answers to.
Choose representative content and realistic scenarios. A cloze test on your best-written page tells you very little.
Run the method
Cloze testing is structured and task-based. By removing words at intervals and asking people to restore them, it measures whether the surrounding text carries enough meaning to predict what is missing.
- Remove words systematically (every fifth or sixth word is the usual convention) rather than choosing which to delete.
- Present the modified content to people who have not seen the original.
- Ask them to fill each blank with whatever word they think belongs.
- Observe errors, hesitation and misinterpretation as they work, not only the final answers.
- Record and analyse the glossaryResponseA response is the data or result returned by a server after receiving a request.Open glossary term, treating near-synonyms as correct. You are testing glossaryComprehensionComprehension is whether users actually understand the content, instructions, or interface in front of them. It is the outcome that matters, and it can fail even when the text is short, clear, and well presented.Open glossary term, not vocabulary matching.
Focus on glossaryComprehensionComprehension is whether users actually understand the content, instructions, or interface in front of them. It is the outcome that matters, and it can fail even when the text is short, clear, and well presented.Open glossary term rather than recall. A low score means the passage failed to establish its own glossaryContextContext is the set of surrounding conditions that shape how someone behaves and decides, including their goal, their environment, their time pressure, and what happened immediately before. The same action can mean different things in different contexts.Open glossary term, not that the reader was inattentive.
Capture and make sense of it
The value comes from identifying unclear content. After testing, document:
- The words and sections people could not reconstruct
- glossaryPatternA pattern is a reusable solution to a design problem that recurs across products and contexts. It captures an approach already shown to work, so a team solves the problem once rather than every time it appears.Open glossary term of misunderstanding across participants
- Revisions prioritised by where the passage carries real consequence
- A follow-up test, since a rewrite is a glossaryHypothesisA hypothesis is a testable assumption about how a change will impact an outcome.Open glossary term
Use this to make content more understandable. It is an unusually objective test of prose, which makes it useful in arguments about writing.
What to look for
Focus on:
Where it goes wrong
Most issues come from:
If the blanks are too obvious or too hard, the results are invalid.
What you get from it
Done properly, this method gives you:
Key takeaway
It helps ensure users understand content and can act on it correctly.
Get in touch
If this sounds like something you need, we can run cloze testing on your content to identify gaps in comprehension and make your product easier to understand.
No guesswork. No assumptions. Just content that works for real users.
FAQ
Common questions
A few practical answers to the questions that usually come up around this method.
What is cloze testing in UX?
It is a method for measuring comprehension by having users fill in missing words in content.
When should you use cloze testing?
During content audits, readability testing, or copy refinement.
What can you test?
Instructional text, help articles, product copy, and messaging.
What does cloze testing catch that a read-through misses?
It identifies sections users do not understand and prevents confusion.
Does cloze testing improve UX?
Yes. It ensures content is clear, understandable, and actionable.
Quick take
If you want to know whether users really understand your content, remove some words and test comprehension.
Related Services
