Helpful Tips for Choosing the Right Mechanical Turk Interface

We frequently engage with Requesters to help determine the right approach for integrating with Mechanical Turk. Most commonly, Requesters are deciding between using our user interface (UI) or integrating directly with our application programming interface (API).  In today’s post, we thought it might be helpful to highlight some of the key advantages of each interface.

Advantages of the Requester UI

The Requester UI enables Requesters to design and publish HITs, receive results, and manage Workers from an online interface. For Categorization or Sentiment Analysis work, we offer the Categorization Application and the Sentiment Application, both of which feature predesigned templates and allow you to view results directly from the UI.

For Requesters with limited software development resources or for smaller projects, using the UI makes it easier to get started more quickly.  While a few lines of HMTL may be necessary if you choose to design your own template instead of using the Categorization or Sentiment Application, the technical skills required are minimal.  

Key advantages of using the UI include the ability to:

• Quickly publish work and receive results, without integrating with our API.
• Easily review results and approve or reject assignments.  
• Manage Workers including blocking and granting bonuses.
• Monitor Worker Statistics and create custom Qualifications to target Workers who have performed well for you.

Advantages of the Requester API

The Requester API enables Requesters to publish HITs, collect results, and manage Workers programmatically, without human intervention. Integrating with the API requires software development, but it is the optimal approach to efficiently process high volumes of HITs on a continuous basis. 

Key advantages of using the API include the ability to:

• Integrate results directly into your application.
• Design automated workflows for approving and rejecting assignments using Known Answers via the Review Policies.
• Automate performance tracking with Worker Statistics and managing access to your HITs with Qualifications.

For more detailed information, see our Choose the Right Tool guide on the features and relative advantages of each interface.