Put TiO2 (Dyesol recommended) on FTO/ITO coated glass substrate by doctor-blading technique and put it to oven at elevated temperature for drying. After succesful preparation of TiO2 thin films, immerged completely those in a concentrated solution of dye for overnight. Dye will be adsorbed on TiO2 on the thin film. Wash throughly the dye-coated thin film with the solvent for 3-4 times. Then, select a small portion of the dye-coated TiO2 in the thin film (say 16 mm2 or 25 mm2) and scratch out the rest. Except that selected small portion (16 mm2), make all the other portion non-conductive using scotch tape (remember to keep very small conductive portion towards one of the end in the FTO/ITO for connection). Now put 1 or 2 drops of electrolyte to the small dye portion (usually sulphide for DSSC) and sandwich it with the counter electrode (say platinum electrolyte). Your DSSC is ready to use.
Use suitable positive and negative crocodile clips to one with cathode and anode and put the sandwich DSSC under the I-V lamp to get the I-V performance.
You are also welcome to look some of my publication on QDSC where you can have more detail information. All the best.