USER RECRUITMENT BOOTCAMP
UX Cambridge 2014
INSTRUCTOR
Emma MillingtonPeople for Research
WHY BOOTCAMP?
New to user research
New to user recruitment
Brush up skills
“Participant recruitment is the unglamorous foundation for all user testing”
How to Recruit Participants for Usability StudiesDeborah Hinder and Jakob Nielson, 2003
THE DRILLHow to start…writing a knock out brief
How to recruit who you want
Recruiting – how to find participants
Plan B – what to do if recruitment plan A fails
Mastering Challenging Segments
Safeguard your testing with damage limitation
BRIEFESSENTIALS
WHO?
WHAT?
WHERE?
WHEN?
LEAD TIME
HOW MANY?
INCENTIVES
STUDENTS£40
B2B / NICHE£200External $64(£38.78) How to Recruit Participants for Usability Studies, Deborah Hinder and
Jakob Nielson, 2003
MAKING SURE PARTICIPANTS MEET THE BRIEF
A GOOD SCREENER CONTAINS
An Introduction
Screen out criteria / questions
Terms (or statements) for participation: must remember to bring
ID
“The purpose of personas is to create reliable and realistic representations of your key audience segments for reference”
Usability.gov/how-to-and-tools/methods/personas.html
PERSONAS
BOB is 19, has just begun a degree. He lives for social media and his smart phone is his life line. He has aspirations to own the most high tech, cutting edge gadgets but makes do with what he can afford on his student loan. Bob loves to socialise, is always in touch with his friends and enjoys going to live music gigs. He never has enough money so he is always on the look out for good deals.
JANET loves her job, 30 and with no kids, she works in conservation and regularly campaigns for animal rights. Janet enjoys holidaying in the UK, and prefers to stay in eco-friendly rustic accommodation. This year she is planning a trip with work to go and see the result of their conservation work in South America. Juliet usually avoids modern technology, but is aware that she will need some specialist navigation kit for this trip.
JOHN is 48, works in a well-paid finance role for a private company. Having a young family means that John is careful with his money and closely monitors his investments. Hoping to pay for his children to go to University and a get a good start in life, John uses apps and various websites to keep abreast of the financial market place. They live in a rural location, and the commute in to the city is an excellent time for him to browse his apps and read the news on his iPad.
PERSONAS
BOB is 19, has just begun a degree. He lives for social media and his smart phone is his life line. He has aspirations to own the most high tech, cutting edge gadgets but makes do with what he can afford on his student loan. Bob loves to socialise, is always in touch with his friends and enjoys going to live music gigs. He never has enough money so he is always on the look out for good deals.
JANET loves her job, 30 and with no kids, she works in conservation and regularly campaigns for animal rights. Janet enjoys holidaying in the UK, and prefers to stay in eco-friendly rustic accommodation. This year she is planning a trip with work to go and see the result of their conservation work in South America. Juliet usually avoids modern technology, but is aware that she will need some specialist navigation kit for this trip.
JOHN is 48, works in a well-paid finance role for a private company. Having a young family means that John is careful with his money and closely monitors his investments. Hoping to pay for his children to go to University and a get a good start in life, John uses apps and various websites to keep abreast of the financial market place. They live in a rural location, and the commute in to the city is an excellent time for him to browse his apps and read the news on his iPad.
SAMPLE PLANDemographics Bob Janet John
Age 19 (18-25) 30 (25-35) 48 (35-55)
Gender Male or Female Female Male
Children ? Presume none ? Presume none Yes – under 18
Lives with Wife and Young Family ? Partner / spouse & young family
Devices Smart Phone ? Smart Phone / Tablet
Salary / lifestyle / spend
Student - frugal Professional C1 - ? Professional A/B – affluent/luxury
Tech ability Savvy Avoider Savvy
PLAN AHOW TO FIND PARTICIPANTSFriends/family/colleaguesOnline forumsClient provided listsInternal recruitment teamsExternal recruiters
PLAN BWHAT TO DO IFPLAN A FAILS
DON’T PANIC
STRATEGY
MASTERING CHALLENGING SEGMENTS
OLDER PARTICIPANTS
DISABILITY & ACCESSIBILITY
CHILDREN
HIGH END B2B
FLEXIBILTY
SAFEGUARD YOUR TESTING: EMPLOY DAMAGE LIMITATION
HERDING CATS…IT CAN BE DONE
Image source:Published on January 2014 by Glenda Stovall under Cathttp://pulpbits.com/5-excellent-herding-cats-picture/cats-picture/
CONFIRMATIONS:BEST PRACTICE
Confirmation email
Reminder email
Call
PREVENTINGNO SHOWS
All day standby
Back up
“… your name is Jane?”
CHECK ID
MEET, GREET, SHOW ME THE MONEY
1. Brief2. Create a screener3. How to recruit4. Mastered
challenging segments
5. Plan B6. Incentives7. Safeguard testing
SUMMARY
PICK MYBRAINS
RESOURCESMembership & guidelinesMRS code of conductData Protectionhttp://ico.org.uk/ESDWebPages/DoSearch
Books Kim Goodwin: Designing in the Digital Age Mike Kuniavsky: Observing the User Experience:
WebHow to Recruit Participants for Usability Studies, Deborah Hinder and Jakob Nielson http://nngroup.com/reports/tips/recruiting
Webcredible www.webcredible.co.ukhttp://www.usability.gov/
Twitter@people4research