233 Tips and Tricks for Recruiting Users as Participants in Usability Studies

233 Tips and Tricks for Recruiting Users as Participants in Usability Studies

by Nielsen Norman Group
Released February 2010
Publisher(s): New Riders
ISBN: 9780132107532

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Book description

Participant recruiting for usability studies is the unglamorous foundation for all user testing. Having a systematic recruiting program in place will make a huge difference in the amount of usability testing conducted in your organization and the quality of your recruits with an immediate impact on the quality of the test results. This report from the Nielsen Norman Group tells you how to set up and manage a recruiting program, how to get the right users for specific tests, and how to deal with the users you have recruited. It also presents advice on when to outsource to a recruiting agency (for a fee) and when to use in-house recruiting.

Table of contents

  1. 233 Tips and Tricks for Recruiting Users as Participants in Usability Studies
    1. Executive Summary
        1. State of the Art for Recruiting
        2. Specialized Recruiting Agencies
        3. Incentives Provided to Test Participants
        4. No-Show Rates
        5. How to Get Started with Systematic Recruiting
    2. Introduction
        1. Who Should Read This Report
        2. What You Will Find in this Report
        3. Sources for the Recruiting Tips
        4. Overlapping Tips
        5. Share Your Own Tips
    3. Tips and Tricks Summary
    4. Planning Your Recruiting Needs
        1. The Cardinal Rule for Recruiting
        2. Developing Recruiting Criteria
          1. Learning About the Users
            1. Case Study Example
          2. Deciding How Many Participants to Recruit
          3. Drafting the Screening Criteria
        3. Determining the Appropriate Incentives
          1. Monetary Incentives
            1. Survey Responses on Monetary Incentives
              1. By user group
              2. By geographical region
            2. Dispersing Monetary Incentives in Cash vs. by Check
              1. Paying in cash
              2. Paying by check
          2. Non-Monetary Incentives
            1. Survey Responses on Non-monetary Incentives
              1. By user group
              2. By geographical region
          3. How Incentives May Affect Participant Behavior
          4. How and When to Provide Incentives
        4. Considering the Study Locale
          1. When Participants Come to You
          2. When You Must Go to the Participants
        5. Planning for Training and Orientation
        6. Preparing the Screening Script and Questionnaire
          1. Cover Page and Opening Script
            1. Sample Script for Preliminary Contact by Study Sponsor
          2. Screening Questions
            1. Sample Questions for Eliciting Web Experience
          3. Invitation and Schedule
          4. Sample Participant Screening Script and Questionnaire
            1. Opening Script
            2. Screening Questions
            3. Invitation
            4. Schedule
            5. Reconfirmation
    5. Screening and Scheduling Participants
        1. Working With an Outside Recruiting Agency
          1. When to Outsource Recruiting
          2. Finding A Recruiting Agency
          3. What to Expect From A Recruiting Agency
          4. Choosing A Recruiting Agency
          5. Managing A Recruiting Agency to Your Best Benefit
        2. Doing Your Own Recruiting
          1. Internal vs. External Studies
          2. Finding Participants for Internal Studies
          3. Finding Participants for External Studies
          4. Making the Calls and Tracking Recruitment Progress
            1. Getting Organized
            2. Speaking With People
            3. Following Up With Participants
              1. Sample Confirmation Message for Email, Fax, or Letter
            4. Communicating With the Team
            5. Scheduling Backups
        3. Reusing Participants
          1. When It Is Okay to Reuse Participants
          2. When to Avoid Reusing Participants
    6. Preparing Participant Session Forms
        1. Background Questionnaire
        2. Sample Background Questionnaire
          1. Background Questionnaire for [study name]
        3. Consent Forms
        4. Sample Minor Consent Form
          1. Permission for Participation in After-School Software Evaluation Study
        5. Sample Participation Consent Form
          1. Understanding Your Participation
            1. Please read this page carefully before you sign it
        6. Incentive Receipt and Voucher
        7. Sample Receipt
          1. Receipt for [Monetary or Non-monetary]
        8. Sample Incentive Voucher
          1. Voucher for [name of incentive, such as software package name]
        9. Nondisclosure Form
        10. Sample Nondisclosure Agreement
          1. Nondisclosure Agreement for [name of study]
        11. Tax Forms
    7. Honoring the “Participant Bill of Rights”
        1. Treating Participants as Human Beings
          1. Sample Thank-You Note
        2. Attending to Participants’ Physical Comfort
        3. Ensuring Participants’ Safety
        4. Ensuring Participants’ Privacy
        5. Dealing With Unqualified Participants
    8. Future Planning
        1. Building and Maintaining a Participant Database
        2. Building and Managing a Recruiting Staff
          1. Assessing Recruiting Skills
          2. Interviewing Potential Recruiters
          3. Managing Recruiters
    9. A. Participant Recruiting Survey
        1. About the Survey
          1. Background
          2. Contents
            1. Nielsen Norman Group—Participant Recruiting Survey
            2. Survey Questions
            3. Privacy Statement
          3. Responses
            1. World Responses
            2. United States Responses
        2. Survey Results
          1. Geographical Areas From Which Participants are Recruited
            1. Results for Participant Geographical Areas
              1. Geographical Areas from which Participants are Recruited
          2. Who Recruits Participants
            1. Results for Who Recruits
              1. Recruiter tables
          3. Internal Time Spent Recruiting Participants
            1. Results for Internal Time Spent Recruiting
          4. Agency Lead Time Required and Fees Charged
            1. Results for Agency Lead Time
            2. Results for Agency Fees
          5. Participant User Groups, Incentives, and Session Length
            1. User Group and Incentive Descriptions
              1. Internal User Groups
              2. External User Groups
              3. Incentives Provided
            2. Results for Participant User Groups Cited
              1. Internal dry-run / pilot participants
              2. Actual internal participants
              3. External participants
            3. Results for Incentives Provided
              1. Monetary Incentives
              2. Non-monetary Incentives
          6. No-Show Rates
            1. Results for No-Show Rates
              1. No-show rates by who recruits
          7. Pre-Session Interaction
            1. Results for Pre-session Interaction
          8. Participant Session Documents
            1. Results for Documents Provided to Participants
          9. Participant Follow-Up
            1. Results for Participant Follow-Up
    10. B. Sample Scripts and Forms
        1. Background Questionnaire
          1. Background Questionnaire for [study name]
        2. Confirmation Message
          1. [Sample Confirmation Message for Email, Fax, or Letter]
        3. Dealing With Unqualified Participants
        4. Eliciting Sensitive Information – Sample Questions
        5. Eliciting Web Experience - Sample Questions
        6. Interview Topics for Meeting With the System Team
        7. Interview Questions for the System Team
        8. Minor Consent Form
          1. Permission for Participation in After-School Software Evaluation Study
        9. Nondisclosure Agreement
          1. Nondisclosure Agreement for [name of study]
        10. Participation Consent Form
          1. Understanding Your Participation
            1. Please read this page carefully before you sign it
        11. Participant Database Information to Track
        12. Participant Screening Script and Questionnaire
          1. Opening Script
          2. Screening Questions
          3. Invitation
          4. Schedule
          5. Reconfirmation
        13. Participant Summary Table
        14. Preliminary Contact By Study Sponsor – Sample Script
        15. Receipt Form
          1. Receipt for [Monetary or Non-monetary]
        16. Voucher Form
          1. Voucher for [name of incentive, such as software package name]
        17. Thank-You Note
    11. Acknowledgements
        1. People and Organizations
        2. Anecdote Contributors
        3. Content Reviewers
    12. References
        1. Usability Testing
        2. Participant Recruiting
        3. Ethics
        4. Needs of Specialized User Groups
        5. Questionnaire Design
        6. International Studies
        7. Statistics
    13. About Nielsen Norman Group
    14. Reports by Nielsen Norman Group
        1. The User Experience 2007 Conference
        2. Knowledge, Directly from the Source
        3. Networking Opportunities
        4. This Year’s Plenary Sessions
        5. Full-Day Tutorials
          1. Introduction
          2. Fundamentals
          3. Advanced
          4. Specialized Topics

Product information

  • Title: 233 Tips and Tricks for Recruiting Users as Participants in Usability Studies
  • Author(s): Nielsen Norman Group
  • Release date: February 2010
  • Publisher(s): New Riders
  • ISBN: 9780132107532