1 00:00:00,570 --> 00:00:05,020 Study participants will make or break an experience sampling study. 2 00:00:05,020 --> 00:00:09,730 When the study is run, you are not there to see what your participants do and 3 00:00:09,730 --> 00:00:11,480 correct it, if needed. 4 00:00:11,480 --> 00:00:14,950 Therefore, you need to take all the necessary steps to 5 00:00:14,950 --> 00:00:20,590 make sure participants understand what is asked of them and provide good answers. 6 00:00:20,590 --> 00:00:23,659 Here are four pointers for dealing with participants. 7 00:00:24,680 --> 00:00:29,530 Set expectations, tell participants what's expected of them. 8 00:00:29,530 --> 00:00:33,730 For example, if you expect them to answer five notifications per day for 9 00:00:33,730 --> 00:00:36,700 three days, tell them exactly that. 10 00:00:36,700 --> 00:00:41,080 Explain that fewer responses do not help you learn from them. 11 00:00:41,080 --> 00:00:44,820 Don't give them an example of a good answer to the study question. 12 00:00:44,820 --> 00:00:50,800 Otherwise, you'll bias them and all you'll get will be these types of answers. 13 00:00:50,800 --> 00:00:52,300 Stay vague. 14 00:00:52,300 --> 00:00:55,560 Tell them a good answer is one that you can understand. 15 00:00:55,560 --> 00:00:59,090 That is detailed enough, and that doesn't include one or two words. 16 00:01:00,490 --> 00:01:05,430 Practice, to make sure participants understand what's required of them, and 17 00:01:05,430 --> 00:01:10,190 to test your notification mechanism, schedule a practice test where you 18 00:01:10,190 --> 00:01:14,740 send one notification to participants and they answer once. 19 00:01:14,740 --> 00:01:18,300 Do that a couple of days before the actual study begins. 20 00:01:18,300 --> 00:01:19,290 This way, 21 00:01:19,290 --> 00:01:24,540 you'll have some time to make changes in case something does not work as expected. 22 00:01:24,540 --> 00:01:28,500 This is a great opportunity to make sure participants give you the answers you 23 00:01:28,500 --> 00:01:30,740 need, with enough level of detail. 24 00:01:31,990 --> 00:01:34,820 Incentivize, tell participants they 25 00:01:34,820 --> 00:01:39,460 will get an incentive if they meet your answer quota or a little bit below that. 26 00:01:40,460 --> 00:01:43,790 If you can't pay participants with money, be creative and 27 00:01:43,790 --> 00:01:47,450 think of other ways to provide an incentive for participation. 28 00:01:47,450 --> 00:01:50,920 For example, dedicate a wall in your office, or 29 00:01:50,920 --> 00:01:55,230 a page in your website, if you don't have an office, to study participants. 30 00:01:55,230 --> 00:02:00,020 Call it the wall of fame and print their names on it after they participate. 31 00:02:00,020 --> 00:02:02,710 Take a picture and share with each participant. 32 00:02:02,710 --> 00:02:03,960 People love their name. 33 00:02:03,960 --> 00:02:04,860 Take advantage of it. 34 00:02:06,390 --> 00:02:08,630 Begin recruiting ASAP. 35 00:02:08,630 --> 00:02:10,640 I cannot stress this enough. 36 00:02:10,640 --> 00:02:14,710 Recruiting participants is the greatest bottleneck of user research. 37 00:02:14,710 --> 00:02:16,350 Start as soon as you can.