This document outlines best practices for recruiting participants for user testing. It discusses writing an effective recruitment brief that specifies details like who is needed, what the test is about, and incentives offered. Creating personas of different target audiences and a screening form is also recommended. The document then covers recruitment plans, including using friends/family, online forums, and external recruiters. It stresses having a Plan B in case of issues and provides tips for recruiting harder-to-find groups. Safeguarding testing from no-shows is also discussed through confirmation communications and stand-by participants. The goal is to recruit the right participants and protect the quality of user research.

1. USER
RECRUITMENT
BOOTCAMP
UX Cambridge 2014

2. INSTRUCTOR
Emma Millington
People for Research

3. WHY BOOTCAMP?
New to user research
New to user recruitment
Brush up skills

4. “Participant recruitment is
the unglamorous
foundation for all user
testing”
How to Recruit Participants for Usability Studies
Deborah Hinder and Jakob Nielson, 2003

5. THE DRILL
How 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

6. BRIEF
ESSENTIALS

7. WHO?

8. WHAT?

9. WHERE?

10. WHEN?

11. LEAD TIME

12. HOW MANY?

13. INCENTIVES

14. STUDENTS
£40
B2B / NICHE
£200
External $64(£38.78) How to Recruit Participants for Usability Studies, Deborah Hinder and Jakob
Nielson, 2003

15. MAKING SURE
PARTICIPANTS MEET
THE BRIEF

16. A GOOD SCREENER
CONTAINS
An Introduction
Screen out criteria / questions
Terms (or statements) for participation: must remember to bring ID

17. “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

18. 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.

19. 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.

20. SAMPLE PLAN
Demographics 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 /
Student - frugal Professional C1 - ? Professional A/B –
spend
affluent/luxury
Tech ability Savvy Avoider Savvy

21. PLAN A
HOW TO FIND
PARTICIPANTS
Friends/family/colleagues
Online forums
Client provided lists
Internal recruitment teams
External recruiters

22. PLAN B
WHAT TO DO IF
PLAN A FAILS

23. DON’T PANIC

24. STRATEGY

25. MASTERING
CHALLENGING
SEGMENTS

26. OLDER
PARTICIPANTS

27. DISABILITY &
ACCESSIBILITY

28. CHILDREN

29. HIGH END B2B

30. FLEXIBILTY

31. SAFEGUARD
YOUR TESTING:
EMPLOY DAMAGE
LIMITATION

32. HERDING CATS
…IT CAN BE DONE
Image source:
Published on January 2014 by Glenda Stovall under Cat
http://pulpbits.com/5-excellent-herding-cats-picture/cats-picture/

33. CONFIRMATIONS:
BEST PRACTICE
Confirmation email
Reminder email
Call

34. PREVENTING
NO SHOWS
All day standby
Back up

35. CHECK ID
“… your name is Jane?”

36. MEET,
GREET,
SHOW ME
THE MONEY

37. SUMMARY
1. Brief
2. Create a screener
3. How to recruit
4. Mastered challenging
segments
5. Plan B
6. Incentives
7. Safeguard testing

38. PICK MY
BRAINS

39. RESOURCES
Membership & guidelines
MRS code of conduct
Data Protection
http://ico.org.uk/ESDWebPages/DoSearch
Books
Kim Goodwin: Designing in the Digital Age
Mike Kuniavsky: Observing the User
Experience:
Web
How to Recruit Participants for Usability
Studies, Deborah Hinder and Jakob Nielson
http://nngroup.com/reports/tips/recruiting
Webcredible www.webcredible.co.uk
http://www.usability.gov/
Twitter
@people4research