How will we handle problems?


Anyone who has done user research is familiar with Murphy's Law  – the participant doesn’t show up on time, the test equipment fails (it was working this morning!) – and the list goes on.

Testing online

For online testing, the main things to cover are:

  • Piloting our test to shake out mistakes in the tree and the task wording

  • Providing a contact for participants who encounter problems

  • Alerting our support channels that we’re doing a study, in case participants call to check that it’s legitimate.

For more on handling problems during a test, see Checking for technical problems in Chapter 10 and Monitoring the test's progress in Chapter 11.

Testing in person

For tips on testing people in person, see Recruiting for in-person sessions.


Next: Documenting our plan


Copyright © 2024 Dave O'Brien

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