You know WHO your users are… but how do you find them?
Often you can put out a call via your website, social media channels, email newsletter to sign up participants for your user research. This might cover a lot of your bases, but there are frequently groups of users who are notoriously hard to find.
When UX research participants are hard to find
I’d like to share an example with you. Recently I was working on a project for a large cultural organisation and for a whole raft of reasons, it was going to be difficult to put a popup or a link on their website to direct people to sign up as research participants. This comes up from time to time and may be due to:
- Not having a big email list
- Technical difficulties in adding things to a website
- Not getting a lot of website traffic from the target markets
- Not wanting to publicise the research project widely at that point in time
In conjunction with the above issue, we wanted to be able to get research insights from tourists and visitors to the region, who would be unlikely to sign up as research participants. But we really didn’t want to miss out on this segment of people. So what to do?
Cue the Live Intercept
I had previously described this method to someone in a casual conversation as “pouncing” on users in “real life”. The UX research guru, Amanda Stockwell, has a much more eloquent name for this – she calls it the ‘Live Intercept’.
So, continuing on from our situation above, we opted for the Live Intercept method of getting user input into our research project.
Live Intercepting can be fun! You get to meet some great people in “real life” situations, just going about their business. It can also be really awkward! You truly get to know the look in someone’s eye when they think you’re about to sign them up for a charity donation they just can’t wriggle out of.
Better on-site user research with the Live Intercept
Here are a few gems that we’d like to share, from our time spent on the Live Intercept:
- Keep it short! Please! You need to hone down your list of questions to just one or two that might lead to a couple of others if the person seems keen to chat. Getting these questions right takes a lot of work and you may need to change your tactics on the fly if you feel you’re missing the mark.
- Be respectful! Sure you have a job to do, but the people you’re talking to are just trying to go about their day. Let them opt out.
- Practice letting people know really quickly and clearly what you’re doing and why. They need to know who you work for, why you’re bothering them, and why their input is important, in less than 5 seconds.
- If you need to know more, make one of your questions – “Would you like to have more input?” Perhaps you could send them an email survey, or invite them to participate in a more in-depth session at another time.
Users: Found!
The Live Intercept produced some great results. We spoke to people from all demographics, we used the results to help hone our personas, and we got a great ‘real life’ insight into customer’s daily lives.
Most people were delighted to talk to us and happily shared their experiences. One lovely lady even came looking for us after we’d spoken to her, to tell us a few more details that she’d forgotten the first time around!
Don’t be afraid to get out your clipboards. Give the live intercept a go, and use it to complete a rich data set during your user research.
