Making Your Home Research Station Work

Whether your setup is scrappy or cushy, you can run great remote UX research sessions from home.

Published in

Meta Research

7 min readAug 19, 2020

Research waits for no one. In our current work-from-home experience, we’ve learned that where we conduct research can be quite flexible. Whether you’re setting up an in-home research station temporarily or permanently, you can make it happen. But it isn’t always smooth sailing! There are a few key challenges everyone has to tackle when it comes to an at-home research setup:

Getting the recording right
Taking notes
Juggling materials like discussion guides

The following are two examples from our own recent experience — one quick and simple, the other more advanced — to help you figure out how to optimize your own home research station. As a reminder, it’s always necessary to get informed consent from your participant before actually recording a session.

The scrappy station

Let’s say you don’t have the space for an ideal research setup, or you’ve ordered equipment but it won’t arrive until after your research session. Tawny’s station illustrates how even a tight space with minimal equipment can serve as an effective research station.

I (Tawny here) am notoriously messy, so my philosophy is, “the smaller the desk, the less space for mess.” Back when we were still commuting to work, I primarily used this space for writing letters or reading books, and I still managed to pile things up. There isn’t much room for anything other than my laptop and notebooks, so there’s no external monitor.

Equipment setup

At minimum, a research station should enable you to record a session, take notes, and access your discussion guide. And most of us already have adequate equipment — laptop, paper notebook, phone — for those activities. Here’s what my simple setup looks like:

Recording

You’ll need software for video recording. Both Quicktime Pro (for Mac users like me) and OBS, an open-source option, have screen record options that also capture microphone input. Whatever software you use, double-check that the settings for audio recording pick up your internal mic so you capture both your voice and your participant’s voice. I tested my setup by recording my screen as I talked while watching YouTube videos to check the quality of the audio captured by my laptop mic. It was sufficient.

Taking notes

With this setup, I take notes by hand in a notebook. This was a departure from what I usually do — I typically like to capture as much of the participant’s language as possible during the session, and my handwriting is slightly subpar. But I’ve found that I actually prefer taking notes by hand. I like being able to easily circle and highlight certain notes to identify themes afterwards. During the session, I jot down timestamps of potential key quotes and then refer back to the video to capture them verbatim.

Juggling materials

I don’t have a printer, so I use my phone, on a phone stand, to access the discussion guide. (If you don’t have a stand, just prop your phone against a book or other hard surface.) The downside to this approach is that I can’t moderate questions from my cross-functional colleagues (product designers, engineers, and content strategists) like I’d typically do in a designated lab space. To address this shortcoming, I have a teammate help moderate questions from the team by keeping a running list of questions and sharing it with me toward the end of the session.

All in all, I’m happy with my minimal setup. I’ve found that taking handwritten notes actually improves my ability to listen to the participant, and I liked being able to include my team in research in a different, slightly more active way. I haven’t felt a need to get more equipment.

The main drawback has been reduced eye contact with participants, since I’m often looking either to the side (at the discussion guide on my phone) or down to take notes. Since eye contact is such an important way to connect with participants and signal empathy and listening, I let them know up front that even though I won’t always be looking at them while they’re speaking, I’m paying attention and carefully listening. One thing I’d highly recommend, even for a minimal setup, is a comfortable chair. Sitting for a few hours on end can be taxing on your back, so be sure to take care of yourself.

The cushy station

Sarah’s station shows what you can do with a little more equipment and space. If you’re working from home for the long term or just want a better setup, a few small investments can make your life easier, especially if you prefer taking notes on a computer.

Equipment setup

My New Year’s resolution (Sarah here) just happened to be setting up a comfortable work-from-home space, which included a bigger desk, office chair, and speakers. A webcam makes it easy to look straight at a participant while recording them on the big screen, which is something I favor. I also appreciate being able to adjust my laptop without jostling my video.

Recording

Like Tawny, I have both Quicktime Pro and OBS. When working from home, I prefer OBS because in a multi-screen situation, it’s easier to specify which screen you want to record, with fewer opportunities for error. (Still, I always double-check.)

In my experience, the most common problem with recording at home is recording audio. I have external speakers, which are great for all our meetings but not great for research. In general, if you use external speakers, your recording won’t pick up the participant’s voice. Before a research session, I take two steps to ensure that I’ll capture the participants’ voice, not just my own:

I use my internal speakers for audio, disconnecting any externals to avoid making a mistake.
I make sure OBS is set to record audio from the internal microphone, not my webcam microphone.

Taking notes

I set up my two screens (large monitor and laptop) as an extended desktop. The big monitor — the screen I’m recording — is for the participant. I take notes (lately I use a Google Sheet) on my laptop. This setup also allows me an extra screen if I need to control any stimulus.

Juggling materials

The laptop screen is available for whatever I need — notes sheet, discussion guide, etc. I usually have my guide built into my notes spreadsheet, which leaves room on the screen for work chat so my stakeholders can interact with me during the session. As a backup, I’ve also found that having my phone on my desk is a good visual cue for chats coming in. Just don’t forget to snooze notifications for anything you don’t want pinging you.

With this setup, I’ve found I can pretty much replicate the quality of recording that I have in the lab, even though it takes more work to get up and running.

Tips & tricks

Be ready for plan B. Have a backup plan and be prepared to adjust on the fly when things don’t go perfectly. For example, when one recent participant couldn’t have her camera on due to a weak wifi connection, Tawny shared her screen, enabling the participant to go through the prototype. For audio issues, our fast workaround is to mute the microphones on both sides and run the audio through a cell phone call. You still get your recording and everyone can still hear.

Avoid headphones if you can. If you’re recording from a laptop microphone input, you won’t be able to easily capture what the participant is saying through the headphones of your video call. Some setups have workarounds, but in our experience they are laborious. A quiet space is your best bet.

Mention any ‘special guest appearances.’ Letting your participants know that the lump in the back of your video is actually a dog will keep them from being surprised in the middle of your session! Same goes for people walking past or anything else that might startle or distract a participant.

Test ahead of time, every time. We can’t emphasize this enough: try out your setup in advance. Make sure everything — especially the sound — is recording as it should. Give yourself time before each session to make sure you’re up and running. Run a pseudo-session by recording yourself in your setup, and then watch it back. Adjust and repeat as necessary. Be sure to check your lighting, especially if your desk is around windows. It’s tough to establish rapport when you’re a silhouette.

Practice makes progress

One of the best things about being a researcher is getting to experience different environments, products, and perspectives, and you don’t need a dedicated lab to do that. Whether your station is scrappy or cushy, you can do great research no matter your location. Your results probably won’t be perfect on the first or second try — ours certainly weren’t. Just map out what you need and give yourself a little extra time to prepare and adjust. When in doubt, remember the immortal words of Tim Gunn of Project Runway: “Make it work.”