Make the most of remote user research with these expert tips
If you’ve found yourself suddenly having to conduct user research while social distancing, our team of researchers might be able to help. We do this every day!
I polled our team of expert researchers and compiled some of their secrets for making the most out of remote studies. Huge thanks to my colleagues, the brains behind the great tips below.
Scheduling users
The process of scheduling users, whether for in-person or remote sessions, can wind up being a huge time investment, but using an online scheduling tool like Calendly will save you ton of time. It prevents people from signing up for the same time, makes sure time zones are considered, and automatically adds the event to your calendar and theirs. As an added bonus, if the user needs to reschedule or cancel, they can do so right from the calendar invite with no effort from you!
When scheduling users, instead of simply emailing them with a time and a link to your remote session, include some guidance about how the session will go and what you are hoping to gain from it.
Be sure to communicate beforehand: Test the link to be sure the software works! I’ve had too many interviews start with participants not knowing how to join the e-meeting. It’s an easy way to waste the first 10 minutes of your interview. This is particularly important if you will be screen sharing since your user will need to be logged in to the e-meeting in order for them to see your screen.
Make sure they know before the interview that you would appreciate if they had their cameras turned on. It makes it easier for them to stay focused, for you to read their facial expressions, and for the conversation to flow better.
Note: Since many users are working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic, internet bandwidth may be less-than-optimal. As a result, you may find that video conferencing is not a feasible option. Be flexible and prepared that you may need to turn off video. Even if so, it’s nice to see one another’s faces for just a few minutes before diving into the interview!
Planning the research
Decide who will lead the interviews and provide instructions to your stakeholders / observers about how and when they can communicate with you and the user. Typically, we reserve time the end of the interview for observers to ask their questions.
Zoom has several features to elegantly help facilitate stakeholder involvement. There’s a brilliant chat option that allows you to message a single person on the call, allowing any other other interviewers/stakeholders to message over any questions that they want answered straight away (or even poke the interviewer to stop and let them get a word in!). Stakeholders can also “raise their hand” to let you know that they’ve got a question (this works especially well when you’ve got a number of stakeholders and need to be able to call on them by name).
Note Taking
If possible don’t type your notes during the interview. There’s something slightly off-putting to hearing constant typing as someone speaks to you. And even more off-putting if you’re capturing what they say and suddenly your typing stops (I always think this is a bit insulting as it seems like you no longer find what they are saying interesting).
Remember that tools like Zoom and GoToMeeting will provide you with a transcript if you record your session, or you can use a tool like Otter to get a free transcription. And, you can put your observers to use! Ask them to take notes for you; it will help them to stay engaged. Even better, it will allow you to focus on listening and learning from your interviewee instead of on taking notes.
Environment
Ensure that you’ve got a quiet place where you can focus and run your research. For normal calls with colleagues, it’s fine to maybe have your cat walking around behind you or hearing a roommate in the kitchen filling up the kettle, but for an interview (especially if with a busy professional), all those distractions could easily be perceived as disrespectful.
Also, before your interview, be sure to check the background behind you! One option (especially while we’re all working from home) is to sit on the floor against the wall since it provides a solid background.
Signal
Perhaps the biggest difficulty during this time of remote working is when the internet isn’t at its best. If you live with other people or know your internet is a little dodgy, warn your housemates/family or have a hotspot ready on your phone to jump onto if necessary. There’s nothing worse than missing what someone has said because of a spotty internet connection. You may have just missed an amazing quote from them and having to keep asking them to repeat themselves is unprofessional!
Running the Research
If possible, log in to the e-meeting 15 minutes before the participant is meant to arrive. Have your camera on when they log into the meeting even if you are on mute. When they get to the meeting and see you they’re more likely to turn on their camera too. Nonverbal communication is important, and while you can’t require them to turn on their video, having yours on will encourage the same behavior on their part.
Ask for consent to record the session. Knowing that you will have a recording will help prevent you from asking users to repeat themselves and make you less dependent on note taking.
Workshops & Focus Groups
Conducting group sessions remotely is not for the faint of heart and is recommended only for those with group facilitation experience.
- Ensure the workshop objectives are well defined and clearly communicated.
- Host pre-workshop meetings with each participant to ensure that everyone is on the same page. This can be on one to one basis or sending some information before the workshop itself
- Keep it to two hours or less. That’s as long as people can stay engaged in a team exercise remotely. Have times allocated to breaks and follow through structured exercises (it’s easy to lose interest in remote workshops)
- Give everyone time to introduce themselves, both professionally and personally.
- Plan short exercises so participants don’t get bored and lose interest (focus on short bursts of exercises over activities that require intense focus over a long period of time).
There are a number of tools that will help facilitate running remote, chat-based focus groups (e.g. Focusgroupit). Such tools allow everyone to participate either synchronously or asynchronously, based on what makes sense for your research objectives and topic. One important caveat: Because these tools are chat-based, all of the communication occurs in written format. If you would like to run your session synchronously and include audio, be sure to send a conference call number or e-meeting link.
Look for a tool that will allow you to do the following:
- Invite people using a link via email.
- Make participants anonymous so they feel free to speak their minds.
- Set participant responses to be “hidden” until the user submits their own response. (For example, to prevent group think.)
- Enter topics and questions for which you want responses, and prompt participants to chat with each other.
- Have a separate “observation” mode for stakeholders.
Co-Design
For activities that would (in the non-quarantined world) involve Post-it notes or whiteboarding activities, consider using tools like Mural or Miro. Both tools have tons of fabulous templates to help get you up-and-running quickly. They also allow for “anonymous” logins so that your participants don’t have to register or create new credentials.
Parting Thoughts
Regardless of what type of session you’re planning to run, you’ll be far more confident if you run a pilot first. Ask your stakeholders to attend as participants and go through the entire agenda, asking for feedback throughout.
