Neutrality in UX Moderation
I’ve been taught to keep a careful poker face while showing prototypes, asking questions, and conducting sessions. “I’m an independent researcher,” I say to the participant at the start of each session. “I won’t be offended if there’s something here that you dislike or think is confusing. My role is to stay neutral and get feedback.” The idea of the neutral moderator is thought of as crucial to the end goal of getting untainted, unbiased feedback from our users.
I had a conversation this week with a couple coworkers, though, about how I’m not always sold on the idea of moderation that doesn’t acknowledge struggle in an empathetic way — and we had some thoughtful conversation around the idea that it’s often hard to sit idly by while a user fumbles their way around a prototype that we might know is designed horribly, while they perhaps begin to wonder why they can’t easily accomplish what we’re asking, and the session’s value might suffer as a result.
Lately I find myself saying things like, “Sorry — I know this is a little confusing,” which is exactly the sort of thing my graduate school mentors coached me to avoid saying. But I’m coming around to the idea that I think this sort of openness and empathy makes my research better, because it acknowledges a pain point rather than observing it coolly, and I find that it often helps ease participants’ worry that they’re failing some sort of test, even when I’ve made it clear that research sessions aren’t an assessment of their cognitive or technical abilities. They might relax a little bit and be more willing to share their thoughts and struggles with me.
I’ve stopped focusing on worry about introducing bias in my moderation, and begun to move instead toward a goal of creating a space where the participant feels comfortable being honest and open, regardless of whether I might have to “show my cards” a bit in the process. I don’t think it serves us well interpersonally in the trust-building process to toss a participant into the ring against a difficult prototype, and moderate just like we would a fully functioning, well designed application.
I’m curious about how other researchers navigate the balance between empathizing with participants, acknowledging difficulties, and the potential for introducing problematic bias into a session.
Thanks to my colleagues Emily Williams and Karishma Patel for inspiring this train of thought.
