Easily Pivot to Remote User Testing
Many teams conduct mostly in person user research. Never fear, you can get great feedback in a remote environment. Anna Kaley, User Experience Specialist with NN/g Nielsen Norman Group, describes her process and tool set for conducting effective interviews when you're not with them in person.
“You can still use these digital tools to get at some of those same measures that we would use or that we would glean from in-person research.”
Transcript
Jim Morris:
Hi there, fellow product leaders. Many teams conduct mostly in person user research. Never fear, you can get great feedback in a remote environment. Anna Kaley describes her process and tool set for conducting effective interviews when you're not with them in person. Enjoy.
Anna Kaley:
So I think in those situations where maybe you don't have time to ramp up on a brand new tool or maybe there's not budget for a new tool, and sometimes those are pretty expensive, using Zoom meetings and inviting the user to share their screen, potentially even chatting them tasks or chatting them to think out loud, using some of these tools in the same ways that we would if we were in person and able to deliver tasks on single sheets of printer paper for them to read. There are some creative ways you can kind of get around that. Even with consent forms, using things like PDFs that users can digitally sign and digitally check the boxes that they agree to the study and that they've been informed about how their data is going to be used. There are just really creative ways that we can do the same thing in a digital space.
And I think one thing to consider when you are moving remote is, there's a lot involved already with kind of the prep of doing an in person a study. But it's just the same when we move remote, if not even more. You need to make sure that users have been briefed about the goal of the research, how their data is going to be used, who it's going to be shared with, what it's going to be used for, the purpose in general. And then just kind of making them comfortable with the fact that we're going to be giving you typical tasks, and again, we just want to watch you attempt those tasks, there's no right or wrong answers, and that that feedback is really what helps us learn. Tools kind of after the fact, like using Google Forms and things like that to collect subjective satisfaction ratings, or using your own little Google stopwatch or Google timer on the side to time certain tasks. You can still use these digital tools to get at some of those same measures that we would use or that we would glean from in-person research.
Jim Morris:
Yeah. There's a whole group of logins and tools to use to bring it all together.
Anna Kaley:
Yeah. Yep. And having people practice on the tools. So if you're going to be using a Google form, we were using lots of Miro boards or Google drawing boards, lots of these collaborative documents. Even having users potentially just practice on those beforehand, sending out a link maybe a day ahead of time, that can be really helpful too, just allow them to practice and get comfortable with the tool set they're going to be using. And then that gives you more time during your sessions to actually devote to the research instead of troubleshooting technology.
Jim Morris:
Thanks for watching. You can find more product discovery resources at productdiscoverygroup.com.
Jim Morris, Product Discovery Group
Jim coaches Product teams to collaborate with each other and seek customer input early and often during the design and ideation phase.
