- Mortensen, D. (2020). The basics of recruiting participants for user research. The Interaction Design Foundation. https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/the-basics-of-recruiting-users-for-usability-testing

University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

Having the appropriate participant pool is the foundation of conducting successful user research. The researchers need to recruit users who can represent the target group/end users in order to improve the products based on results and feedback.

User Research Participants

User Research Participants References

Two types of user research participants that should be avoided or controlled: Employees and Déformation Professionnelle:

- Employees might feel the need to leave positive feedback. 

- Déformation Professionnelle are professionals in the field of the given product, and therefore they might evaluate the product based on their professional knowledge instead of a pure user perspective.

- While designing usability tests and recruiting participants, making sure to include accessibility issues and users with disabilities.


Special Types of User Participant

The following questions can be used to create a profile of your product's target audience:

- Who is the target audience of the product? 

- Who is currently using the product? 

- What types of people could benefit from the product?

- What are the demographics of current users?

- Who will give the best feedback?



Learn Before

Related