http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2008/09/29/asking-participants-to-pretend-in-user-studies/ UIE\'s latest insights on the world of design Sat, 11 Feb 2012 08:11:47 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2 http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2008/09/29/asking-participants-to-pretend-in-user-studies/comment-page-1/#comment-145691 Flog: The Official Fluid Blog » Blog Archive » Recruiting Interested Participants for Usability Testing Fri, 27 Feb 2009 20:22:00 +0000 http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/?p=728#comment-145691 [...] Spool recently wrote that pretending and roleplay in usability testing is not as effective as recruiting people with an actual need or real interest in a product or [...] [...] Spool recently wrote that pretending and roleplay in usability testing is not as effective as recruiting people with an actual need or real interest in a product or [...]

]]> http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2008/09/29/asking-participants-to-pretend-in-user-studies/comment-page-1/#comment-144022 When to Use Which User Experience Research Methods - USiT Mon, 06 Oct 2008 22:27:20 +0000 http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/?p=728#comment-144022 [...] it. This can have a big impact on the method you would employ, and highly scripted approaches risks Asking Participants to “Pretend” in User Studies (which Jared Spool recently wrote [...] [...] it. This can have a big impact on the method you would employ, and highly scripted approaches risks Asking Participants to “Pretend” in User Studies (which Jared Spool recently wrote [...]

]]> http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2008/09/29/asking-participants-to-pretend-in-user-studies/comment-page-1/#comment-143893 Carolyn Snyder Tue, 30 Sep 2008 16:54:51 +0000 http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/?p=728#comment-143893 I'm often in the same boat as Martin. With a paper prototype, sometimes you've prepared just one set of data. I think it's fine to tell a user, "Ok, so in real life you'd have picked A but we'll ask you to pretend you chose B and proceed from there." But asking them to pretend to have a certain perspective and/or motivation is what gets you in trouble. For instance, next week I'm testing a concept (not even a real site yet) aimed at people who are buying a new car. We are recruiting people who intend to buy a new car soon - that's the important part. None of our research questions pertain to the model of car they're buying, so the designer is just mocking up one and we'll ask people to pretend that's the car they want. This will work well enough for our purposes. But if we recruited anybody and asked them to pretend they're buying a new car, that would be bad. I’m often in the same boat as Martin. With a paper prototype, sometimes you’ve prepared just one set of data. I think it’s fine to tell a user, “Ok, so in real life you’d have picked A but we’ll ask you to pretend you chose B and proceed from there.” But asking them to pretend to have a certain perspective and/or motivation is what gets you in trouble. For instance, next week I’m testing a concept (not even a real site yet) aimed at people who are buying a new car. We are recruiting people who intend to buy a new car soon – that’s the important part. None of our research questions pertain to the model of car they’re buying, so the designer is just mocking up one and we’ll ask people to pretend that’s the car they want. This will work well enough for our purposes. But if we recruited anybody and asked them to pretend they’re buying a new car, that would be bad.

]]> http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2008/09/29/asking-participants-to-pretend-in-user-studies/comment-page-1/#comment-143891 Benjamin Ho Tue, 30 Sep 2008 13:36:41 +0000 http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/?p=728#comment-143891 Great entry, Jared! Great advice on the road to refining testing principles. Great entry, Jared! Great advice on the road to refining testing principles.

]]> http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2008/09/29/asking-participants-to-pretend-in-user-studies/comment-page-1/#comment-143888 Martin Tue, 30 Sep 2008 11:21:08 +0000 http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/?p=728#comment-143888 I assume this is different for paper prototyping? i.e I'm testing an application at the moment where the results are quite specific, and generating these results on the fly (on paper) is almost impossible! I assume this is different for paper prototyping? i.e I’m testing an application at the moment where the results are quite specific, and generating these results on the fly (on paper) is almost impossible!

]]> http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2008/09/29/asking-participants-to-pretend-in-user-studies/comment-page-1/#comment-143885 2008 September 30 - Links for today « My (almost) Daily Links Tue, 30 Sep 2008 07:53:27 +0000 http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/?p=728#comment-143885 [...] Spool on Asking Participants to “Pretend” in User Studies and a great data visualization from [...] [...] Spool on Asking Participants to “Pretend” in User Studies and a great data visualization from [...]

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