Interesting question. I've never altered my stated role for the purpose of a test; I think it's because I've only run tests on systems that someone else designed. I can certainly see where it would be best to not reveal that information, or at least mitigate the potential for the outcome you describe.
On this topic, however, I think it's important to emphasize to participants that their opinion is important - no matter what it is. Something like "You can do or say no wrong today. You won't hurt my feelings, you won't waste anyone's time, and you won't cost the company any money. We're asking people what they think because we want to improve the product, and your honesty is critical to that process." Even with that, though, you'd be surprised how often users apologize for offering constructive criticism. Must have something to do with level 3 of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://gamma.ixda.org/discuss?post=22197 ________________________________________________________________ *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://gamma.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://gamma.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://gamma.ixda.org/help
