In thinking more on this topic and after absorbing Jared's comments, another possible problem came to mind. You have to be flexible and accommodating to the users you really want to bring in. If you have found truly representative users for your study, work with their schedule. Many people with 9-5 jobs cannot be at a study at 10am. Offer evening and weekend opportunities in addition to traditional business hours.
Find out if they have young children. I've had studies postponed at the last minute because of childcare difficulties. Knowing this might happened allowed me to communicate with users so they know it's okay to let me know if something comes up. Rather than becoming a no-show or cancelation, it's a reschedule for another day. Look at how you promote the opportunity. If it doesn't sound fun or lacks an impact on products the user actually uses, it could be hard to convince them to help without much incentive. Show the user how their feedback could impact the design. Make them feel like they have a say in something important. This also works really well for internal studies on enterprise applications. Employees like having a say in the software they use everyday. Samantha . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=38251 ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [email protected] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
