My experience of how finding allies and using existing tools can help in the quest for easier user recruitment. Companies with large customer databases, such as publishers, can still find it difficult to recruit for user research. This talk looks at how we might leverage the existing tools at our disposal to not only recruit smoothly and cheaply for user research studies, but in doing so, engage customers with a new or improving product.

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Designing an engaged user
research community
My experience of how finding allies and using
existing tools can help in the quest for easier
user recruitment...
Dave Johns
Senior UX Designer @ Fruto

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Working at Fruto has been the first time I’ve been in an organisation with fewer than
500 employees - having previously worked at Taylor and Francis, Diamond Light
Source, University of Oxford, and Pearson.
This user recruitment project was one I ran whilst at Pearson.
Dave Johns
Senior UX Designer @ Fruto

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The University of Oxford hosts the UK’s Medical Image Analysis Network (MedIAN)

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Platform redesign:

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No standard process for recruiting research participants.
■ ‘Friendly’ schools
■ Market research team
■ Outsourcing
How Pearson recruited

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As a UX designer with a large-scale design project
I want to call on an engaged user community for regular
research interventions
so that I can run user research studies at short notice, at low
cost, and with low drop-out rate.
The user story

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fruto.studio
Finding allies

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The allies
Customer
database
Marketing
team
Email
marketing
service
Product
manager
Links to
other
teams
Market
research
team
Consult
and advise
UX
team
Incentive
budget
System
checks
existing
users
IT
team
Email
address

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Marketing
team
Product
manager
Market
research
team
UX team
IT
team
The order of contact

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Product ally
Product
manager
Knows the company very well
Invested in the success of the product
Buy-in validated the project, encouraging
other parts of the business and get involved
Suggested using the Net Promoter Score
(NPS) survey.

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Political ally
Market
research
team
Gatekeepers for
customer research
■ Understand the
existing research
community
■ identifying any links
or conflicts.
NPS administrators
Identified people in
marketing
Gave their blessing

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Operational allies
Marketing
team
Marketing team
■ Promote the campaign
■ Branding & tone of voice
Marketing
lead
Email
lead
Marketing
officers
IT
team
■ Links to the wider customer database
■ Digital marketing / mailing client
● Maxemail (like mailchimp)
● Sign-up forms
● GDPR control

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fruto.studio
Creating the panel lists

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Recruiting existing customers
NPS survey
Existing users list
■ Detailed profiles
■ Attitudes towards the product and
specific features
■ Consent to contact
54% said ‘yes’, giving us 410 ResultsPlus users
that we could invite to studies.
Maxemail

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Broadening the reach beyond users
Pearson
customer
database
■ Basic job / institution
profiles
■ Are they a user?
■ Consent to recruit and
get updates
Panel list
Filtered
by subject
& role (Not
on the NPS
list)
c.1300
contacts
invited to
the panel
108 filled
in the form
to join the
panel
Maxemail Jotforms Maxemail
Spreadsheet

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Recruiting for research
Segment,
based on
your
research
need
Panel list
Maxemail
Optimal Sort Treejack
Existing users

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As a UX designer with a large-scale design project
I want to call on an engaged user community for regular
research interventions
so that I can run user research studies at short notice, at low
cost, and with low drop-out rate.
The user story

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Recruiting for moderated
usability studies
Hi Andy,
The ResultsPlus rebuild is now underway, and our first design feedback dates are now open!!
Fancy an £20 Amazon voucher for giving your feedback on new ResultsPlus designs? Easy.
● Choose your available slots (doodle poll link)
● Reply to our researcher’s email to confirm participation
● Complete the 30-minute activity
● Get your £20 voucher link - it’s that easy!
….

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Recruiting for moderated
usability studies

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Recruiting for moderated
usability studies
Hi Andy,
Thank you for choosing your available slots.
I’m delighted to invite you to the following feedback session:
This Wednesday, 4.30pm.
You’ll shortly receive a calendar invitation with a link to join the session.
I look forward to meeting you!
Dave.
Results Plus Research Panel.

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Recruiting for moderated
usability studies
■ Link to the session
■ Link to the consent form
■ Advice on using headphones, being
in a quiet environment
Reminder emails and consent form

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Product ally
Political ally
Operational allies
Allies
■ NPS survey
■ Wider customer database
■ Marketing email service
(Maxemail / Mailchimp)
■ Email inbox
■ Forms (jotforms / Google forms)
■ Doodle poll
Tools

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What I learnt
To understand the complex workings of a large organisation, it really
helps to have allies to help find your way.
Being transparent about what you’re trying to achieve is always a
good thing.
Have a simpler doodle poll admin process!
Not being wedded to an outcome means that you can never get it
wrong.
Dave Johns
Senior UX Designer @ Fruto