[liberationtech] Advice: recruiting participants for usability tests

[Bernard Tyers - ei8fdb]

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Hi,

I'd like to ask advice of people working in human rights, civil rights, investigative journalism communities.

I am doing my MSc in human-computer interaction, focusing on mobile Privacy Enhancing Technology tools, a lot of which are discussed here.

I am focusing on users from the investigative journalism, human rights workers circles. I want to recruit "non-technical/security experts", people who use these tools, but have limited understanding of how they work. 

To recruit participants, in the "commercial world", I would put out a call to recruit users, offering financial compensation ("£20 per hour / "£15 Amazon voucher...etc") to entice people to take part.

My understanding (possibly incorrect) is the people I am focusing on are not driven (solely) by financial gain. Therefore I have a question:

"What is the best approach to use to recruit participants for my usability testing sessions?"

So far, I have come up with the following approaches:

1. Offer to make a donation to the organisation they work for.
2. Offer a financial compensation as detailed above.
3. Offer to cover travel, and lunch expenses.
4. Offer nothing.

I'd like to hear people's feedback on these approaches. Are all/any valid? Are all/any acceptable? Any other suggestions?

On or off-list feedback greatly appreciated.

thanks,
Bernard


- --------------------------------------
Bernard / bluboxthief / ei8fdb

IO91XM / www.ei8fdb.org

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