[ux] User Needs Discovery Session

[sajolida]

Nimisha Vijay:
> Hi all! I'm Nimisha, I was there at the monthly UX meeting last time as 
> nim, and I wanted to work on user research.
> 
> Here's the plan I had for conducting the sessions (it's practically my 
> first time, I would love feedback :))
> https://pad.riseup.net/p/nimsTorURAgenda-keep 
> <https://pad.riseup.net/p/nimsTorURAgenda-keep>
> 
> Let me know if there are any issues or clarifications :)
> 
Hi, I'm sajolida and I do UX for Tails (though nor for Tor).

That sounds exciting!

Some notes based on what I saw in the pad:

- I'm sending you an example LimeSurvey questionnaire that I use for
   screening test participants for Tails. I try not to bias their answer
   by not saying in the questionnaire that the tests are about Tails (or
   To in this case). I've seen people cheat on their answers because they
   really wanted to be selected.

   For example, comparing with 
https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/ux/research/-/blob/master/scripts%20and%20activities/2020/user_demographics-en.md:

   * I'm asking them about their familiarity with many different privacy
     tools instead of asking them about Tails or Tor explicitly. This
     list also helps me spot cheater (eg. the PirateChat in the list
     doesn't exist) or know a bit more about their technological profile.

   * I avoid asking people to evaluate their own tech-savviness because
     it might be very subjective and biased. I prefer relying on their
     knowledge of other privacy tool and the favorite OS. I try to avoid
     Linux users for example, as they tend to be more tech-savvy. I ask
     them about their relationship with computers when I do the sound
     check (see below).

   * I don't ask demographic questions because I don't find them useful
     for what I want to know about users.

   * You can ask about the recording in the screening form already. That
     can save you some rejections down the line. Given that you want to
     study discovery and first-time use, I would definitely ask to record
     the session as it might be super useful to share extracts with devs.

- You can reuse my consent form (itself adapted from Bernard Tyers):

 
https://gitlab.tails.boum.org/tails/ux/-/raw/master/tools/consent_form.fodt

- Using Jitsi, you can record the session directly into DropBox. I know
   that Tor uses BigBlueButton for their internal meetings. You could
   also ask them whether their instance of BigBlueButton allows
   recording. BigBlueButton is less hungry than Jitsi in terms of
   bandwith and CPU.

- Writing good tasks is critical to have good tests. See for example:

   https://www.nngroup.com/articles/task-scenarios-usability-testing/

   I'm happy to review your tasks once you have them drafted. I never
   disclose any of the tasks in advance to test participants and always
   give them one after the one. This prevents priming and allows me to
   adjust on the go depending on the participant.

- For remote tests, I always schedule a sound check a few days before
   the tests. But if you have a lot of time and participants and can
   spare a few trials and errors maybe it's not worth it.

- I usually takes me about 15 minutes to get started before the actual
   tasks: sign the consent form, explain the methodology, etc. Recruiting
   participants also takes a significant amount of time if you want to do
   a good screening and sound check, so I usually schedule them for 2
   hours each. To make most of my time with each participant, I tend to
   write more tasks than what all participants will be able to do. Some
   participants might do a few more tasks than others and it's fine.

- I always offer a monetary incentive to test participants. It makes it
   easier to recruit diverse participants who are not familiar with the
   technology yet and it reduces the number of people who don't show up.
   I wonder if Tor could buy you some Amazon gift cards or send our some
   perks to test participants.

- I never ask test participants to take notes. They should be busy using
   the interface while you take notes. Save some time at the end of the
   tests to debrief some interesting parts with them. Until the end of
   the tests, they should stick to using the interface and thinking
   aloud.

Good luck with all that!

-- 
sajolida
Tails — https://tails.boum.org/
UX · Fundraising · Technical Writing
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