Field research can be very dangerous! well at least scary. Every day researchers are being hit on, sat on, poisoned, accosted, emotionally scarred and generally made to feel uncomfortable by freaky people...err, I mean research participants. This presentation will outline 5 methods to keep you safe.

1. Five user research methods you
have probably never seen
Oz-IA 2010

2. The five methods?
✤ cultural probes
✤ the “shop-a-long”
✤ visual analytics
✤ controlled vocabularies for user feedback
✤ the self-recruiting website

3. I have an admission to make
✤ You were expecting me to talk about things like those shown on the
previous slide
✤ I’m happy to talk about them at another time, but there’s something
much more serious to talk about
✤ You see, I’m a user research specialist, I go out into the field and talk
to users
✤ And sometimes it’s kinda scary...

4. Field research is dangerous!

5. Field research is dangerous!
✤ Well, at least scary :)
✤ Every day researchers are being hit on, sat on, poisoned, accosted,
emotionally scarred and generally made to feel uncomfortable by
freaky people...err, I mean research participants
✤ Let me illustrate with a story...

6. Sam’s story
“I felt so dirty”

7. Sam’s story
✤ It was about 10:00am and I arrived at the participant’s flat. I knocked on the front door and was met by a
middle aged man dressed in a dressing gown and Ugg boots. I introduced myself and then entered the
premises.
✤ We sat down at a desk in the study to conduct the interview. At the relevant time I asked him to show me some
of his favourite sports websites (since that was what we were researching). It was when he started to type in a
URL that I noticed to autocomplete bring up several previous websites.
✤ One of them was ….. keshasparty.com
✤ I tried to pretend not to notice, but he knew I had seen it. I knew he knew I knew. He said "hrrrmmm it's
amazing how disgusting the internet is". I threw him a incredulous look.
✤ It was then I noticed the Ke$ha and Lady Gaga posters all over the walls. He tried to explain that it was just
the same as with Pete Townsend, he only ever went to those websites for research purposes.
✤ I started to backed away until I reached the front door, but then he stripped off the dressing gown and started
‘singing’ “I woke up in the morning feeling like P Diddy”. I ran….I was scarred for life, and I’ll never be able
to look at an address bar the same way ever again!

8. So, five user research methods
you have probably never seen...

9. 1. Make up excuses

10. If they answer the door like this

11. Or this...

12. Don’t even try
to knock on this

13. “Sorry, I left my _____ in my _____
at _____”

14. Or use when
you hear...
✤ “Urrrgh, I really shouldn’t
have drunk so much...this
morning”
✤ “Oh my, aren’t you’re a
strapping lad?”
✤ “I don’t have any chairs, we’ll
have to sit on my bed”
✤ “Have you ever heard of
Amway?”

15. 2. Develop a sudden allergy

16. “I’m allergic to Brazil Nuts”

17. You should also
be allergic to...
✤ Any “beverage” cooked or
stored in a large vat
✤ Home-made snacks
✤ Vicious pets who “just want to
say hello”

18. 3. Ignorance

19. “What porn?”

20. 4. Use your equipment

21. Voice recorder
taser

22. The way of the tripod

23. 5. Unarmed combat

24. S-I-N-G
Solar plexus, Instep, Nose, Groin

25. Solar plexus

26. Instep

27. Nose

28. Groin

29. A practical demonstration

31. “I have to go, I’ve been double
booked!”

33. “No thanks, I’m allergic to food”

34. “So, how about
that cultural
probe?”

35. “Hey, I’m just trying to do my job!”

36. “This is going to screw with my
sample size!”

37. “Say hello to
my little tripod”

39. “Thank you...and don’t forget, your
privacy is important to us!”

40. A word from Captain Bleedin’
Obvious
If you’ve come this far and not figured out this was a joke, don’t
forget to rush out and buy my book and DVD set entitled
AFRaiD - Australian Field Research Danger-avoidance
self defence techniques for researchers, available in the foyer for
$59.95

41. About Patrick Kennedy
✤ Patrick is an experienced web design, IA and UX practitioner
✤ He specialises in understanding audiences and their needs through
user research, and using that knowledge to inform strategy and the
design of online experiences
✤ He is Design Research Lead at News Digital Media
✤ He blogs at Pat’s Point of View (www.gurtle.com/ppov/)
✤ He’s on twitter as @PatrickKennedy