In the past, he’s always been a big advocate for remote research. Last year, he decided to change his agency’s whole approach from self moderated (where participants would follow a list of tasks we wrote in advance) to actively moderated remote research. In this talk, we’ll explore what they learned along the way, such as: ● How to convince people to let you try it in the first place ● How to write tasks for remotely moderated testing ● Finding the right participants ● Common mistakes and issues

1. Moderated Remote User Research :
Best of both worlds?
UX Bournemouth
November 2017

2. Hello.

3. Who are you?

4. Introduction

5. If you’re not involving users…
It’s not UX.

6. Definition
Remote user research can
include anything from self-
moderated or remotely
moderated usability testing, to
idea validation, to card sorts, to
depth interviews to tree-tests.

7. Definition
Simply put, it means conducting
the same research we always
have, but doing it remotely.

8. This talk

9. The story so far

10. I used to be a skeptic...

11. Self moderated

12. The incident

13. Logistics

14. Participant
recruitment

15. Moderation tools

16. Quantitative Tools
● Card Sorting
● Tree Testing
● Click Testing
● Card Sorting
● Tree Testing
● More...
● Click tests
● Annotation
● Memory
● Mood

17. Screen recording
Tip:
Try and record the moderator and
participantaudio on differentchannels.

18. Planning

19. Writing tasks:
Define objectives

20. Writing tasks:
Define hypotheses

21. ✔ People find the new design easier to use than the old one
✘ Will people find the new design easier to use?
✘ The new design is better than the old one
✔ Prospective customers will find the new design easier to use
than the old one, which will make them buy more.
Writing tasks:
Define hypotheses

22. ● Write statements which can be validated
● Make a prediction
● Include a cause and effect
● Make it measurable
Writing tasks:
Define hypotheses

23. Writing tasks:
Discussion Guide

24. Watch out for:
Leading questions

25. Watch out for:
Not testing the test

26. Watch out for:
Being robotic

27. Analysis

28. Work in pairs

29. Decide how to take notes

30. Watch out for:
Jumping to conclusions

31. Why?

32. Advantages:
Speed

33. Advantages:
Flexibility

34. Advantages:
Observe users in their
natural habitat

35. Disadvantages:
vs. Self Moderated

36. Disadvantages:
vs. Face to face

37. Getting permission

38. Takeaways
1. Try it!
1. Use the same budgetsto do more roundsof
research,don’t use this as an excuse to spend
less
1. Define whatyou’re testing
1. Use the right tool for the job
1. Test the test, test the tech

39. Any questions?

40. Thank you
Adam Babajee-Pycroft
adam@naturalinteraction.com
@adam_ux