So, you need user feedback.
While it might be tempting to post your prototypes
to LinkedIn and ask, "Which UI is better,"
that's not going to give you the best insights,
especially when the only people
who are likely to see your posts are professional colleagues
or friends who know a lot about what you do for a living,
and likely are not representative of your actual audience.
Instead, consider one of these five recruiting strategies
for your next research project.
First, professional recruiters.
While this is often the most costly option,
since you have to pay for incentives and recruiting fees,
professional recruiters often have
large pools of respondents,
so they can find both general audiences
with a good mix of genders, backgrounds,
financial status, age, et cetera,
as well as more specialized audiences.
They have experience administering
and even creating screening surveys to find ideal candidates
for even the most specialized studies.
So, they can offset a lot of the labor
that research teams may dedicate to recruitment.
However, you should still be clear with them
about your eligibility criteria,
and keep in mind that they will need additional time
to actually contact and schedule slots
with each participant.
But overall, the risk of a biased sample
will be relatively low,
though perhaps limited to local audiences
for in-person studies.
Number two, automated recruiting platforms.
These platforms are often a bit cheaper,
since recruiting fees tend to be a bit lower,
but incentives must still be high enough
to attract participants.
These platforms often have a wide global reach
and since they are automated,
they enable researchers to outsource
some of the work of scheduling and contacting candidates.
However, screening surveys do need to be manually configured
and sometimes can be limited in their capabilities.
Turnaround time tends to be quicker, though,
because the screening survey is sent out
instantaneously and the risk of bias can sometimes be low
if the pool of respondents is well managed.
So this makes them a great option
for most studies with more general audiences.
Number three, internal user feedback panels.
These are often the cheapest option
since companies can usually compensate participants
in the form of discounted or free products or services.
And no recruitment fees are necessary
since participants can quickly be found
with a quick email blast or two.
However, the scheduling and screening
is left entirely up to the researcher,
and there's increased risk of bias
due to the fact that these folks don't represent
other users, like new or disgruntled users.
But if you're trying to learn about existing users,
power users, or employees,
this could be a great, inexpensive way
to get participants for your study.
Number four, online forums and groups.
The internet is a powerful tool,
and online forums or groups often promise publicity
and reach at little to no cost.
While posting to your own profiles is often unhelpful
for the reasons I mentioned before,
there can be a lot of opportunity in reaching out to forums
or groups with specialized user groups,
like people with disabilities,
people with specific interests,
or people in specific roles or industries.
However, researchers have to take on all the work
of screening, communicating,
and scheduling with participants,
making it a relatively high effort method
with some extra turnaround time needed.
Risk of bias can also be somewhat high,
since vocal group members
can sometimes sway popular opinions in the group,
but this can be avoided by sourcing participants
from multiple groups or forums.
Finally, number five, intercept studies.
If you've ever run into a person or popup that asked,
"Would you like to participate
in a five minute survey,"
then you've probably encountered an invitation
to join an intercept study.
These studies can be done virtually or in person.
However, the reach of these studies
is limited to new or existing visitors
who have already decided to interact with a company,
or task oriented users who have a specific goal in mind.
The cost of these studies tends to be low
due to the lack of recruiting fees.
However, researcher effort can be very high
due to the need to be on call and essentially ready
for moderated studies,
even if no one has accepted the invitation yet.
The bias risk can be moderate
due to limiting your audience to current visitors.
But if the goal is to understand what a task oriented user
does or how visitors perceive your product or service,
then intercept studies can provide
very valuable user feedback.
So there you have it.
Five recruiting strategies to find great users
for your research.
Which method is right for you?
Well, there's no one size fits all approach
to recruiting participants.
Consider your study needs,
your budget, and how many researchers
you have available.
Just because you can't afford a professional recruiter
doesn't mean you can't facilitate user research.
It just means that the method
of recruiting that you choose
will have a trade off, and that's okay.
Some data is better than no data.
And if you're careful about managing research bias,
you'll end up with real data
and evidence to help guide you toward a great design.