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LifeworksInclusive Guide

Conducting user research

There are four considerations we need to evaluate when conducting research:

  1. Can we have representationOpens in a new window within the research team based on the engaged audience? (How might research team representation impact the research and the participants?)
  2. How might we bring care to our engagement with marginalized groups or participants engaging in difficult conversations, including obtaining a trauma-informed perspective to our research?
  3. How might we practice self-care as researchers when engaging in difficult conversations?
  4. How might we enable informed participant opt-in while ensuring space for participants to practice self-care and that they can opt out at any time?
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AnswerLab's How to Conduct Experience Gap User Research

This article from AnswerLabOpens in a new window reinforces many of the tenets shared in this guide with the 6 step process:

  1. Step 1: Do your homework on their experience
  2. Step 2: Formulate straightforward research questions
  3. Step 3: Fully understand and define the underrepresented population to recruit.
  4. Step 4: Select the moderator with intention.
  5. Step 5: Moderate with awareness of your unconscious bias.
  6. Step 6: Report insights fearlessly and fully.

Read the full articleOpens in a new window.

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Recognizing unconscious bias

As you moderate, watch for these types of bias:

  1. Affinity bias: Ensure you’re not agreeing with or showcasing a participant's feedback because they are like you or you like them.
  2. Confirmation bias: Focus on asking the same questions of everyone in the same tone and manner, so you collect data regardless of your opinion of them. Use caution with improvisation, and don't share harmful assumptions with the participant.
  3. Attribution bias: Don’t discount a participant’s response if they express themselves in a way you don’t like or prefer.
  4. Halo bias: Do not promote or hold any participant’s feedback and observations as “better” than others, especially those that provide soundbites in the manner of the dominant culture, simply because you think they may be more acceptable to the team. 
  5. Horns effect: Do not downplay or dismiss feedback from participants who you may not like or may not be like you.

Excerpted from AnswerLab's Understanding the experience gap: the next step in creating inclusive user experiencesOpens in a new window.