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People for Research have been recruiting participants for user research, user experience testing and market research for 25 years. In this time, we have built up a wealth of knowledge that we are keen to share for the benefit of our clients across the UK, so today we talk about the participant recruitment screener.

A screener is an essential part to the recruitment process, as this is how to verify whether a participant or user is suitable to include in a research or testing session.

People for Research regularly create screeners on behalf of clients – typically, using a recruitment brief from which to start. It is important to be thorough when putting together a screener, because once you are in a testing session with someone it is too late to swap them out and exchange them for someone else.

✍️ Structure

Creating a recruitment screener for any kind of face to face or remote UX and user testing is a fine art, and each project will bring its own unique challenges. However, every good screener will usually have the following elements:

1. Introduction
2. Screen-outs
3. Questions around demographics and behaviour
4. Questions about technology and devices
5. Confidentiality and disclosures
6. Accessibility
7. Logistics and timings

The exact order in which all these components fit will depend on the criteria being recruited for. Our team of experienced Project Managers who oversee all participant recruitment will tailor each screener to the specific project they are recruiting for.

✍️ Introduction

The introduction is your chance to introduce both you and the project to the participant, and it is useful to have some idea about how you are going to do this before you get in touch. The Project team at People for Research screens all participants over the phone, as we believe that this is the best way of ensuring quality recruitment.

Two key considerations are: 

+ Warm – the participants know who you are and they are expecting a call (e.g. customers who have been sent a preliminary ‘opt-in’ email)

+ Cold – participants don’t know who you are, are not expecting a call, and will need a clear opener as to why you are getting in touch

The introduction is also your opportunity to explain to the participant that the screener is to ascertain whether they are eligible to participate, and make it clear that they may not be able to take part. It is important at all times to be clear and transparent in line with the UXPA code of conduct.

Screen-outs

As a default we always recommend screening out participants who work in the same industry as the end client, or for competitor organisations. We also recommend screening out participants who work in the field of website or app design and usability. But again, this depends on the specific nature of the testing session or research.

If there are other screen-outs try and include these as early on as possible – to avoid wasting both your time and the participant’s time.

Questions around demographics and behaviour

We will go into more detail on recruiting participants who meet certain criteria and personas in more detail in a future blog.

For now, it is important to question the participant to understand if the specific UX or user testing session you are running will be appropriate for them. As well as making sure they are the type of user you require. User testing offers some good advice about recruiting a target audience here.

Questions about technology and devices

Ahead of a user testing session, it is essential to understand each participant’s knowledge of technology and devices.

Partly to check whether the participant will need additional support during the session. But also, it is often useful or essential to a project to ensure there is a mix of experience levels, so that the outcomes of the testing aren’t biased.

Confidentiality and disclosures

If a participant will be required to sign a non-disclosure, or similar document it is good sense to mention this at the screener stage. Usually this doesn’t cause any problems, but it is best practice to make sure participants are aware that they may be asked to sign something and (most importantly) why they are being asked to sign it.

Depending on the nature of the project, it may also be useful to mention to the participant that their feedback will be kept confidential and that the session may be viewed, filmed or recorded. Give the participant chance to decline, if they are uncomfortable with any of this.

Accessibility

If your office is not accessible, then it is good practice to make this clear at the start of the process, and make alternative arrangements to accommodate participants.

We also include a question in all screeners to check whether participants require additional hardware or software in order to participate.

Logistics and timings

It can often be easier to share location details, and check availability with a participant over the phone, as opposed to arranging these details via email. We recommend sending a confirmation email after the call, with full confirmation details.

✍️ Relationship building

Screening is the preliminary stage to your UX/user testing or research, it is an important formality to understand if someone is suitable to include, and is also a chance to begin building a relationship with participants.

The participants will play an important part in your project, so it is crucial to get this right.

Screening participants by phone will begin to build up a level of trust, the participants will begin to feel engaged in the process and they should also feel more valued as a result. This will increase the chance that participants feel comfortable and are willing to share their personal thoughts and feelings if required. We recommend explaining to participants that there is no right or wrong answer in research; you are just looking for their personal opinion.

Also, the more engaged the participants’ feels in the project, the lower the dropout rate. It is partly down to this process of slowly getting to know participants, that we have such a high rate of attendance.

Our relationship with the participant often begins before the screening stage, as we have a national database of participants who have opted in to hear about, and participate in paid research. This is the main source we use for recruiting participants to participate in user testing across the UK.

✍️ Who is your user?

Who you are recruiting should have a significant effect on how you phrase your questions. A couple of key things to think about are:0

1. Tone of voice
2. Language used
3. Content

Tone of voice

The introduction and summary are good places to tailor your screener to the user group and add some personality.

Going through a list of questions can feel a little robotic, particularly if this isn’t something you are accustomed to. This is one quality that we really value in our team of recruitment specialists.

Some user groups also need a little more reassurance, for example if you are approaching them directly without any prior communication. Or participants who are less confident with technology, especially if the testing session will involve using a device or website they aren’t familiar with may need a little more information about what they may be asked to do.

Language used

When writing a screener it is important to keep your user in mind when deciding how to word certain questions.

Sometimes it is easier to create two separate screeners if you are recruiting two or more distinct user groups. For example, when recruiting one group who are current customers and another group who are non-customer, as customers may have certain knowledge of products or terms that a non-customer wouldn’t have.

It is important not to be leading when screening participants, as the purpose behind recruiting participants for research and user testing is to get honest and genuine feedback. If someone is led in to providing inaccurate information at the screening stage, then this may cause conflicting information to be captured during the project.

As above, make it clear to participants that you are looking for their personal opinion, to ascertain if the research will be relevant to them or not.

Content

We recommend testing the screener out with some example users. This should highlight any holes in the questioning. Or if this is not possible, ask someone else to proof read it that has a fresh perspective.

It may also be useful to read the screener aloud, even if just to yourself, to hear how the words sound and how it flows. This is a good way of ironing out any areas that may be awkward to say, when screening a participant.

✍️ Question types

There is a great deal of choices when it comes to phasing your questions and asking for the relevant information to screen a participant. However when choosing your question type, the options are more clear, including:

+ Closed questions – these are really useful if you need a direct answer such as ‘yes’ or ‘no’

+ Open questions – these are useful when you are trying to get a more detailed answer, and these questions generally start with ‘who’, ‘what’, ‘where’, ‘why’, ‘when’ and ‘how’

If a screener consists of mainly closed questions, then it could be useful to include some open questions. This will give you chance to get to know the participant a little more; this is especially useful when recruiting to personas which outline behaviour and attitude around certain choices.

Vice versa, if all the questions are open then it is probably sensible to include some closed questions. Never assume what information participants are going to share, open questions can be interpreted differently and lead to different answers than those that might be expected. However, a closed question will give a definitive answer.

✍️ Reading between the lines

When actually screening participants we will occasionally ask further probing questions if a participant has provided a vague answer, or if we think it would be useful to capture additional information. This means that if someone isn’t exactly fitting into a user group, we also know why they don’t fit. And it may turn out that they are still relevant in some way to the research project, and provides an alternative option if the preferred user groups are not available or interested in participating.

Another important lesson we have learnt is no to assume anything. Just because someone answers a question in a certain way, doesn’t mean they will or won’t be relevant to a project.

A lot of the time, the way the questions are phrased or the exact order in which the questions are asked will lead to different information being shared. Don’t fill in the gaps by assuming, and leave space to go off-screener, to clarify. Be sparing with the additional probing questions, and try where possible to keep the screener short.

As at this stage, you are just trying to screen for suitability and participants may feel unvalued if you capture lots of information but then do not go on to invite them to participate in a paid session. Putting together screeners is a delicate art, as is actually screening participants.

 


 

If you would like to find out more about our in-house participant recruitment service for user testing or market research get in touch on 0117 921 0008 or info@peopleforresearch.co.uk.

At People for Research, we recruit participants for UX and usability testing and market research. We work with award winning UX agencies across the UK and partner up with a number of end clients who are leading the way with in-house user experience and insight.