What years of experience have taught me about scheduling UX research sessions

Here’s an overview of what years of experience have taught me about scheduling UX research sessions. Read the full article in today’s edition of Fuel Your Curiosity!

1. Over recruit
Plan for this upfront. Save yourself (and your team) from a last-minute scramble to find more people when you come up short. What do you do if the first five show up and are qualified? Give yourself a high five, because it likely won't happen in your next study. TRUST ME. In fact, no-show rates have increased since Covid.

2. Three is a magic number
Don't schedule more than three sessions in one day, particularly as a beginning practitioner. The cognitive load is too high. I've done five in a day. Am I proud of it? No. Am I wiped out after? Completely.

3. You (and your team) need breaks — schedule them!
Allow at least 30 minutes of buffer time in between sessions. This provides wiggle room for unpredictable circumstances like late starts, technology issues or verbose participants. And even when things run like clockwork, you’ll still need time for the team to debrief, take a bio break, grab something to eat, etc.

4. Mix up your time offerings
When you contact participants to schedule a session, they typically choose the first available time listed as an option. Keep an eye on your early responses, and once you have a couple of people that have selected that first available time, remove it from your offered appointments. This will help ensure your schedule balances out.

5. Be clear about time differences
People always assume things are in their local time. When you’re setting up sessions with participants in different time zones, list several appointment times including time zone, and repeat the time zone information several times. It’s ultimately your responsibility to communicate the appointment times clearly.

6. Consider cultural differences (big and small)
Be mindful of local holidays and cultural differences. People in certain cultures are not nearly as comfortable talking aloud, and often people will show up with someone else. So you might need to allocate more time to make subjects comfortable. Some people are not as comfortable with technology, and more time is spent on setting up.

Download my research countdown planner at https://lnkd.in/g4FX-rhk to set yourself, your participants, and your team up for success!