Tips for International In-home User Research

In-home user research can provide richer, more illuminating information than lab-based studies, but presents challenges in organisation and data collection.  These are magnified when users are in different countries with different cultures.

Following a recent user research study involving 40 home visits in Germany, France, Japan and China we have put together our top ten tips to help make your international in-home user research a success.

Why conduct in-home research?

When planning the location of user research there are two options:

• the user comes to us - usually lab-based studies, be they focus groups, individual test sessions or participative design exercises
• we go to the user -  this may be on ‘neutral ground’, e.g. cafe, market, train station, or their own space, typically their place of work or their home.

Typically, findings are ‘richer’ if we enter the user’s own space as in addition to what individuals say and do, we can take in their surroundings and evaluate their impact too such as:

• the Wi-Fi signal strength affecting where users sit to use the internet
• how the physical presence of other people affect the user’s browsing patterns.

In-home research is particularly valuable when we want to find out what people actually do, rather than how easy they find something to use.  For example we can see:

• the way they access their popular websites
• whether and how they simultaneously use the web and other media
• the way sharing a computer impacts on their internet behaviour and settings

What are the disadvantages?

 The disadvantages of in-home research include:

• Increased cost (usually)
• Increased time required per user
• Harder to organise
• Less comparable results between subjects
• Difficulty of finding willing participants
• Generally poorer audio and video recording.

Some of these are magnified when conducting studies abroad and tend to make in-home studies the exception rather than the rule.  This is a shame as they can shed additional light on important aspects of a study and can be a great experience for the participants.

Tips for successful international in-home research

So here area our top tips to help you make your next (international) in-home project a success:

•   Use a good local recruiter with in-home experience
  • Take advice from the recruiter on the feasibility of the proposed recruitment criteria and study design
  • Recruitment according to the given specification is particularly important when doing in-home studies as poor recruitment will be more obvious and disruptive
  • Recruiter must be able to win participants over for in-home study.  The more information the recruiter can provide to the participant in advance the better, e.g. will session be recorded/photos being taken, why in-home format, how long will it take, theme and purpose of study, who will attend, who should be at home, how will incentive be paid, etc 
  • Ideally recruiter will provide location maps, timed directions and best transport options
• If you don’t speak the language use a local moderator rather than relying on an interpreter
• Know the basic cultural norms, including welcome rituals and dress code
• Use friendly small talk to help make participant feel at ease
• Take it slower than in typical lab studies
• Respect the participant’s privacy and ask for permission to anything not in the original brief, e.g. take photos of specific things, look into other rooms, etc
• Cherish distractions - these are amongst the reasons why you opted for an in-home study, e.g. phone keeps ringing, baby cries, computer crashes, user can’t find a bookmark they added last week
• Consider gender issues and try to keep the visitor group as small as possible
• Consider recording issues especially if using a simultaneous translator
• Enjoy the experience!

International user experience contains more information on our services, or please contact us for an information chat about ways we can help you.