The good news is that the vast majority (80%) of the study participants are just as willing to participate now as they were before the corona crisis. Only 10% say that their willingness is lower than before, and only 1% say that they would not participate for the time being. So, at least from the participants’ point of view, there is nothing to stop lab interviews!
Approximately 20% of the panellists would count themselves as a risk group. This means that a fifth of the participants could potentially drop out if exclusion criteria are included in the recruitment process (see below).
Adjust recruitment and study design
Measures should also be taken for recruitment and study design to further minimize the general risk of infection for all involved. In particular, the exclusion of people from risk groups should be considered first. This relates to, for example:
- Older people (60+ years) and people with previous illnesses (including cardiovascular, pulmonary diseases etc.)
- People who show cold/flu symptoms in the days before an interview
- People who were in a high-risk area in the 14 days before an interview
Certain groups and measures are covered by official security measures, so official regulations should be consulted prior to project launch.
Other measures that should be considered when planning a study may be:
- Decide for shorter interview durations in order to avoid long contact times (larger test scopes can be distributed over larger or several samples)
- Plan longer intervals between interviews to allow for disinfection measures between sessions and to minimize contact between study participants
Steps to a hygiene plan
We recommend creating a hygiene plan prior to the lab study, outlining the planned measures. The following points should be considered:
- Check the official local hygiene regulations and measures. These can change at short notice, so they should be consulted before each study.
- Create or update your local hygiene plan accordingly (potential measures see above).
- Inform study participants and other stakeholders about the planned measures on site. Send out an information sheet of maximum 1 page.
- Create a checklist to ensure that the measures are implemented on site.
- Document the measures taken during the field phase.
Keep calm and keep on researching!
When conducting lab interviews, UX researchers are responsible for the safety of external study participants and of the project team. Therefore, the preparation of a hygiene plan is an important step towards the new normality of F2F research in times of Covid-19. If you have first-hand experience with it, share it with the UX Community!