Challenges in participant recruiting for usability testing

Effective participant recruitment is crucial to collecting reliable data during usability testing of high-tech products and services. Not only should test participants reflect the characteristics of the targeted users of the product or service, but they must also be likely to use it. Only then will their experiences and opinions yield reliable data for identifying meaningful improvements. This paper presents real-world challenges in recruiting participants for usability testing of new-technology products and services for which no firmly established customer base exists. It discusses techniques for meeting recruiting challenges, before and after test sessions begin, based on Tec-Ed Inc.´s usability-test case studies