Best practice for working with human participants

1. Best practice for working with human participants CS/IT Honours projects 2007 Judy Robertson

2. Overview Why should you care? Principles of working with human participants About working with children and other vulnerable users

3. Why work with human participants? You’ll need to do this: If you’re doing a survey/ market research type project (IT students) If you’re trying to evaluate software If you’re trying to design new software Feedback from users tells you if your software is fit for purpose If it’s not, why spend so much time building it?

4. Why the fuss? Running a study with users requires careful planning Analysis of user data is time consuming to do properly There is more to this than “giving people a questionnaire”! There are procedures you should follow to make sure you do it ethically

5. Ways to work with users Paper prototyping (simulating an interface on paper) Log files Expert evaluation Observation – watching users at work Diaries – ask users to fill in regular notes about using your software Focus groups (leading a group discussion) Interview (in depth, fewer users) Questionnaire (lots of users, broad overview needed)

6. Tips Formative evaluation – finding out what users think before software is finished. Exploratory – require depth not loads of users Summative evaluation – Proving hypothesis about software usability when it is finished. Often requires lots of people If you are trying to prove a hypothesis you need to go beyond graphs or averages. You’ll need statistical tests (e.g t-test) Avoid the word “significant” in your analysis section unless you are using it technically to comment on the results of statistical tests.

7. Principle: Informed consent • Participants should be told: • The aim of the research • The process they will go through • Any risks/consequences involved • Why their participation is necessary • What information will be gathered • How and to whom will this information be reported

8. Consent from participants Participants: • can choose to stop at any time without giving a reason • shouldn’t be made to take part under duress • are entitled to know how and why their data is stored, what it is used for, and who might see it. • Issue of deception

9. Researcher’s responsibility to participants • Researchers should minimise discomfort to participants and stop if they show distress • Minimal intrusion – only ask questions which are relevant to current research questions • Incentives for taking part only in exceptional cases and shouldn’t be harmful (ie. No sweeties!) • Data should be kept confidential, secure and anonymous (See Data protection guidelines) • Give participants feedback on the outcome of the research

10. Working with children or vulnerable users Conducting research with children is rewarding, but it requires careful planning. We’ll look at • Why it’s important to follow procedures for getting consent; • How to gain the necessary permission to carry out your research with children; • Tips for working with children;

11. Why is all this necessary? Following through the correct procedure can be time consuming and frustrating. But it’s necessary because: • It’s the law – Protection of Children (Scotland) Act 2003; • Children need protection – the welfare of the child is always the first priority • Those working with children need protection.

12. Permission to work with children Working with children in schools and other organisations requires careful planning and permission from various sources: • Organisation in which you are working • Local authority (in some cases) • Participants • Parents/ guardians • MACS (see Peter King)

13. Consent from child participants • Follow the principle of voluntary informed consent. • Children have a right to express their views in matters concerning them AND they have a right to be listened to (UN Convention on the Rights of The Child). • This information should be age appropriate. For younger children, you may have to read the information out loud to them. • Parents should also give their informed consent

14. Permission from organisation You should visit the head teacher of the school (or head of organisation) in advance to plan the project. Ask about: • Parental permission slips • Photographic/ video permission • Do you need to notify the local authority? • Do you need to get a Disclosure Scotland background check? • Will there be a member of staff with you at all times? • Which classroom will be used?

15. Permission from local authority • Edinburgh City Council require a Disclosure Scotland background check; • Disclosure Scotland is the organisation which administers background checks for people who work with children (voluntary and paid); • If you are working in another local authority, check with the school to find out whether you need a Disclosure Check. • PLEASE NOTE – Disclosure applications can take 6 weeks or more to be processed.

16. Tips for working with children Do you have any advice based on previous experiences?

17. Tips for working with children • Make sure there is a member of staff from the organisation with you at all times • Keep a professional distance between you and the participants • Be careful about physical contact • Be careful about jokes • Dress appropriately

18. Interviews • Ask children if they would like to be interviewed individually or with a friend; • Ask the children if it is OK to audio record them; • Tell them it’s OK to ask you turn off the recorder during the interview; • Suggestion – if the child is talking quietly, paraphrase what they just said when they finished • A) to check you understood them • B) So you can decipher what they said later on.

19. Questionnaires • Make sure the vocabulary and sentence structure is age appropriate; • You may need to read the questions aloud if the participants can’t read yet; • Make sure each isn’t confusing, contains a single question and is unambiguous; • Pupils should have enough space to fill in their answers in privacy; • Pupils should be given a sealed envelope to return their questionnaires so that the teacher can’t see their answers.

20. Focus groups • Explain the “rules” of the focus group to begin with • Everyone gets a say • Listen when other people are talking • Group members are asked to respect each other • The researcher will keep the information confidential • Other groups members are asked to keep the information confidential • Ask the group if it’s OK to record what is said • The tape will be turned off on request

21. What’s wrong here? • Including non-anonymised questionnaire forms in appendix • Asking people in a questionnaire if they download music illegally • Running a study to see if VR helps agoraphobics

22. Any questions?

23. Further information • If you’re not taking Human Factors and Usability, you can sign up to get course materials at http://advancedinteractiondesign.ning.com • Ethics podcast: http://www.macs.hw.ac.uk/~judy/HF/Podcasts/EthicsPodcast.mp3 • Disclosure Scotland http://www.disclosurescotland.co.uk/ • Scottish Council for Research in Education ethics guidelines http://www.sera.ac.uk/docs/SERA_Ethical_Guidelines_final.pdf • ACM ethics guidelines • http://www.acm.org/about/code-of-ethics • Ask me if you want example consent forms etc.