Alana Wade & Serena Lai - Gloves in the time of Corona - Guerrilla Testing in a Pandemic

How do you get real people to test a physical prototype during a pandemic?

Alana Wade and Serena Lai, user researchers at the Digital Transformation Agency, will share their personal 2020 experiences. They needed to conduct research on a government device, testing a facial recognition feature to verify real people with real people. Something that couldn’t be done remotely. Their option? Guerrilla testing: brief face-to-face interactions with people going about their daily business. Alana and Serena will share the lessons they learned pivoting a project in May from in-depth in person research into a socially distanced feat of guerrilla testing. This includes adapting to quick changes, preparing for rapid testing and insight gathering, and how to build trust in seconds with passers-by when you have to remain distanced. This was also a real challenge for observation on devices!

Transcript

1. OFFICIAL OFFICIAL aaa aaaa • aaaa • aaaa • aaaa Gloves in the time of Corona Guerilla testing in a pandemic
2. OFFICIAL OFFICIAL Welcome!
3. OFFICIAL OFFICIAL Agenda Part 1 – The mission • The problem • The solution • Challenges • Mitigation • The plan Part 2 – The process • Timeline • Preparing for guerrilla testing • Day 1 research • Day 2 research • Results • Lessons learned
4. OFFICIAL OFFICIAL The
 mission How can we test face-to-face when the advice says “Don’t go near people” ? • The problem • The solution • Challenges • Mitigation • The plan
5. OFFICIAL OFFICIAL The problem At the beginning of May 2020 …
 our boss came to us with a challenge: “We need to test some 
 facial recognition software 
 in a week. And it has to be on a government device.”
6. OFFICIAL OFFICIAL The solution Gorilla testing Guerilla
7. OFFICIAL OFFICIAL Challenges • Get executive support to go against the grain • Get people to talk to you during a pandemic • Get enough people and a good mix of demographics • Engage with people and observe while social distancing
8. OFFICIAL OFFICIAL Mitigation • Get executive support to go against the grain? Have a Covid safety plan and 
 do research on public land
 • Get people to talk to you during a pandemic? Have obvious protective personal equipment on hand
9. OFFICIAL OFFICIAL Mitigation • Get enough people and a good mix of demographics? Ensure a range of locations to ensure a demographic mix
 • Engage with people and observe while social distancing? Practice observing research from a distance
10. OFFICIAL OFFICIAL The plan • 2 days in-field research • Devices • Covid safety pack • Consent forms • Mix of locations
11. OFFICIAL OFFICIAL The process How do we finish research and get findings in just 5 days? • Timeline • Preparing for guerrilla testing • Day 1 research • Day 2 research • Results • Lessons learned
12. OFFICIAL OFFICIAL Timeline T-2 Consider ways to complete face to face research on a government device in 1 week T-1 Prepare for guerrilla testing Day 1 Research and retro Day 2 Research Day 3 Synthesise findings for shareback
13. OFFICIAL OFFICIAL T-1: Prep for guerrilla testing

14. OFFICIAL OFFICIAL T-1: Prep for guerrilla testing

15. OFFICIAL OFFICIAL Day 1: Research and retro
16. OFFICIAL OFFICIAL Day 1:
 outcome Day 1: Outcome
17. OFFICIAL OFFICIAL Day 2:
 Research Day 2: Research
18. OFFICIAL OFFICIAL Day 2: Outcome
19. OFFICIAL OFFICIAL Results 14 participants total • 3 people on Day 1 • 11 people on Day 2 • 7 people on each product • 7 people on each test device
 Good mix of demographics • Men and women aged 18 - 65 • Different skin tones • Different facial features • Wore glasses and/or a hat • Culturally diverse people
20. OFFICIAL OFFICIAL Lessons learned • Have visibility of purpose so people don’t think you’re fundraisers or sales people ‒ Having a banner and a social media campaign really helped to support our cause
 • High foot traffic areas aren’t necessarily the easiest place to get engagement
21. OFFICIAL OFFICIAL Lessons learned • Vary where you go to get a good mix of demographics ‒ Small local shops with cafés are great!
 • Don’t try and do too many locations in one day ‒ In hindsight 3 would have been perfect
22. OFFICIAL OFFICIAL • Help make people feel safe ‒ Arm yourself with hand sanitiser and gloves + wipe down pens and test devices and observe social distancing 
 • Some gloves work better on devices than others ‒ Latex powder free gloves work a treat! Lessons learned
23. OFFICIAL OFFICIAL • People loved knowing they were helping ‒ Incentives weren’t wanted Lessons learned
24. OFFICIAL OFFICIAL Our biggest takeaway... You need to … • have thick skin • be ok with rejection and potential 
 criticism Image tweeted by ericisnoguapo
25. OFFICIAL OFFICIAL Questions? • Timeline • Preparing for guerrilla testing • Day 1 research • Day 2 research • Results • Outcome
26. OFFICIAL OFFICIAL Thank you! • Timeline • Preparing for guerrilla testing • Day 1 research • Day 2 research • Results • Outcome