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

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   Gloves in the time of Corona
   Guerilla testing in a pandemic
   

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   Welcome!
   

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   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
   

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   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
   

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   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.”
   

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   The solution
   Gorilla testing
   Guerilla
   

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   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
   

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   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
   

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   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
   

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    The plan
    • 2 days in-field research
    
    • Devices
    
    • Covid safety pack
    
    • Consent forms
    
    • Mix of locations
    
    

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    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
    

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    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
    

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    T-1:
    Prep for
    guerrilla
    testing

    

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    T-1:
    Prep for
    guerrilla
    testing

    

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    Day 1: Research and retro
    

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    Day 1:

    outcome
    Day 1: Outcome
    

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    Day 2:

    Research
    Day 2: Research
    

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    Day 2: Outcome
    

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    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
    

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    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
    

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    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
    

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    • 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
    

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    • People loved knowing they were
    helping
    ‒ Incentives weren’t wanted
    Lessons learned
    

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    Our biggest takeaway...
    You need to …
    
    • have thick skin
    
    • be ok with
    rejection and
    potential 

    criticism
    Image tweeted by ericisnoguapo
    

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    Questions?
    • Timeline
    • Preparing for guerrilla testing
    • Day 1 research
    • Day 2 research
    • Results
    • Outcome
    

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    Thank you!
    • Timeline
    • Preparing for guerrilla testing
    • Day 1 research
    • Day 2 research
    • Results
    • Outcome
    

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