[IxDA Discuss] Do you change who you are for participants?

[Cindy Alvarez]

On Nov 6, 2007 10:37 AM, Katie Albers <katie at firstthought.com> wrote:

> This is the part that surprises me...why are you telling the users
> who you are at all? It helps to have your first name, to increase
> their comfort, but beyond that, you're just someone doing research to
> figure out whether the application being developed is any good -- and
> I phrase it just like that.

Because users tend to assume that the person testing is the designer?
   At least in my experience.

I've moderated tests and in some cases sat in (where the user could
see me) while someone else moderated, and in both situations it's
pretty common for users to ask if the moderator designed the product,
or if the moderator works for our company, what they do, etc.    We do
mostly "quick and dirty" in-house testing in our company office, but I
have also heard users ask this of moderators when at offsite
professional testing facilities.

I prefer to state clearly that "I didn't design this, so feel free to
provide any and all comments or feedback, positive or negative.
There is always room for improvement and every bit of feedback from
you and other testers helps to improve the product".   Not worth the
risk that someone is secretly afraid they'll offend me or the
moderator and holds back.

Cindy

--
http://www.cindyalvarez.com