|
|
When it comes to planning a user study various steps need to be executed, summarized in this subsection.
|
|
|
|
|
|
**General Preparation for User Studies**
|
|
|
- What is the goal of your study? So what are your overarching research questions?
|
|
|
- What are your particular hypotheses and why?
|
|
|
- Which experimental design is beneficial for your investigations: between-subjects or within-subjects design?
|
|
|
- Which VR setup shall be used? CAVE, HMD w/wo eye-tracking?
|
|
|
- Which tasks do participants have to fulfill and in which virtual environment?
|
|
|
- Is a familiarization phase required to get used to the hardware, the scene, the controls, and the task? (Highly recommended!)
|
|
|
- Which data needs to be logged by the study framework? (Advice: Log as much as possible; it is better not to use data in the end instead of missing data.)
|
|
|
- Which questions need to be asked to gain meaningful insight?
|
|
|
- How many participants do you need? Do they need to be experts in a certain field or do they need to be novice users?
|
|
|
- When do you want to conduct your study?
|
|
|
- How is the concrete study procedure?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
**Study Procedure**
|
|
|
|
|
|
After you designed your study it is time to set it up. The following section will thereby focus on the supporting material, aka questionnaires, instruction texts, etc.
|
|
|
|
|
|
1. Scheduling
|
|
|
- [Block the equipment](https://rwth-aachen.sciebo.de/f/4542196192) in the lab for the course of your study.
|
|
|
- Set up a [Foodle](https://terminplaner6.dfn.de/en) or [Doodle](https://doodle.com/en/) or something similar to schedule appointments with your participants.
|
|
|
- Send an [invitation mail](StudyProcedure/Invitation Mail) to potential participants, share it on social media, and via posters.
|
|
|
2. Introductory Text
|
|
|
- Write a text informing participants about the general procedure of the study. Do not give away details that might bias the outcome. It is also totally fine if users do not know what to pay attention to.
|
|
|
3. Informed Consent
|
|
|
- Prepare the informed consent which participants need to sign up front after reading the general introductory text. Keep all the signed copies of it for 10 years!
|
|
|
4. Demographics
|
|
|
- Prepare a demographics questionnaire as the first questionnaire to be filled out prior to the actual study.
|
|
|
5. Task Description
|
|
|
- If not mixed with the introductory text, prepare a task description explaining the interaction and navigation controls in detail as well as the actual user task. Use figures to underline your descriptions.
|
|
|
6. Questionnaires
|
|
|
- Prepare questionnaires to be asked before, between, and after the various conditions, you test.
|
|
|
- Keep these questionnaires as short as possible as having to fill out too many questions becomes cumbersome often leading to less helpful answers. Still, wrap your head around which insights you need.
|
|
|
- Whenever possible use standardized questionnaires cited in the literature.
|
|
|
- Add your own precise questions focusing on your very technique/investigation object.
|
|
|
- Add free text fields to ask for reasons for a special vote as well as additional thoughts, recommendations, and ideas.
|
|
|
7. Interview
|
|
|
- Decide whether you need a structured or semi-structured interview to gain more insight or if the questionnaires are sufficient. |
|
|
\ No newline at end of file |