Total Credits: 1 Advance Credits
Evolving the participant-researcher dynamic: Exploring the qualitative research experience through the eyes of a participant
As qualitative researchers, we conduct studies to provide better user experiences, but there is one experience we rarely consider: that of our research participants. We often don't know if and how our research affects participants. They rarely, if ever, see the results of the data we collect nor fully understand how we use it. Even more problematic: We are often underprepared for participants’ past traumas, which our questioning could unintentionally trigger during an interview.
A human-first approach should be at the core of everything we do. Yet, our relationship with research participants is often transactional, ending after they receive the honorarium.
In this session, we’ll discuss how this one-sided interaction contradicts human-centered design and blurs the lines of ethical research. Our speakers will draw from knowledge gained through their combined 15+ years of conducting qualitative research studies for Fortune 500 companies to illustrate the necessity of building an ethical, trauma-informed two-way bridge between researchers and participants.
Our discussion will focus on the whole participant experience: participant motivations for engaging, power dynamics and emotions present during the research session, and what we owe participants after the research session concludes.
We’ll explore how practitioners can bridge the gap between the researcher and participant experiences by:
anticipating a range of participant motivations
establishing an ethical approach in their workplace
building empathy by experiencing studies AS a participant
providing a best-practice moderator toolkit and checklist to ensure we are prepared for any participant interaction
Understanding our participants’ motivations, pain points, and lingering feelings about being in a study is integral to being stewards of ethical research. By examining the participant experience more closely, we evolve as practitioners to turn participant experiences into safe, holistic, human-first spaces.
| Presenter Slide Handout - Evolving the Participant-Researcher Dynamic (31.14 MB) | Available after Purchase | ||
Cary-Anne has spent 17 years guiding organizations in creating human-centered experiences. She’s worked with clients in industries from retail banking and luxury aviation to datacenters and call centers. After establishing a human-centered foundation, she converts findings into strategic, actionable steps to guide organizations to address discovered needs.
Before Nava, she worked at a UX consultancy for 6 years, led the IBM Cognitive Systems research team, taught Web/interaction design at various Austin universities, and completed Information Science graduate work in Interaction Design & Usability. She started her career as a front-end Web developer/designer and moved to research to solve the most interesting challenge of technology: how humans actually use it.
As a Lead Researcher, Jasmine reveals customer and employee needs through intensive, user-centered research studies within a broad range of industries, including fintech, healthcare, transportation & shipping, and energy. Her academic background in both cultural and business anthropology affords her the ability to collect and analyze rich contextual data that genuinely helps stakeholders understand their users’ experiences.
Jasmine is a native Detroiter and has spent the last several years living in Dallas honing her research prowess at the consultancy giant, Stellar Elements. Equipped with an extensive toolkit of qualitative methods and fieldwork around the globe, Jasmine crafts stories that not only educate but evoke empathy for users which ultimately allows businesses to strategically achieve and maintain a competitive edge.
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