User research activities

We help you get acquainted with your users by understanding the contexts they live and work in and by summarising the identified patterns to you. We do this by having access to niche populations, such as older adults, healthcare professionals, industry employees, etc. We can also collect data about physical parameters, for instance.

We employ several methods to understand people, human behaviour, people’s perceptions, ideas, needs, wants, concerns and their relation with technology. We do that using Diary Studies, Interviews, Surveys, Card Sorting, Focus Groups and Field Studies. If you are in doubt about what method(s) to choose, we can advise you. Plus, we can plan all the activity; we can, for instance, estimate the sample size, the duration of the sessions, select the most appropriate setting (lab versus contextual), recruit participants or create a protocol. We can also conduct research activities and analyse the results. We learned a lot through the years – how to moderate the activity, deal with participants, motivate and engage them in the activity, to name just a few. Having the activity carried out, it’s time to do data analysis and interpretation. Regardless of the method used and whether it is a qualitative or a quantitative analysis, we will analyse the data and write a valuable report with the findings.

Recruiting participants

Finding research participants can be such a difficult and time-consuming task. Believe us, we know that it could discourage some researchers. But we can make this task easier for you. Did you know that we have created the larger user network in Portugal? It’s COLABORAR We are pretty sure our volunteers will help you out!

Evaluation methods

There are several evaluation methods to choose from. We can provide you heuristic evaluations and usability testing (in-person or remote). We can use Eye Tracking, make Field tests and Live experiments, such as tests to validate an algorithm or assess a prototype in real life contexts. If you want to carry out validation testing with your medical device prototype, we can plan and conduct a randomized controlled trial or an observational study, for example.

Support and consulting on ethical and legal considerations

If your project involves human research, you must comply with ethical and legal regulations. We can guide you in the entire process. We will identify the requirements, concepts and your obligations. Then, when needed, we will prepare the application form to an ethics committee for ethical approval and will follow-up on the submission.