Usability testing can't begin without test subjects, but recruiting them often takes a lot of work and creativity. In an academic setting, it would seem easy to find volunteers; after all, we deal with students every day. In practice however, it's just not that easy. Students are busy, often difficult to contact, and not always reliable. Successful recruitment too often means 'making it worth their while' -- not an easy thing to do on a limited (or non-existent) budget.
Fortunately, there are a number of ways testers can attract volunteers. Some are straightforward (money!), and others more subtle. This article is a compilation of various methods academic libraries might use to recruit test subjects, based on the experience of the author.
If you have a budget, getting incentives is easy; there is an endless list of things students might want enough to give up an hour of their time. On the other hand, many of us aren't lucky enough to have a usability budget, and need to use a little imagination to lure students into participating.
Gift Certificates & Coupons. People who've never worked in retail might not realize it, but many retail establishments and restaurants have small budgets set aside for donations. Campus coffee shops might be willing to donate some coupons to the library, and so might the university bookstore. Moving off-campus, Borders Books and AMC Movie Theaters are generally happy to provide coupons or gift certificates, and there are probably many other businesses in your area that would love the free advertising. Don't think you're asking for a handout by hitting these businesses up for donations-there's plenty of quid for their quo. When a business donates a gift certificate for you to give away to a student, not only does their kindness result in guaranteed extra foot traffic, but smart businesses know that they will almost certainly make more money back than they donate. That's why so many are happy to give away gift certificates rather than merchandise.
Look around the library. Do you charge for printing and photocopies? If so, a coupon or copy card for free copies or printouts might be feasible. Or perhaps you can offer to forgive overdue fines. On one occasion, my library's marketing committee put on an event and had some leftover gift bags of pencils, pens, erasers, and other miscellaneous school supplies, and we were able to use even these simple items to help bring in participants. The moral of this is that you don't have to offer them much, just something for their time.
The greatest gift of all: Extra Credit. If you can get teaching faculty on board, extra credit is a practically fool-proof way to get students interested. This method might be particularly successful if you're designing a website with a particular user group in mind (like a government information site for political science majors, or a branch website).
Even with incentives, finding subjects to take your test can be a chore. Here are some recruitment ideas that might make the process a little less painless.
News item on the homepage. Advertising for subjects on the library's home page may not result in a mad rush of willing participants, but it's free, and if you stress the fact that you have some sort of incentive, you're almost guaranteed some success.
Other testing methods. It's a lot easier to get students to take an online survey than it is to get them into the library for a usability test, but surveys might be a good way to find students who are interested in helping out more. Try posting a short, simple survey on your homepage, with an option to leave a phone number or email address for those willing to help out further ("You can help us further redesign our website, and get some free stuff! Let us know if you're interested!!"). Even if none are, you'll still have the additional feedback from the survey, and it's cost you nothing.
Advertise. One thing the library has is a built-in market. Don't limit yourself to library bulletin boards. Ask students at the reference desk or in instruction sessions if they'd like to participate. Create handouts, and put advertising stickers or bookmarks on the computers, telephones, and reference desks.
Student workers. Obviously, the more 'average' a subject is, the more valuable their test results will be. On the other hand, library student workers are a captive audience. Though they may have more than the average understanding of library workings and terminology, they can still provide valuable insight into new interface designs, particularly at the early stages. What's important here is unfamiliarity with the material being tested. A student whose work requires constant use of the library online catalog will probably not be a good subject for testing a new catalog interface. But a student worker from the Preservation department, whose sole job is binding books for eight hours a week, might be a fine addition to round out an otherwise skimpy list of subjects. The key here is not to stuff the subjects list with library workers (or dining hall workers, or bookstore workers). As long as the subjects are as representative of your user group as possible, your results will be also be representative, and your time well-spent.
Graduate students. Grad students are often more eager to participate in a website redesign than undergrads. They use your online tools on a regular basis, and recognize that they have a vested interest in making the tools as effective and user-friendly as possible. Advertise in the graduate student lounge, or with teaching assistants.
Branches and subject librarians. Due to their more narrow focus, the faculty and staff at branch libraries often work more closely with students or professors than at 'main' libraries (I can tell you that we had a much easier time recruiting students for our Architecture site usability test than we did for the main library site). These students also might feel that they have greater vested interested in having a great, user-friendly website, and therefore be more likely to help out. Even if your branch libraries don't have an independent web presence, their librarians' closer relationships with library users might make subject recruitment easier.
Similarly, subject librarians often have particular students (especially grad students) with whom they work on a regular basis. Ask your subject librarians to pass along requests for help with the usability tests; most will have at least one student that they know might be interested.
The brute force approach. This isn't fun, but it works: Go to places in your library where students tend to socialize rather than study, and just approach random students and ask them if they'd like to help you redesign the website. This approach worked particularly well in the coffee shop when we had free coffee coupons. "We're giving away three free coffee coupons to students willing to help us redesign the library website" worked well, especially when we pointed out that "that's a 15-dollar value for about a half hour of easy work!"
Use your current subjects as resources. Ask your current subjects for names of other potential victim-er-subjects. Additionally, students who volunteered for your new branch website usability test might also be willing to help out with your OPAC redesign. Keep a list of volunteers' email addresses -- you might need to re-use them in a pinch.
With all the additional planning that goes into usability testing, it's easy to overlook the most important -- and potentially the most time-consuming-part of your testing: recruiting test subjects. Fortunately, with a little extra work and some creativity, finding incentives and attracting willing participants is something even libraries with no budget can accomplish.