Google Student Blog: Help improve Google products by participating in usability studies

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Help improve Google products by participating in usability studies

June 24, 2011

Interested in how research contributes to the development our products? Want to be a part of the process? Then sign up to participate in user studies with Google at google.com/usability!

We're looking for people to participate in studies to help us improve existing Google products and test out those that are still in development. Studies include usability research, field interviews and more, and they’re taking place all over the United States. If you are chosen to participate in a study, we always give a nice thank-you gift to express our gratitude.

We conduct both in-person studies as well as remote studies online, so no matter where in the U.S. you’re located there are opportunities to participate in our research. Remote studies involve a Google researcher calling you and setting up a screen sharing session on your computer. In-person sessions often take place in one of our offices, but sometimes our researchers decide to hit the road and visit you wherever you are. A large part of our research happens in our offices in the San Francisco Bay Area in California, the Seattle/Kirkland area of Washington and in the greater New York City metro area, so if you are in any of these locations you’ll have even more opportunities to participate in our research in person.

How have our research participants shaped the Google products you see now? In the months leading up to the launch of Google Instant, researchers on the Search team brought individuals into the usability labs in Mountain View to perform web searches with early prototypes. After the launch of the CR-48 pilot program (the precursor to our Chromebooks), researchers traveled the country interviewing people in their homes and schools to learn how they used these new machines.

As new studies are launched, we contact people we think might be a good match for the topic. You’ll usually hear from us via email, where we’ll tell you the nature of the study, the dates we’re running sessions and include a link to a questionnaire to assess your eligibility. We are looking for people with all kinds of backgrounds, so no matter what your field of study, we encourage you to sign up. Please keep in mind that you may not hear from us right away, and we cannot guarantee that you'll be invited to participate in a study.

If any of this sounds interesting to you, visit google.com/usability to find out more and sign up to be contacted. (You must be at least 18 years old to sign up). If you have any questions, please visit our FAQ page.

Posted by Stephanie Wu, User Experience Research Recruiter