Testimonial: paid testing helped Penny overcome her fears

You can imagine how scary the words ‘usability testing’ might sound to a non-techie. That was exactly how Penny, from London, felt when she was invited to take part in research in October 2015.

At the time, People for Research were looking for non-tech-savvy participants to test a new website and make sure the online platform was easy to use for everyone. “I applied for this, as I felt it strongly suited me. I am not a very confident computer or internet user”, Penny told us.

She fit the bill perfectly and ended up being recruited to take part in paid research, but she was understandably a bit anxious about the whole thing.

“I was a little nervous as I expected to struggle a little, but I was given the reassurance that I would be fine and had nothing to worry about”.

Confidence booster

All of Penny’s fears disappeared once the day arrived and she realised what the experience would be about.

“The experience was great and I had fun and enjoyed it. It’s made me feel a little more confident. It was a great joy to go through the process of pretending to purchase travel tickets for the train as I have never done this before. The actual experience was better than I thought."

The best part about taking part in paid usability testing – apart from the incentive, of course – was realising “that it’s not that scary after all on the internet and it’s not as difficult as I thought”.

According to Penny, everyone should try to take part in paid research. “For those that are not confident on the internet like me, they should participate in this. It’s quite straight forward and it gives you a good feeling that you are part of this research. Plus, it has made me a little bit more confident. I learnt how to purchase train tickets online.”