Many organizations have flourishing design teams who conduct user research on a regular basis. This fact is largely positive, but the popularity of lean UX methods means that many of those doing user research have no formal research background. Some teams may cut corners or follow shoddy research practices which can harm participants, causing unnecessary distress and suspicion during research sessions. In some cases, participants are willfully or unintentionally deceived about the research purposes or how their data will be used. These tendencies usually occur when the team carrying out user research lacks a solid foundation of research ethics.

Definition: Research ethics is the careful consideration of the rights, well-being, and dignity of people involved in research activities.

Research ethics applies to how teams design studies and conduct them, as well as to how they use participant data after the study concludes. Establishing research-ethics expertise is paramount, especially for organizations which:

  • Research sensitive topics — for example, bereavement, mental health, chronic illness, addiction
  • Research with vulnerable people — such as children, prisoners, people with cognitive impairments, people with low literacy

Regardless of the type of research you conduct or whether a specific UX-research role exists in your organization, anyone doing research with people should have a good grasp of research ethics. As organizations scale their user research practices, research ethics usually becomes part of the organization’s ResearchOps team. These teams offer support and services such as research training, guidance, and oversight.

Elements of an Ethically Mature User-Research Practice

Ethically mature organizations are likely to have:

  • A code of conduct: Some organizations write their own code of conduct so that it is as relevant as possible to their user-research context. Other organizations might adopt a professional body’s code of conduct, and direct user researchers to this document. They also cite adherence to the code of conduct in all participant communication.
  • Research-ethics training for all people who carry out user research: This type of training should be included in onboarding, elearning, or ad-hoc training courses.
  • Guidance documents: Often, organizations have guidelines on how to collect consent, how to write good consent forms and information sheets, as well as how to approach researching certain topics or user types.
  • Standardized consent forms and information sheets: Mature organizations have standardized study documents which contain areas where researchers can fill in the details about the study, while keeping the core language consistent.
  • Ethics experts: These could be people on the ResearchOps team or volunteers who deliver training, provide advice, or share knowledge with the team.
  • Data policies for user research: Organizations have a specific data policy for UX teams carrying out user research; this policy covers relevant data protection laws and how the organization complies with it. It includes what constitutes personal data produced during or from user research activities, where it gets stored, and how it is handled.

If your organization lacks these elements, start by standardizing your consent documents and processes for collecting and storing research data. Look at a few example codes of conduct from professional bodies (such as the American Psychological Association) and communicate the code of conduct to everyone doing user research. Improving research ethics at your organization means you’ll protect your participants’ interests while ensuring your user research practice flourishes.

The basics of research ethics are fairly easy and simply require an awareness of the issues and an agreement to do no evil. For example, if you know that it’s best to keep participants anonymous, then it’s common sense that you shouldn’t report participants’ names when quoting them. But what about if the research is internal and your stakeholders are likely to know the participants (for example, because they helped to recruit them in the study or because they could identify the employee quoted by job title). What should you do? Those are the kinds of issues that benefit from documented guidance and experts.

Assess the Maturity of Your Organizations’ Research Ethics

Answer the following questions to assess the ethical maturity of your user-research practices. If a question isn’t relevant to you, skip it. If you answer yes to any of the following questions, give yourself 1 point. If you answer no or not sure, you get 0 points.

Knowledge and Education

  1. Do people carrying out user research receive ethics training at your organization?
  2. Is there a research code of conduct (whether your own or one adopted from a professional body)?
  3. Is there written guidance on research ethics accessible to those doing user research?

Informed Consent

  1. Do you have standardized consent forms to use in your organization?
  2. Do you give participants a consent form to complete before any research takes place?
  3. Do you provide an information sheet (which contains details about the study) to the participant in advance of the research?
  4. When concealment or deception are not necessary conditions of the study design, do you provide a clear and understandable explanation of why you are doing the research and what is involved?
  5. Do your consent forms contain an accurate account of what will happen to the participant’s data?
  6. Are your consent forms written in plain language, that your participants can understand?
  7. Do you provide a means of contact, which allows participants to follow up with you to ask questions about the research?
  8. Do you tell participants at the beginning of the session that the research is voluntary, and that they can withdraw at any time?
  9. When conducting in-person research, do you give participants their incentive at the beginning of the session, so they can withdraw without being penalized?
  10. Do you have alternate versions of consent forms, appropriate to your specific user types? (e.g. low literacy, visually impaired, and so on)
  11. If your participants are children, do you obtain the guardian’s consent prior to engaging with the child?
  12. If your participants are children or people with cognitive impairments, do you collect assent from them in addition to obtaining a responsible adult’s consent?
  13. If you research in the European Union or with EU citizens, do you have GDPR-friendly consent forms?
  14. If you use deception or concealment, do you provide debriefs after the research activity concludes?

Participant Welfare

  1. Do users leave your sessions the same or better off after attending the research?
  2. If conducting research on sensitive subjects, do you have resources for support available for participants, should they need it (e.g., phone number of a charity that can help or of a free counselor)?

Recordings and Photography

  1. Do you make participants aware of what kinds of photos or recordings will be made (e.g., their vocal feedback, their face, photos of them or of their computer), and how they will be used?
  2. When audio/video recording or photography is not a requirement for study participation, can people opt out of being recorded or photographed?
  3. When carrying out data collection in public spaces, do you put up signs and cordon off areas where recordings or photography will happen?

Observers

  1. Do you tell participants in advance of their session if there will be observers?
  2. Do you give participants a choice of whether they are observed before the observation begins?
  3. Do you tell participants the identity of any observers that they may know, so they can make an informed decision about whether to take part in the study, or allow observation?

Data Handling

  1. Do you have a data-protection policy for handling research data?
  2. Do you have a data-retention policy (that specifies for how long you will store participants’ data)?
  3. Do you delete personal data (such as recruitment information and video recordings) as soon as you no longer need it?
  4. Do you store participants’ personal data in a secure place, where only the relevant people who are supposed to access the data have access?
  5. Do you collect research data on encrypted, password-protected devices?

Sensitive Subject Matter

  1. Before carrying out research on sensitive subjects, is the research design reviewed by someone else to determine if it is beneficial and won’t harm participants?
  2. Do you (or your researchers) receive special training on how to research sensitive topics or run studies with vulnerable participants?
  3. Before studying a sensitive subject, do you conduct desk research or speak to subject-matter experts on how to protect the interests of your participants?
  4. Is research appropriately designed so as to mitigate negative impacts and distress on the participants?

Researcher Welfare

  1. After conducting research on sensitive topics, are researchers provided with access to free counseling, if they need it?
  2. Are researchers provided with basic training on how to remain safe when conducting research in the field?

How Did You Do?

Divide the total number of points you received by the total number of questions that you considered relevant to you and did not skip. Multiply that number by 100 to get a percentage.

90% and over

Excellent ethical maturity

Your organization demonstrates an excellent level of maturity when it comes to ethical research practices. If there are areas you were unsure about, or if you answered no to certain questions, consider how you can make small improvements in these areas. Do this especially if you are currently trying to expand research in your practice, or if you’re going to start researching new domains, with vulnerable populations, or topics that could cause distress.
75-89%

Good ethical maturity; some improvements could be made

It seems like you’re covering a lot of the basics of ethical-research practices, but perhaps there’s room for improvements to your consent-gathering processes? Or, maybe you need to start investing in training and establishing visible standards of accountability in your organization.
<75%

Poor research ethics; problems need addressing

Gaps in research ethics exist and need to be addressed. Perhaps new teams carrying out user research aren’t using appropriate consent forms or perhaps teams researching with vulnerable populations are in need of supervision. Whatever the gaps, it’s time to start addressing them as you continue to do more research or scale up your user-research practices.

Learn more about research ethics in our one-hour seminar: Ethics for User Research.