The HCI User Studies Toolkit: Supporting Study Designing and Planning for Undergraduates and Novice Researchers in Human-Computer Interaction

Abstract

Planning and organizing user studies can be a challenge for novices and student researchers in human-computer interaction (HCI). We present a web-based study planning toolkit for researchers to support their planning and organization with human subjects. The free and open toolkit contains multiple interactive research applications for (1) the selection of quantitative and qualitative research methods in HCI, (2) automated study design planning for experimental user studies, (3) an automated informed consent generation for studies with human subjects, (4) calendar booking for experimental user studies in shared laboratories, and (5) automated participation confirmation certificates. The toolkit can be helpful for Ph.D. students in supervising novices and undergraduates who need support with their planning and study design choices. The toolkit was actively used over two semesters in multiple HCI lectures and formatively evaluated. We contribute with the whole toolkit and encourage other researchers to contribute and further improve the content.