Who is in the sample? An analysis of real and surrogate users as participants in user study research in the information technology fields.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Constructing a sample of real users as participants in user studies is considered by most researchers to be vital for the validity, usefulness, and applicability of research findings. However, how often user studies reported in information technology academic literature sample real users or surrogate users is unknown. Therefore, it is uncertain whether or not the use of surrogate users in place of real users is a widespread problem within user study practice.

Objective

To determine how often user studies reported in peer-reviewed information technology literature sample real users or surrogate users as participants.

Method

We analyzed 725 user studies reported in 628 peer-reviewed articles published from 2013

SUBMITTER: Salminen J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9680893 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature