HCI Study Participant Recruiting Resources

Here are some suggestions for finding and recruiting healthy study participants from different populations.

Recruiting from the General Population

Off-campus

• Vancouver Public Library (22 VPL locations)
• Vancouver Park Board Community Centres (24 VPB-CC locations)
• http://vancouver.craigslist.ca/vol/[Vancouver Craigslist Online Classifieds / Volunteers section]]
  • Be careful about advertising renumeration online: you may end up with a split population of participants: some interested in the research, others merely in it for the money (which could contribute to a bimodal distribution of your dependent variables)
• Kijiji Online Classifieds / Volunteers section
  • (same caveat as above)
• Coffee shops, supermarkets

On-campus

• hci-experiments@csDELETEthisTEXT.ubc.ca mailing list
• Undergraduate, graduate secretaries from other departments who can forward your call for participants
• HCI courses: CPSC 344 / 444 / 544 / 543 students (in-class announcements)
• Physical posters
  • Get permission from dept. representative first for departmental buldings
  • ICICS / CS - ugrad bulletin boards: West Wing, floor 0
  • PSYC dept. bulletin boards in the Kenny building
  • Bulletin boards @ Doug Mitchell Thunderbird arena, Osborne gym (Thunderbird & East Mall), the SUB, Rec centre, libraries, residences
  • Bulletin boards in the UBC village

Recruiting Older Adults (55+)

• Posters in off-campus locations (see complete list above above)
  • Seniors' communities:
    • Tapestry at UBC (Westbrook village across from Save-On Foods)
      • Attn: Antonia Rozario - 24hr reception desk, 2 bulletin board locations
    • Joanna's building's bulletin board
• Seniors centres:
  • Kerrisdale Seniors Centre (part of VPB's Kerrisdale community centre)
    • Attn: Jennifer Takai, Senior's Programmer: (604) 257-8111 (call or email get timely respones)
    • Alt: Susan Mele, Recreation Supervisor: (604) 257-8118 (call or email get timely respones)
    • It's possible to recruit participants in person here: set up a booth in the lobby during lunch rush, games and other scheduled activities (talk to Jennifer to find out when these are happening)
    • Conduct studies here (quiet music practice rooms are available in the community centre, above the library, book with Jennifer)
  • Oakridge Seniors Centre (no response)
  • South Granville Seniors Centre (no response)
    • Attn: Alex Korotchenko, Program and Volunteer Coordinator: (604) - 732-0812, email and calling worked but respones could be delayed, best to stop by in-person
    • Can recruit participants by setting up a table in the lobby during their community lunches, but seniors come here for specific activities so the amount of interest (or free time to talk) can vary wildly
• VPB Community Centres, VPL locations visited for the C-TOC study (little / no response aside from a small handful of callers after the experiment had concluded):
  • Douglas Park Community Centre
  • Mount Pleasant Community Centre
  • False Creek / Athletes' Village Recreation Centre
  • False Creek Community Centre
  • Kitsilano Community Centre
  • Dunbar community centre
  • VPL (Vancouver Public Library) Mount Pleasant
  • VPL South Granville
  • VPL Kitsilano
  • VPL West Point Grey
• Place an ad in the Courier newspaper
• Snowball recruiting

Recruiting Children

• Telus World of Science