Moderating Usability Tests

of the target population (for instance, whether they are members of

the general public or a subset of your most important customers);

the key is to be as polite and gracious as you can be.

We typically go through the entire screening, and then tell the person

the truth: either that his or her background doesn’t exactly match

what is needed for this study or that we already have enough people

who match his or her background. Depending on the situation, you

may want to defer, rather than disqualify, a candidate if he or she is

close to the ideal but not an exact match. You may also tell a candi-

date that although it appears you have recruited enough ...