Good Tech Strategies for Improved Participant Engagement

Times have changed. We used to call more often. We used to mail more often. In the digital era, you're probably more used to sending voice notes on WhatsApp than having an actual phone call with someone. People value privacy and "alone time" and personal space is more valuable than ever. When we want to engage with participants in human participant research, and we want to use helpful parts of tech as much as we can - how can we find a sweet spot? How can we optimise our engagement without burdening participants?

‍

Key Points:

• Not everyone loves technology
• Not everyone has a smartphone
• People prefer different styles of communication
• People prefer different styles of contributing data (paper and pen, phone interviews, site visits, SMS, email, apps and more)

‍

Communication Strategies

‍

Consider your cohort: "Gen X, Gen Y, Gen Z"

‍

If you know a lot about the demographic you are working with, you can probably get a fair estimate of their willingness to participate in your data collection style (and in what capacity). It's not always an ageist industry, however, more often than not, young participants will opt-in for text or app-based communications participation. Conversely, the "boomer" generation tend to feel more comfortable with phone calls.

‍

Helpful Tips:

• Consider using platforms which can integrate a number of different communication styles: E.g. SMS, phone calls, email, app/push.
• Consider fail-safe options if tech doesn't work for your cohort (auto-generated and printable PDFs, for example)
• Do you need to restrict your target cohort in some way to enable people comfortable with tech only?

‍

Touch-points: "How many is too much?"

‍

If you're setting reminders for data collection, it's important to optimise this for your particular study. At Trialflare, we recommend teams having a go themselves internally with a study they intend to do. Collect dummy data if you need to but take care to ask participants "Was it too much?", "Was it not frequent enough?". Perhaps even have an internal study where you're communicating with participants in different styles to get a feel of what results in more responses in your surveys/questionnaires/ePRO.

‍

Helpful Tips:

• Run internal optimisation
• Experiment with email, SMS, app/push notifications
• Experiment with contact frequency throughout the day, week, month etc.

‍

‍

Make contact: When is the right time?

‍

Work-life balance has changed dramatically in post-COVID-19 times. People are at home much more often (WFH) and are potentially less restrained by requirements to be at their work station every minute of the day. Other considerations include a rise in neurodivergence and mental health awareness, and it's common for people to take a stance of "I will only receive phone calls or reply to emails when I choose to". So when is the best time to contact them? People who work are still more-or-less bound by the 9-5 work day (give or take). Furthermore, some participants will flat-out refuse to engage with phone calls.

‍

Helpful Tips:

• Find out if your population are likely to work? Are they students? Is it term time? or are they unemployed/retired?
• What life commitments might they have that take up their time?
• Will they have a lot of time remaining for lengthy questionnaires or data collection surveys?

‍

‍

Marketing material: How to encourage participation?

‍

What appeals to people? It used to be such a moot point and investigators wouldn't bother too much about "glamorising" their advertising and study marketing content. But today it is so easy to make things engaging with online tools such as Canva (for styling) and Chat-GPT to help with making language more appealing - it's much easier to attract attention to a study. Don't be afraid to use QR codes, too. People are busy - they might be able to scan a quick QR code and read about your study later when they have the time.

‍

Helpful Tips:

• Tools like Canva can help you make attractive content to appeal to potential participants
• Chat-GPT can help with language styles
• Look into customisable QR codes

‍

User Experience (UX) Strategies

‍

Keep it pretty, keep it simple

‍

We are so accustomed to tools around us that look and feel good. From our social media apps, gestures on our smartphones, and vocal shortcuts to our smart speakers. We've come so far with user experience - if you are encouraging participants to use something cumbersome and unfriendly, your compliance will likely take a big hit. People aren't use to 'clunky' things anymore and they have high expectations. Customer and user experience is a whole industry in its own right!

‍

Helpful Tips:

• Use good colours, contrasts and fonts
• Use tools which restrict or limit data input in some way and make it easy to participate (And avoid mistakes)
• Add only what information you need to in your questionnaires/forms

‍

Multiple routes of data entry

‍

To be truly representative of the population, you should be gathering data from people who, perhaps, do not have smartphones, do not watch television and even don't use the internet. This sub-group of the population if quite small, but statistics an numbers talk. There may be so much valuable and scientifically credible data out there - from real people - why risk losing true representation because a person doesn't fit your data entry model?

‍

Helpful Tips:

• Offer PDFs and printables (even if you don't want to)
• Make sure you have staff available to work with people out of your intended scope of data collection methods
• Consider all walks of people, experience and skills in advance of your study design

‍

Remuneration and "Reward" Strategies

‍

What is appropriate? What is coercion?

‍

When you know more about your target cohort you will be able to make a better estimate of how impactful remuneration can be. Remember, an ethically sound study should only afford the participant with a trivial bonus. Anything potentially life-changing can make participants feel obligated to take part for a reward. If your study needs ethical approval, this will be raised with your REC/IRB. If your considering vouchers, many outlets including Amazon, offer tools to auto-generate vouchers - you might need a developer for this or a tool that can handle this automatically. Alternatively, use a mail-handler to send-out pre-purchased vouchers to participants at particular times.

‍

Helpful Tips:

• Consider voucher incentives - tools that auto-create vouchers, or mail-handlers to pass these on can be useful
• Consider socio-economic factors in your cohort
• If you're running a study at multiple sites or countries, decide whether your remuneration strategy should be the same across all locations

‍

‍

One-off, On-the-go and On-completion

‍

Sometimes you really need data at particular stages. For example, a powered data set at your baseline is great, but if you have significant dropouts at your end-point, it's all a bit worthless. Avoid giving away your incentive immediately and think about ways to - fairly and ethically - encourage participants to complete the whole data collection journey.

‍

Helpful Tips:

• Try remuneration strategies which enable you to capture essential data as a priority which address your study aims and objectives
• If you're using a study with a wearable, suggest that they can keep it if they complete the study
• Be ethical - always put suggestions to an ethics committee (IRB/REC)

‍

‍

Data-flow and System Strategies

‍

Web, tablet and smartphones: Be flexible

‍

If you're conducting a clinical study at sites with healthcare professionals (HCPs) and need to use an eCRF, you'll want something flexible to keep up with your staff. Site visits with participants can be quite busy and it can be quite stressful for staff. They might be in different rooms or buildings with different terminals. Having something like a web platform which can run on any device to collect data can be extremely useful. Jobs, tasks and data submissions can be picked up on-the-go in a busy work environment with ease.

‍

Helpful Tips:

• Progressive web apps are great for this
• Avoid software which depends on an operating system installation, license keys, etc.
• Try before you buy!

‍

‍

Speak to software vendor/s

‍

It's not unreasonable to want to know more about a vendor or tech product. Ask them how user-friendly their product is. How many people have used it? What types of people use it (participants)? Do they get good engagement?

‍

Helpful Tips:

• Check vendors who are open to suggestions or improvements to their platform/s to help improve engagement
• Get demos and pilot with your team (people of all backgrounds)
• Check the development roadmap of the platform - are they going places in line with your aspirations for better engagement methods?

‍

What do you think are important considerations in this space?