Your opinion matters
Are you interested in taking part in paid-for local or online research?
We provide market and user research services for a broad range of companies and organisations. This means we help them discover what people really think, feel and do when they interact with their brands, products or services.
To do this, we need people like you to participate in research. All you have to do is:
1. Sign-up
2. Respond to relevant opportunities
3. Share your honest opinion.
Participation is purely voluntary and we’ll always respect your privacy.
What sort of research will I be asked to participate in?
We use a variety of face-to-face and online research methods to capture people’s opinions. Depending on the requirements of the client, you could be asked to take part in:
Surveys & questionnaires:
You will be asked to complete a form that contains a variety of open and closed questions. There are no right answers to these questions. Instead these have been designed to identify what you think and how you feel about specific things. Duration: 5 – 30 mins.
1:1 interviews:
A researcher will ask you questions about a problem, brand, product or service. These sessions are designed to capture your honest opinion so that issues and opportunities can be identified. Duration: 1 hour.
1:1 usability testing:
A researcher will ask you to try and complete a few tasks, e.g. sign-up, buy a product, etc using a website, app or device. These sessions are not testing you; they’re designed to highlight faults and issues with what’s being tested. So that the companies behind them can improve them based on your feedback. Duration: 1 hour.
Focus groups:
A researcher will facilitate a group discussion. Groups are kept small, but you will need to feel confident sharing your opinion with others. Duration: 1 hour, Participants: 6-8.
Card sorting:
You will be presented with information and asked to sort this into groups, that make the most sense to you. Duration: 1 hour.
Collaborative design:
You will be asked to work with others to come up with ideas, present these to the group and then improve them based on feedback. These are highly intensive, yet fun sessions. Duration: 3 – 6 hours, Participants: 6-8.
Browsing with intent & secret shopping tests:
You will be asked to complete a certain task, e.g. find your local pharmacist and see if they stock a particular product or purchase a specific item and get it delivered to a friend. We’ll ask you to share your what you’re thinking, feeling and doing throughout the process so that we can identify any potential improvements. Duration: under an hour.
Side-by-side research and shadowing:
A researcher will visit you to observe how you approach and do things in your everyday surroundings. The purpose of this is to understand how people use something in real-life and how they overcome the distractions, inconveniences and problems that inevitably crop up. Duration: this is dependent on the activity to be completed but is unlikely to exceed 4 hours.
Diary studies:
Rather than being guided by a researcher you will be asked to record and share your thoughts, feelings and in some cases, how you’re progressing with a certain task or dealing with a particular scenario. These tend to require daily or weekly contributions over a pre-set time period. Duration: the time required to contribute to a diary study is unlikely to exceed 8 hours, over a 12 week period.
Panel research:
You will be asked to take part in a series of research sessions over a period of time (12 weeks to a year). This requires an ongoing commitment as participation across all sessions is key. Duration: the time required to contribute to a panel is unlikely to exceed 8 hours, over a the course of a year.
Key benefits of user experience support
Sign-up in under 5 minutes.
Get notified about new opportunities.
Earn additional income.
Share your thoughts and opinions.
Help improve brands, products and services.
Contribute to ethical and charitable causes.
How do things work?
1. Sign-up:
This takes under 5 minutes. We’ll ask a few simple questions about you so we can notify you of relevant research opportunities.
2. Get invited:
Once you’ve signed-up we won’t fill up your inbox with spam, we’ll only get in touch when we have a relevant research opportunity for you to consider. This email will detail the purpose of the research, the incentive offered, the people we are looking for, availability requirements and locations the research will be conducted.
3. Confirm your interest:
When you receive an opportunity, you’d like to participate in, simply click on the link within the email to complete a short survey, which will ask you to provide more information about yourself. Completing and submitting this survey will register your interest in attending.
4. Get short-listed:
we will review all of the submissions and contact the most suitable people for that particular research project. We will always notify you if you have been unsuccessful too. And don’t worry – we get a high volume of responses and always match each project to the most suitable participants. So, you’ll definitely be invited to participate at some point!
5. Book a time:
We’ll contact you by either email or phone to confirm the time, date and location. We’ll also contact you the day before to confirm you’re still able to attend.
6. Participate:
What you’ll be asked and how sessions will be conducted will be dependent on the research to be conducted. This will be confirmed in the Invitation email, Attendance confirmation email and the Attendance reminder email.
7. Get paid:
Once the session is complete, we’ll pay you the pre-agreed fee.
Want to participate in research?
Get paid to share your thoughts and opinions.
Frequently asked questions
As long as you’re 18 years old, yes. The only requirement is that you’re happy to share your honest opinion.
We’ll respect your privacy and protect your data so we can:
- Identify which research projects you are willing to participate in
- Notify you as and when relevant opportunities arise
- Identify the most appropriate participants possible
- Confirm availability, schedule attendance and capture your feedback following the session.
Your privacy is important to us, and we diligently adhere to best practice as well as all required legislation and codes of conduct. To learn more please refer to our privacy policy.
As the purpose of each project is unique it’s hard to be definitive. But we will always provide participants with an overview of the objectives of any research. Ultimately though, these reason we do what we do, is to help companies and organisations understand how people think, feel and do when they interact with them. So they can use people’s opinions and feedback to improve the experiences they design and deliver.
Nearly all of our research projects involve an incentive of some form. On some projects, no incentive will be provided. The specific incentive (or absence of any incentive) will always be clearly detailed and there is no obligation to participate in projects that do not meet your financial expectations or requirements.
The incentive per project is variable and can range from £1.00 – £100. This will always be detailed in the invitation to participate you receive.
Payments are made via Bank Transfer and you will be paid within 24 hours of participating.
Not always, it depends on what type of research you are participating in. We will always inform you of how sessions will be conducted when inviting you to participate.
What you share with us will always be anonymised. We promise that we will never share any personally identifiable or attributable information with clients or any other third party company or organisation. We’ll also only ever use your email address to contact you regarding projects that are relevant to you. And you are free to notify us at any time that you would like to stop receiving these.
For more information please refer to our privacy policy.
Not at all, participation in any research project is purely voluntary.
You will only be considered as a participant for projects that you have signified your interest in. This means you must respond to the invitation to participate we send you. If you do not wish to participate, please feel free to ignore this invitation.
If you are invited to participate you can also cancel at any point, although this will result in you not receiving the participation incentive.
We will always try to provide as much notice as possible. If this is less than 24 hours, you will still be paid part of the incentive. The specific cancellation policy per project will be detailed in your invitation.
We will notify you by email. Please do not let this put you off applying for future opportunities.
Each research project we recruit for has specific criteria. This means not every project we run will be suitable. When you sign-up we’ll ask you to provide some basic information. We’ll use this to ensure we only send you invitations to the most relevant and appropriate research projects.
Each research project we run will differ in terms of the purpose, format, location, timing and target audience. For example projects may have certain requirements such as you must:
- Must live within a 10-mile radius of X
- Must own Y
- Must have a child under Z
- Not purchased X before
- Not participated in a similar project
- etc.
There are so many different variables that it is impossible to detail them all. What’s more, most of the time it’s just be down to numbers. As we often receive more people expressing an interest in participating than there are spaces available.
You are free to notify us at any time that you would like to stop receiving invitations. Every email we send will contain an unsubscribe link, simply click on this link or email us. Upon your request, we will remove you from our database and delete all of the personal data you have shared with us.
Devices & software: any specific equipment requirements will be detailed in the invitation to participate.
Internet: a good connection Broadband connection that is at least 2 Mbps will be required. To ensure your connection speed is fast enough please use: https://broadbandtest.which.co.uk/
We always try and avoid the need for you to download or install any specific software to participate. However, as and when this is required we will always clearly detail this in the invitation to participate you receive.
We do not pay for or reimburse travel costs.
However, unless otherwise stated you will receive an incentive for participating which is likely to cover your travel expenses.
We always try to minimise travel time and costs when recruiting participants.
This is dependent on where the research is taking place and will always be detailed in your invitation to participate per project. For information on a specific venue please do not hesitate to contact us.
This is dependent on where the research is taking place and will always be detailed in your invitation to participate per project. For information on a specific venue please do not hesitate to contact us.
No, unless the research project requires this. In these instances this will be clearly stated in your invitation to participate in a research project.
What if I have other questions?
Call us:
0131 467 9227
Email us:
Want to participate in research?
Get paid to share your thoughts and opinions.
About Border Crossing UX
Border Crossing UX, is a user experience consultancy based in Edinburgh and London. For over 10 years we’ve helped companies and organisations conduct research with people. You can learn more about Border Crossing UX by visiting our about page.