Using Zoom for user research
Currently, VA requires VFS team members who wish to conduct remote, moderated research sessions with Veterans, to use the Perigean Zoom app. The following guidance explains how to do this.
Login information
Perigean will send you the login instructions for using Zoom accounts for user research. The first time you use their account you will need to coordinate with Perigean on 2FA.
Presenter role
After logging in, you will be logged in as a presenter (be sure to enter your name). As a presenter, you are able to:
Share your full screen or window
Give mouse control to participants
Mute all observers on the call
Record any meetings/and or feedback sessions
Things to know during a feedback session
Be sure you have silenced the sounds (be-boops) as observers enter or exit the session
You can set meeting preferences by clicking the gear icon. Under General settings, select View advanced features. Make sure that Play sound when participants join or leave is not selected.
If you want to record the participant's screenreader audio, the "Share computer sound" checkbox must be selected when they share their screen.
If you are planning to do research with a participant using assistive technology, please review the Research with Assistive Technology Users guidance to ensure you're prepared.
How to obtain Zoom recordings
After receiving the participant’s permission to record, start recording.
Press “record” button in Zoom.
Select “record to cloud” so that the recordings “save” to Perigean’s account. This allows all researchers on the team to access recordings.
Perigean will send links for each recording.
You may download recordings, but keep them only as long as necessary to complete synthesis, then securely dispose of them.
Never upload any recordings to the cloud (Github, Dropbox, Google Docs, etc.) or any other public or private server.
If you encounter issues not covered here, access@zoom.com is responsive and helpful.
Help and feedback
Get help from the Platform Support Team in Slack.
Submit a feature idea to the Platform.