Jo Evershed

Jo Evershed is the Founder CEO of Gorilla Experiment Builder, a powerful, flexible and intuitive platform for running behavioural research online that allows researchers to go far beyond surveys. She also convenes and hosts the Behavioural Science Online Conference.

An Innovate UK Women in Innovation Award Winner and Computer Weekly Rising Star Women In Tech, Jo is on a mission to provide behavioural scientists with tools to liberate their work from the lab and accelerate research initiatives that can be tested rigorously at scale. Jo leads a multidisciplinary team of software engineers and psychologists focused on creating powerful and accessible experimental research infrastructure.

Connect on Twitter, LinkedIn or BlueSky.

If you'd like me to speak at one of your events, let me know which of these talks would be most appropriate:

Gorilla Demo

Title
Introduction to Gorilla - an all-in-one behavioural research platform

Abstract Start your research project right! Discover what Gorilla can do (tasks, survey, games, multiplayer, more ...) and how it can make your research life easier by saving you time (and frustration!).

Increasingly, behavioural research is conducted via the internet. Instead of receiving a participant in a lab, they take part by clicking a link from the comfort of their own home, thereby giving researchers access to larger and more diverse samples. The range of research paradigms is astonishing - from eye-tracking to speech recognition and everything in between. In this talk, Jo will give a tour of Gorilla's capabilities and show you (and your students) how to focus on the science, not the programming.

Online Behavioural Research

Title
Online Behavioural Research - Just a fad, or here to stay?

Abstract
The COVID pandemic pushed many behavioural researchers online, where they reaped the benefits of larger samples and faster data collection. Now that the pandemic is 'over', will researchers go back to the lab? Or continue to embrace these new ways of working?

This talk will showcase the wide range of possibilities with online research in fields such as memory studies, motor studies, eye-tracking studies, & developmental studies. As well has highlight technical capabilities such as mouse-tracking, eye-tracking, voice-recording, web-cam recording, games, multiplayer studies, shopping simulations and more that are now available for mainstream research.

We'll also explore the concerns many researchers have about online research including worries about data-quality and security.

If you'd like to save a 1/4 of your working year, know what's possible for a future grant proposal or for teaching 21st century research methods, this talk is for you!

Participant Engagement and Data Quality

Title
Tried And Tested Tactics for High Quality Data

Abstract Many researchers worry about collecting high quality data online. In particular, how to control participant attention when they are in a remote environment.

Jo Evershed from Gorilla will present the Data Quality Framework which shows you how to think about the three elements under your control during the participant experience so that you can get the best possible data from your participants. We’ll take a look at:

• The relationship you form with participants
• The experience you create for them
• The internal controls you put in place to identify low quality data

Gamification

Title
Improve your data quality by fostering participant engagement

Abstract
More engaging experiments means better quality data - participants are more motivated and attentive and are less likely to underperform due to boredom or fatigue. Moreover, visually rich experiences help you verify your findings persist in richer (i.e. more ecologically valid) settings. With Gorilla's Game Builder, rich games and game-like experiences are accessible to research scientists without touching a line of code.

Open Science

Title
The future of Open Science - Industry Partnerships for Research Software Engineers

Abstract
"Give ordinary people the right tools, and they will design and build the most extraordinary things." Neil Gershenfeld

With more closed-source software embracing Open Science, it's time to change the relationship between Research Software Companies and in-house Research Software Engineers.

Join Jo Evershed to explore a modern framework for leveraging the best of both research software and infrastructure software. This will be brought to life with examples from how Gorilla is supporting Open Science and empowering RSEs to support behavioural scientists.