We’re now working with another tech company on a research project which will include blogging and the use of twitter for both participants and researchers who are located all over the world. Some issues we’re grappling with:
- how much coaching and of what kind is required for those participants who are not actively using blogs or twitter; or even those who don’t have 24/7 access to the internet?
- the balance between being broad or narrow in our focussing of the space - the issue here is we don’t want to lose out on spontaneity, and yet we do have a research agenda we need to meet
- also the balance between an informal space and a formal space; data-collection vs. data collation
- how do we guide the content without biasing participants - would intermittent telephone calls be useful? home visits where the benefit could be that as observers, if we see something interesting and we say take a quick pic and point out to respondents that this is the sort of thing she could be blogging - would that bias the research?
- the balance between allowing respondents/participants to literally ‘own’ the space vs. our curating it so it becomes more ‘usable’ for the client, and works as a reporting format too
- linked to the above point - should it become a presentation deck for the Client (and hence neat ‘n pretty ) or is the Client willing to take the risk of letting it emerge as it does in its natural flow?
- how do you encourage participation between participants - should we? Would an open discussion page work?
Hmmm. More issues and questions we should be asking? Experiences? Opinions?
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