I’ve been really interested recently in the divergence of two fields that are very similar – ‘market research’ and ‘user or design’ research. To be honest, this has all taken me by surprise. In about 2005, I sat through a presentation by a UX company. It was horrible. It was on the usability of a…
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No matter the model of innovation you use, whether you call it design thinking, human-centered design or service design (or Norman) – whenever you start on the journey, you’ll start by building consumer or customer empathy. And we researchers know a thing or two about that. There’s seems to be a big disconnect between the…
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There has been a lot of talk recently about the ‘death’ of focus groups. They’re frequently criticised for being an out-dated methodology, surpassed by new innovations in technology and in methodology. They’re seen as ‘too System 2’, too rational. Not an accurate read on behaviour. Subject to biases and social norming. Clearly flawed and unusable….
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I’ve been doing a bit of reading lately – catching up with some Wendy Gordon, the blogs and also reading the sites of different agencies around the globe (what can I say, I’m a curious person – I own my ‘stickybeak’ tendencies). I’ve been pondering the way that many of us describe focus groups. On…
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It’s been a good ten years or more since the first online qualitative tools entered the market. In that time we’ve seen this method innovate and change constantly as participants’ level of comfort communicating online has increased. Whilst initial adoption of the methodology was slow (at least in Australia), the introduction of MySpace, then Facebook…
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Last Tuesday night I had the pleasure of presenting with Kate Tribe at Sydney’s Social Media Women event. Social Media Women is a networking group based in Sydney. They hold fantastic monthly events, with speakers from various industries sharing knowledge on how to work within social media / bring social media into your lives or…
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You’re in your first few years as a researcher and you think – those quallies look like they have it pretty good. They travel more than your average quant researcher, they seem to have fun toys to play with (play doh, collages, projective techniques), and sometimes they’re even able to come into work late! Well,…
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I’ve just unplugged from the first session of the Festival of NewMR for 2011. The team invited me along to present on Online Qual – specifically the things I wish I’d known before I started. I was thinking of summarising it for the blog today – but I’ve found Jeffery Henning over at Affinova has…
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Over the past month or so, Jo Farquhar over at TNS Sydney and I have been putting the final touches on our paper and presentation on Online Qualitative Research for the AMSRS Curiouser & Curiouser Conference in September. In the paper we’ve looked to provide some practical information around the ‘How to’s’ of Online Qual and what…
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I’ve been on the AMSRS NSW committee for just about a year now. I’m really enjoying my involvement in the committee; it gives me the opportunity to ‘give back’ to the industry, as well as meet new people, hear about all the cool new things that are around the corner and be involved in shaping…
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