Richard Owen, Founder & CEO,

CrowdLab June 18th 2014

Mobile Research: Smart or Dumb?

Observations and musings

I think these mobile phone things are here to stay

How many countries have more mobiles than people?

Smartphones aren’t just for hipsters in Shoreditch

Mobile marketers get it

Where did it all go wrong?

Badsurveys.tumblr.com

We focus on the wrong thing

• Not tied to a particular device

The device-agnostic approach to responsive design By Sarita Harbour | Mobile, Web Design | Jan 3, 2013

Device Agnosticism

• Device agnosticism focuses on the device instead of the user.

The needs of the user should be paramount, because applications exist to meet the needs of people, not machines

But

It’s not about optimising online research for a mobile world

“We made a bad bet. Our legacy as a company was building this

big website. So we took a year and it was painful and we retooled our

mobile approach. Betting completely on HTML5 is one of the, if not the biggest strategic

mistake we've made”

It’s about understanding people on the move who require access to software

Who live a beautiful mess of a life

And want to tell us their stories however they like

Not be taken from their lives and out of context

Where things get misinterpreted

And there is an over reliance on memory

“I don’t shop there”

Tuesday 16th April 2013 4:15 pm Real Life

Thursday 18th April 2013 8:15 pm

Focus Group

Research

Technology Design

Rethink the agency

Rethink mobile research design Think like a developer

Always be prepared to stop. Don’t rely on a signal. London is not the UK. Offline Access.

Project structure should be clean and easy to navigate –people are experts at Angry Birds, but should be amateurs at research. Use menus & loops.

The golden rules of app design by Apple & Google

Break complex tasks into smaller steps that can be easily accomplished. Slice it up.

Only show what I want when I need it. Appear/Disappear.

Allow people to manipulate things. It’s a touch screen.

Rethink mobile research design Think like a developer

The golden rules of app design by Apple & Google

Rethink mobile research design

• Don’t think of “surveys” or “guides” think of “content” to be served up to elicit a response

• Split project content into digestible tasks - even a 25 minute Quant Survey can be 10 x 2.5 minute tasks - It’s not about time or questions its about how you serve it up

• Let people co-create not just use a pre defined list • Give them choices of how to answer (whatever means necessary) • Each task can be set to be completed once, or many times • Tasks can be locked and unlocked based on date/time, previous responses • People live with the app for a few days or a few weeks

From developer to researcher

• Driven by the power of complex quantitative design, we give structure to allow people to tell us their stories

- Quantitative question types, but also text, photo, video and audio questions - Complex condition engine – unlocking tasks, routing and piping - Help qualitative story telling by giving a roadmap that they colour in however

they see fit – better than a blank canvas

Rethink methodology

• People can move between ethnographic tasks, discussion boards, quantitative surveys within one project (all methods at all times)

Quant? Qual? Just great research

CrowdLab is a fluid, open system that

continually evolves

We allow participants and researchers to seamlessly weave

between different devices and methodologies within the same

project

We design projects to mirror people’s lives and the way they behave

All Channels Open

Tracking below the line media Using mobile to record experiences as they go about their lives: ideal for outdoor, ambient or POS that usually gets lost via traditional at home methodologies

Rethink replacement Technology makes you better, not obsolete

Real world reflections After workshops/groups, let people go back to their lives, talk to their friends/family, think about things and keep the dialogue going

Behaviourally driven conversations Use mobile to capture the moment. Use depths/groups to explore the real behaviour not the false recollection of it (“The Aldi Effect”)

Make your life easier Mobiles instead of flip cams, tablets instead of pen and paper – less set up, less process management, less analysis, less time

A mum’s life – pain vs. pleasure confessionals In confidence – feeling good and feeling bad Duty Free – insight into duty free shopping completely disguised through travel journal approach so duty free thoughts, feelings and behaviour emerged naturally

Reframe research So it doesn’t feel like research

Car buying – a week in the decision making process among people at different stages with surveys, video records and photo encounters – getting closer to and further from the decision

Decorating – a month in the decision process among people at different stages with surveys, video records and photo encounters – interlocking online and offline, seeing them stagnate or progress

Rethink decision making Acknowledge life is not linear; don’t pre-suppose the way people make decisions

Quantitative (N=lots) with media – the power of video/photo to support a robust piece of evidence can make the difference

Rethink analysis

Qualitative (n=little), recording lots of “moments” across a week provides a quantitative both lens in which to understand a topic

Post workshops about a new telecom app, participants recorded moments in life where they might use the app – 48 people gave 250 “moments of use”

www.crowdlab.com richard@crowdlab.com

+44 (0) 7590 462342

Thanks from the Lab