Here’s some thoughts on how to get on-line research right

Do it for real All the best user research is done in the moment. Avoid set ups (asking someone to show you how they would) and do your research when they actually are doing their shopping. And stay with them for however long that takes! When we do things for real we behave differently. Our motivations are different, and this is reflected in our behaviour. I’ve been looking at on-line grocery shopping recently, and doing it for ‘real’ not only means getting someone to do their shopping on-line, it actually means doing their shopping on-line when they personally want to do it. Which means being flexible and available as a researcher…

Over the shoulder and far away

However, being flexible and available is actually pretty easy with on-line research, because the best way to do on-line research is remotely. Really. The respondent sits where they normally sit (at home in the office, even out and about), looking at their device, and you screen share with them (there’s loads of easy to use screen-sharing technology – like Joinme). You then use the ‘thinking aloud’ technique and get the respondent to describe to you what they are looking at. Being remote forces the respondent into better descriptions of their thoughts and behaviours, whilst at the same time leaves them more comfortable and less self-conscious. They can really ‘lose’ themselves in the activity they are getting on with, and the researcher can let the respondent ‘go’ for as long as possible with some gentle nudges probing on ‘what’s going on here?’ and ‘what are you looking at right now?’ when appropriate.

I would recommend a balance of some screen sharing depths – (interviewing respondents from all over the UK/ world) and some in-home stuff too, to get a sense of the ‘context’ that the on-line shopping is happening in.

I’m not sure if it’s possible to screen share on phones, so I’ve been doing that over the shoulder.

Multiplatform

It is really crucial to represent different devices in your sample. Laptops, Desktops, tablets and mobiles all give people a hugely different user experience, and it’s essential to know about it, and not leave it to chance when planning research. Analysis needs to take into account the different features that devices deliver too (and which ones work best for shopping) so the ‘endless scroll’ of the tablet and the ability to ‘touch’ the product too can have an impact on how it feels to shop a site.

Film it!

It’s absolutely crucial to film the interviews. I set the camera on close up to the screen at all times so the respondent is giving me a running commentary about what they are seeing, they become the voice over…the commentator. I watch back all of the interviews via the film and pay lots of attention to how taxonomies are working, which parts of the screen are being responded to, how long people stay on particular parts of the process. You can record screen sharing ‘conferences’ via Joinme, so filming works remotely too.

Complementary Data

Google analytics and eye-tracking give the best possible context for understanding the paths that consumers tread through when they are using a site. Both these are important contexts for the in-depth insight that qualitative research brings to the study.

Ideally use all three methodologies and let the qual help you understand key issues like: user experience, what mental maps were they using when they navigated the site (thinking of occasions, people, good times etc)? What other heuristics or rules of thumb did they access when they were decision making (that’s healthy, that’s not, that’s a treat, it’s worth buying more of this, that will go off, etc)? What was confusing or difficult to navigate? How much freedom and autonomy did the site give them..? How enjoyable or frustrating was it?

Conclusions

On-line research pretty much follows the golden rules of all good research. Do it for real, try not to prime, and apply lots of thought to what you have seen going on to deliver great qualitative insight.

If you have any thoughts or comments or questions on this topic, I’d love to hear from you
Kath