We’re three quarters of the way through the year in the life project…

Since the middle of January this year 9 women have been sharing their lives and experiences with Ambreen and me.

We recruited 9 mums (5 in the North and 4 in the South) who described themselves as ‘just about managing’ (financially).

We wanted to do some ‘slow research’ seeing what we could learn if we took our time exploring their behaviour rather then dipping in and out of their lives briefly like most standard projects do.

Our approach:

• we’ve asked them all to keep an on-line journal recording what matters to them in their daily lives, and we’ve experimented with these journals asking them to keep activity journals (notice all the times you read something) and food journals, (record one day a week everything you cook and eat…)
• we’ve asked them to respond to forum topics, chatting with each other about topics we’ve instigated like guilt, gossip, shopping, men,
• we’ve set them challenges – design your own TV station
• we’ve spent time with each of them in person, on the phone and via whatsapp, figuring out how they do the weekly shopping and how they cook, talking to them about what their life is like…
• they done lots of selfie videos for us – on their reaction to the general election, on their holiday experiences, on giving their kids food that makes them feel bad, on exercising, on drinking beer…

In short we’ve got to know these women up close and personal, all the time thinking, what does that mean, what does that show us about influence and change, and how people adopt new things, and how they stick with habits and stay the same even when they want to change…

We’re not at the end of the journey yet, so this is an invitation…

What would you like to know? What insight could this ‘slow’ research project deliver you? We may already have the answer to your questions, or we may be able to get the answer before the project closes… You may want to try out a research technique, and they may be able to help?

If you are interested in the Year in the Life Project, I’d love to hear from you. Get in touch: kath@qual-street.co.uk or call me on 07738 180529