Take some ipads, add an app to each one and you’ve got yourself a qualitative toolkit that gets you better insight and outputs.
It’s a simple little app called ‘notablity’ and it costs £1.49 from the app store. Here’s how you can use it…
Step one
Convert stimulus materials into pdfs and save onto a secure cloud based application (like dropbox or google drive).
Step two
Upload the stimulus onto the notability app (it’s dead easy, I’ve got no technology smarts and I couldn’t break this one)
Step three
Ask your respondents to explore the concept material. They can… highlight bits they like and dislike, write on ‘corrections’, type on notes and – this is the deal closer for me – they can voice record responses to what they’re looking at.
Step four
Over to you now, the possibilities are endless…
Worth noting
Using the app in research sessions can all happen off-line so you only need wifi access to do the uploading of materials, once it’s on the app, it’s on the app.
Why I like this so much
Perfect for iterative thinking, perfect for workshops
Imagine you’re watching a group and whilst they’re responding to the concept you can update your idea, then upload it to a cloud based application, and respondents can start reacting to the new thought. That’s certainly going to accelerate the NPD process and keep ideas fresh.
The app can capture individual thoughts in a group setting
This can take co creation sessions to another level…Co creation works really well when you partner clients up with respondents and they co-create… together. However, a lot of the outputs from these pairings get lost in the wash because the ‘client’ hasn’t recorded findings sufficiently well. This app allows you to capture everything that’s going on in the client and consumer pairs via the recording device. That in turn means you can analyse and make best use of everyone’s outputs.
Changing the dymamics of the group
For groups too, the ipads and the notability app let you plan ‘private response’ and ‘group discussion’ time in a much more effective way. Researchers have always tended to use groups as a forum for group talk alone, partly to ‘entertain’ clients watching, but also because of nervousness about quiet time, or making individuals do boring stuff. Having the ipad and making the ‘lone task’ easier and more fun helps researchers feel less awkward about these individual tasks. Potentially there are ways for clients to ‘see’ these tasks as they are happening live too.
Because of the possibilities opened up by the notability app, I plan to integrate much more ‘me’ time with ‘us’ time in groups in the future, with exercises that reflect the fact we often make choices on our own, which means it’s possible to get closer to understanding decision making, just by using this little app.
The possibilities grow the more you explore the app
If you want to talk to me about more ways of using ipads and apps, then feel free to give me a call on 07738 180529 Tweet the Street
Please credit me if you use this idea on your projects! Kath
