Dull and tedious pre and post tasks result in limited insight. Here are some creative bits of homework that are tried and tested and deliver depth

Paperclip diary

Give respondents a matchbox (yes!) full of paperclips that are red and green (yes, go on!) and an empty one too (stay with me..). Ask the respondent to carry the matchboxes round with them and to put a green paperclip in the emptybox when they have a good moment (however trivial) and a red one in the box when they had a bad moment. Then at the end of the day ask the respondent to write an email to you about the green and red moments in their day.

Trust me, you will get amazing insight into the day to day lives of your respondents and you’ll get inadvertent insight into our emotions and experiences and what influences our behaviour.

The respondents get a real insight into their own daily life and what matters to them – which is why I think it’s a really successful task.

Qwiki

Ask respondents to download this free app and get creative. It allows you to (easily) select photos and put them to a soundtrack. It means they need access to their music library and their photos on their phone – so it’s only suitable for certain types of respondents.

You will get an amazing photo and musical montage of their life, they will get to keep this too…

Time capsule

It’s an oldie, but a goldie. Ask respondents to mentally ‘bury’ evidence of their life today, imagining that someone from the past or future needed to understand contemporary life. The key is to give really great direction so that you get good insight. For example I’d want to know: ‘the song in your head’, ‘the must watch TV series of the moment’ ‘your top three apps’, ‘the last three meals you ate’, the colour you’d decorate your bedroom if you were doing a make-over, the celebrity you’d date in your dreams..

The better the questions, the better the answers. As always! I hope you find these useful. Don’t forget to credit me if you use these ideas. Thanks Kath