What I've learned - Theme 6. Qualitative and case study research

   

Theme 6. Qualitative and case study research

The article of my choice

I have chose to take a closer look at the article "Attributions After a Group Failure: Do They Matter? Effects of Attributions
on Group Communication and Performance" (http://crx.sagepub.com/content/39/4/499.full.pdf+html) published in January 2011, in the communication research journal. 

Key points: The article is about what attributes that is connected to a group that would or has gone through one or many of failures. After, the research looks at conditions that make the group prone to change behavior and procedures within the group after the failure. They found student that got credit for the participation in the project. They divided the students in to different groups, in the first meeting they give them very negative feedback that is all made up, just to see how the behavior within the group changes. The different attributes affecting the group is divided in to internal and external attributes, where internal is the individuals motivation, mood, etc. and the external is attributes such as time pressure, task difficulty etc. The internal attributes are afterward divided in to two types, the self-connected attribute for the individual in the group or internal within the group as a unit. After the groups first assignment and the negative feedback each group member had to evaluate their own participation, the other group members participation and the outcome of the first assignment. When time came for the second assignment the researchers could see how the negative feedback had affected the group and what they, within the group saw as the problems causing the negative feedback they got after the first assignment.

1. Which qualitative method or methods are used in the paper? Which are the benefits and limitations of using these methods?

The qualitative method used in the paper is a field study of 174 people divided in to 58 groups. The groups had to work together through a message chat and the whole process with communication logs was saved and analyzed.

2. What did you learn about qualitative methods from reading the paper?

I learned that qualitative methods doesn’t necessarily have to be interviews. In this case, the researchers are invisible for the groups and they don’t know that their work together is being analyzed except for the end result of their work. The researchers are, without interviewing the participants able to collect trustworthy and complex data that they wouldn’t have been able to do through a survey or interviews.

3. Which are the main methodological problems of the study? How could the use of the qualitative method or methods have been improved?

The main methodological problem I found in the article is that the participants are all students at a higher level, all of the familiar to the process of working in group with others. Therefore it is questionable if the study is applicable in general when it is uncertain that other groups of people in the society would react the same way when doing group assignments as the students did.

I have chosen the article “Attributions for Inconsistencies Between Online and Offline Self-Presentations” (http://crx.sagepub.com/content/38/6/805.full.pdf+html) I realized when reading the "Process of Building Theory from Case Study Research" that the first article I chose was in fact a case study. In my second choice of article the researchers has chosen a case study with 92 undergraduate students and they were all required to have a Facebook account. They had the participants find a general piece of information and an inconsistent piece of information on three different facebook profiles, their own, a friend’s and an acquaintance’s.

A case study is research strategy that analyzes a person, group or event. It investigates a phenomena within it real presence. It is often used in new topic areas, where it is really useful in forming the base of the researches understanding in the area.

Weaknesses and Strengths of “Attributions for Inconsistencies Between Online and Offline Self-Presentations”:

Strengths

The definition of the research question in the article is good. The presentation of fact that it is based on is clear and concise. The sampling is not random and the case was chosen wisely. Both comparisons with conflicting and similar literature is made in the research which is a great strength.

Weaknesses

Regarding the data collecting process, it is only viewed from one perspective without knowing or discussing if it is a bit colored by the age of the participants, which are all undergrads. The research has used quantitative research method result but they have not conducted them by themselves.

What I've learned - Theme 5. Design research

Design research is to me an existing area of research. Someone asked at the lecture “is this really research?” and I think that comment was based on how exciting and inspiring research can be compared to how boring some other research might seem. Sometimes I even think that articles strive for being boring and through that be regarded as more reliable. During this course we have up until now only been reading really theoretical and not so practical research articles. I always find it more inspiring research in its physical format and I think that is why I enjoyed this theme so much.

After this week, I see the positive aspects of using prototypes and models in research projects. I believe that the contact between the research subject and tester will be more realistic if the research subject is something physical and the testers would be able to interact with the subject instead of just responding to theoretical question about it.

I came to think about something else during this week. And that is that not only does the research projects use design as inspiration and as additional functions to a subject. Recently, the trend of info-graphics has spread all around the web. Info-graphics is research results presented in easy interpretative graphics. 

Of course, since everyone can create info-graphics they are not as reliable as articles found in the research journals. At the same time, researchers applies for money in founding their research and if the research would get renowned, the money seeking process would probably be easier for the researcher. So maybe it should not only be the “design research” area that takes inspiration and use design in the research process; maybe all research processes should get inspired by design. With that I mean not only during the research process but also in the final state in presenting the result, making it more available to people (and especially to the people not having the time or the habit of reading expensive journals).

Anyway, now I’m getting a bit out of context for what this text is about – what I’ve learned this week.

I looked up the “Design Research” on the course web and there it says that Design Research has “the explicit intention of improving the functional performance of the artifact”. There are also different flowcharts on how Design Research works and how the use of prototypes and iteration fits in the mix. And this is of course important and smart. I learn the best when I get examples of what it actually means. For me the article about how to use design to change robots behavior, such as Pleo the dino was a great example of what changing the functional performance through design means. When on youtube, checking Pleo out I decided to find other cool and inspiring research projects where the change of design has encourage a change of behavior in the surroundings. 

I found "Rolighetsteorin". They use technology and design to inspire and change the behavior in their surroundings. 

If you want to check out a nice examples, this is a piano staircase, making people choosing the stairs instead of the escalator.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lXh2n0aPyw

Theme 5. Design research

Comics, Robots, Fashion and Programming: outlining the concept of actDresses.

Key points: The report is about how new physical languages can develop based on the study of the semiotic in comics and fashion. More specific, how robots can be controlled by physical means. Physical languages can be used to control, program and predict behavior in the robotic system but instead of having a separate unit controlling the robot, the robot is controlled by physical means. It takes a lot of time changing settings and there is no way to know in advance how the robot’s behavior will change by the new settings. The positive aspect of physical language is that it enables children and end users to easier change the code and thereby the settings and behavior of the robot.

The authors discuss how fashion and clothes contains information that the robot could use and interact with. Comics contains information as well, static pictures, text and visual markings. Buy using these two things as inspiration in creation of physical languages; the result would probably be different from the other physical languages.

ActDresses is “physical markings that can be directly attached to a digital artifact, and that signifies some property, action, or behavior of that artifact” and has two characteristics; immediate physical context and perceivable. To show what actDresses really is, the report shows Pleo (a robotic baby dinosaur) and his interactivity with wearable items, Glowbots and the vacuum robot that can change mode depending on what feeling the item it exposes for are representing. 

Question to discuss during the lecture:

Everything in our surrounding communicates something, especially the kind by man. What is the craziest thing in our surrounding to get inspired from can you come up with? 

Turn Your Mobile Into the Ball: Rendering Live Football Game Using Vibration

1. How can media technologies be evaluated?

Media technologies can be evaluated with user tests, with the aim of as high usability as possible. The three factors affecting usability is effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction.  

Effectiveness – If the task could be accomplished with the system/ error rate.
	In this research; the effectiveness was investigated by seeing how correct the recipient interpreted the information, coming from the vibrating phone.
Efficiency – How much effort is needed to accomplish the task. The goal with the system is that it would when in use; require the least effort as possible.
	In this research they used the user’s reactions skills to measure how long time it took for the user to understand the system.
Satisfaction – Comfort and acceptability of the system to users and others affected by it.
	In the research; it could be measured by the research teams observations of participants in the study using the system but here they investigated it through a survey.

2. What role will prototypes play in research?

Prototypes is a great way of researching a complex thing without having to invest a lot of time and money into something that might not have the slightest similarity to what the end result would be.

3. Why could it be necessary to develop a proof of concept prototype?

I is necessary to visualize the concept and to prove that it is physically due able.

4. What are characteristics and limitations of prototypes?

The characteristics of prototypes are that they all illustrate a full functioning item but only visually. Physically they don’t function as one and it could be a lot of work between a good looking prototype and an actual functioning and fully implemented item. The limitations is accordingly that when one is using prototypes in research projects, the end product with all its features will not be possible to test since it doesn’t respond or work the same way as a prototype does. This is a known fact when hired to implement a website or an interface. If the prototype is too good, the ones hiring you might not want to pay more since the project is “almost done”. Although there is a lot of work to do within the project and would take a long time implementing the features that the real website/interface is to posses.  

5. How can design research be communicated/presented?

Design research can be communicated or presented in a lot of different ways. In the report they are using both the usability factors to evaluate the product and to base the statements on how it worked in use, presenting the feeling users had of the system. They communicated the result of the study by diagrams, charts and informative illustrations and pictures to describe the system.