Online Discussions are comprised of relatively new qualitative research tools that can provide broader access to participants (over both time and geographic areas) without limiting the quality or type of feedback.
These conversations can take place as Bulletin Boards, Online Journals/Diaries, or webcam-enabled IDIs or Focus Groups. The online platform incorporates rich response and reaction tools that allow participants to communicate via text, simple surveys, images, or video. This enables W5 to employ an activity-based approach to asking research questions where participants not only tell you, but show you how they behave and think.
Clients can also be more involved by observing responses in real-time, suggesting follow-up questions as they happen, contributing to an ongoing discussion among observers, and tagging responses to highlight in reporting.
Online discussions can help you:
- Leverage longitudinal responses to better understand behavior and attitude in the context of real life
- Gather frank and honest responses in a largely anonymous forum
- Collect layered, highly personal responses from consumers in the context of their own environments and day-to-day lives