Has Digital Truly Transformed Qualitative Research?
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The topic of face-to-face versus digital is hot in qualitative research. Well at least a point of keen interest - what will become of the remarkably resilient in-person group discussions or in-depth explorations when compared to digital alternatives, now thoroughly tested?
Many qual companies have seen the advantages of going fully digital over the past 18 months – less non-essential travel, greater geographic reach and interaction between participants from different regions within a country, for example.
Not to mention efficiency gains, plus an improved eco-footprint.
Others remain passionate about the benefits of face-to-face – with some suggesting that a digital group can be more of a Q & A session, not offering the natural flow of an in-person session, where conversations can evolve more fluidly.
No Way Back?
The July 2021 Issue of Germany’s leading market research magazine, Planung & Analyse – dedicated itself to the recent changes in qual research. It contains contributions from some of the major qual players in Germany - G.I.M, Happy Thinking People for example - as well as clientside voices. Not comprehensive for sure, but definitely an interesting mix of views.
The editor-in-chief, Sabine Hedewig-Mohr, talks in her editorial about a quantum-leap– and “no way back”.
Online, she summarises, has forced digitally-reticent quallies to become creative, and discover in the process all sorts of new options that online offers:
- digital ethnographies that allow stakeholders much easier access to the in-home realities of their customers
- the ease of digital sets-ups for such online ethnos
- the naturalness of screen-to-screen groups, where participants are in the comfort of their own homes and surroundings, as opposed to the comparatively artificial setting of a studio environment
Mixed Feelings about Mixed Methods
She also references research conducted by freelance qualitative researchers Dr. Melanie Wortmann and Angelika Haas, who talked to quali-professionals in German speaking countries about their experiences. No details were given as to the sample, but here are the main take-outs:
- digital certainly helped to pay the bills, allowing small businesses/independents to carry on running in 2020
- after initial trepidation, the world of digital hasn’t proved as frightening as many feared
- evolving digital confidence has encouraged more creative approaches and experimentation
- despite both surviving and thriving in the online world of qual, there’s a sense of longing for face-to-face closeness again, a sense of something missing.
They describe it as a sort of home sickness – “Heimweh” in German, a wonderfully resonant word and important to the 19th C German Romantic movement.
Some also talk of a cognitive dissonance – a sense of digital qual working, but also something lacking – the atmosphere of a face-to-face environment. Some mentioned a particular richness of nuance during moderation and analysis.
- despite the above, most appreciated the enhanced flexibility offered, the choice to mix and match online with offline as appropriate.
Cautiously Confident
They conclude with a “no going back – fortunately!” message, stating that most saw the future as enhanced with new options, the quallie world had expanded, the interplay between online and offline offering fascinating options.
It’s an interesting take – a mixture of appreciation of the new but mixed with a sense of loss, and a certain ambiguitiy about whether digital actually delivers the subtelty and richness that face-to-face can. Making a virtue out of a necessity is how it read to me.
And what about your own experiences?
Everyone in qual likely misses personal meetings – but how many miss the stress of international travel, not to mention the negative eco-footprint.
As the COVID situation continues to evolve seemingly weekly, with new information continually revealed, it seems like we are in for a prolonged period of uncertainty.
But each country is different. What’s it like where you are?
Curious, as ever, as to others' views.