This is a 4 part series. Check out the other entires below:
1. Setting Up the Plan
2. Lessons from the Field
3. Organizing and Analyzing Data
4. Communicating Your Results
[tweetmeme]You are now back home from your international research trip and are ready to begin the daunting task of organizing and analyzing the data. Stop! Back up! You could do this, but there’s a better way.
Instead, start organizing and analyzing while you are in field. Ideally, I like to set aside 2 afternoons for this; half way through the research and close to the end.
Tip #1: Create a data organization scheme in field
Your time is first well spent organizing all the data you have, including recordings, artifacts, notes, etc. You’ll be really happy you created this organization scheme when you’re back home in a completely different environment, buried in emails, and the trip already seems in the distant past. Creating a scheme will also help you figure out if you are missing any data and you’ll have a chance to correct this before you leave.
Tip #2: Think about ways to communicate your data
It’s also fruitful to start thinking about effective ways to communicate your data. By now, you’ve likely met a participant whose story is particularly riveting or you’ve heard a really powerful quote. Take some time to jot these down and brainstorm new approaches while it is fresh and your in-field creative juices are flowing. If you have a team in field with you, it’s productive to meet with them and understand which specific data impacted them and why. This will help you understand what will resonate and have emotional impact with a larger audience.
Tip #3: Plan and start analysis while in field
Starting data analysis while you are in field is invaluable. One: there is no substitute for freshness of your experiences. Two: starting in field gives you more time to mull over the process or outcomes. We could always use more time on projects, no? Three: starting in field makes the task of analysis way less daunting when you arrive back home…at least you have started, and starting is indeed the hardest part. Four: Lastly, the data analysis session creates the perfect occasion to brainstorm opportunity areas and solutions based on immersion in real data; a user centered design dream come true.
Think hard about how to conduct the data analysis so that it is fruitful. Do you want to have a collaborative affinity exercise with your team members who are in field with you? Do you have the set-up ( room, wall space, etc) and the materials ( data points) ready to do this? Do you want to start this half way through or wait till you have collected all of the data? Is the point of the exercise to get team members immersed in the data or is it to really start analysis? What is a reasonable amount to get done in an afternoon? How will you record the results of the analysis? Plan the analysis session well and it will be worth your while.
So, now you are at the point where you are ready to do your analysis session- awesome! Whether you are doing it by yourself or with your colleagues, give it some structure. Define a goal, an amount of time, and some ground rules. It’s very easy to try to analyze too much during this session and come away with nothing of use.
Tip #4: Organize outcomes before you go home
It’s also easy to lose valuable cycles by doing a whole bunch of great work in field but not recording it well enough to be usable later on. Take pictures of the outcome and spend time putting it into a useful format. For example, if you are doing an affinity with post-it notes, transcribe the outcome into software like Visio so you can save it, add some meaningful notes to it, and easily re-use it for a later analysis session. I’ve tried transporting the post-its on a huge piece of paper folded up in my suitcase and unfortunately when I got back home, many of those post-its didn’t make sense anymore. When I inquired with team members, they had also forgotten what they meant. I hadn’t spent the time clarifying what some of the notes meant and it was a loss of work.
Blogging about all of these tips and tricks for doing international research makes me wish I was doing some right now! Stay tuned for the final post in this series: communicating your findings.