Unfortunately
I couldn’t attend this week’s lecture so I didn’t get to chance to hear Eva-Lotta
Sallnäs Pysander when she elaborated about her research and how she used a
collaborative setting to the findings in her paper.
I prepared
this weeks theme by reading the given literature and by reflecting the
questions following each paper. What I also did this week was to discuss the
papers with two friends who is also following this course. We have done this
prior to every theme but this time I thought that the discussion was worth
mentioning. The discussion with my friends gave me further understanding and
different perspectives on the given papers, so I’m glad that we did it.
What I
learned this week in particular was the method to use collaborative setting and
the benefits of doing so. Earlier I hadn’t really thought of this method. This
benefits with this method was that you are in some sort doing a “think aloud”-analysis
(Wikipedia 2014) without forcing your participants into doing so. In my
bachelor-essay earlier this year and from earlier KTH courses I have done some
think aloud-analyses but I have always thought that it was a unnatural setting,
the participants seems uncomfortable when telling what their thinking. In the
collaborative setting you will still obtain the thoughts of your participants,
but in a much more natural way since the participants are discussing with each
other.
References
Wikipedia.
(2014). Think Aloud-protocol. Access:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Think_aloud_protocol
[2014-10-10]
Hi Johan,
SvaraRaderaIt seems like you have found a great way to prepare your self for the lectures and seminars, by discussing the texts with your friends. It is a good way of getting new inputs about the theme of the week!
I have to agree with you that it seems to be much more natural to let the participants discuss in a group, using a collaborative setting, instead of use the "think aloud" method. But is there not a risk that the participants real opinions and thoughts get lost due to peer pressure (grupptryck) in a collective setting?
Yeah it's true that peer pressure will be a factor in the collaborative setting, I didn't really thought of that so thanks for sharing your ideas! But I also read somewhere that the collaborative setting (or group interviews) also have the effect that your participants will revise their opinions more thoroughly and prepare arguments for their sake before speaking their mind. The participants will ask themselves question like "Is this really important?", "Do I need to share this with everyone?" or "Why do I have this opinion?" before sharing their ideas infront of everyone. Simple because no one wants to look like a idiot. And this effect can give you more qualitative results than the single setting.
RaderaHello there! Even thought you missed the lecture it seems that you have a great understanding of this theme. The think aloud method is very interesting and I agree with you that in an unnatural environment it becomes almost awkward with the participant thinking aloud. In a collaborative environment it is so much more natural. Great job!
SvaraRaderaGlad to hear that you agree!
RaderaHi,
SvaraRaderaI guess that there is both pros and cons with a collaborative setting/think aloud. What it comes down really is what kind of user-testing is done. I would probably use a think-aloud method when evaluating a prototype in it's early stages while using a collaborative setting in the later stages where depth of answers might be more useful.