Studio 6 - Identifying Research Activities and Methods

Source: http://www.cogentcomputing.org/~john_h/DIS06.pdf

Research activity 1:

This area had curators being asked what sort of information they would divulge to the visitors whilst they were giving a tour. Given a large map which incorporated models of buildings that the curators shared they were asked to discuss the information that they knew about specific parts of the house and explain.

I believe this research activity is used as Qualitative data because the information requested was required in order to find out what type of information the curators give out whilst conducting a guided tour and the information was taken by an un-structured discussion. This type of information will be helpful towards the research because the discussion can be recorded via audio or video and be used and re-used for the content of the system.

Research activity 2:

Researchers were taken on a guided tour whilst a second researcher followed the tour using a camcorder to record the tour.

I believe that this type of research activity comes under both Quantitative and Qualitative data as a mix; mainly because, it allowed the researchers to gain an idea of what specific content were mentioned frequently and what content was only briefly mentioned throughout.

This type of research activity can also be used to help backup the previous research activity (above) as it was recorded as well. Also this research activity can be used as content for the system.

Research activity 3:

This next research activity involved the researchers taking the curators a video of Ambient Wood before taking them on a walk around the house using audio clips to be played back to the curators, so that they could understand what it would be like to be a visitor to the house and how the tour would also sound to the visitor.

This research activity is a Quantitative data research because the curators were asked to take a vote on:

• Their voices being used in the system
• Like/Dislike the organisation of the transcripts

This therefore means that there will be a number of people for each case to be presentated using the researchers statistical results. The research activity also allows the researchers to make a more informed decision on how to improve and further develop the current system.

Research activity 4

School children were used in this research activity, where they were sent around the Chawton House with a mobile device that allowed the school children to complete the scenario given to them by the researchers.

The school children were told to complete a number of different tasks that required them to use the mobile device and also to interact with the Chawton House as well. The research method used within this research activity is a mixture of Quantitative and Qualitative data methods.

Throughout the Chawton House Project the school children gave feedback to the researchers about what they thought of the system (this feedback would then be used to develop potential stories). Also throughout the project the researchers watched the school children and how they interacted with the system/house and then they were interviewed at the fourth phase of the Chawton House Project workshop. As like all of the previous research activities this one also helped to further develop and improve the system.