Field research with kids & families in emerging markets

• In Event: Families and contexts that shape developmental trajectories

Abstract

The quality of relationship between the researcher and participant is critical when running field research with children,(Hatch, 1995). Methods used in field research with children have to be creative and flexible, with careful attention being paid to the child’s needs. This becomes further complicated when running field research with children and families in different cultures, especially in emerging markets with different social and cultural norms. Participants in emerging markets tend to be more susceptible to social desirability bias, having a greater tendency to respond in ways they believe would appear desirable to others (Antin & Shaw, 2012).

This talk covers creative cultural adaptations of methods used in field research with kids in emerging markets. The overall research objective was to gain a foundational understanding of how families use technology (ex. Device sharing, online video usage behavior, types of video content that appeal to kids and parents, data and connectivity issues) and a more in-depth tactical understanding of kids’ usage of particular video app.

Through the use of a multi-method approach with home visits and diary studies (with daily phone check-ins), we were able to uncover a broader and deeper range of children’s experiences with technology and video app usage. This approach covers adaptations of contextual interviews (ex. home visits) to gain a rich foundational understanding of the child and family’s usage of technology. We incorporated sibling/friendship pairs to help kids feel more comfortable in the presence of foreigners/strangers in their homes and also ran pre- and post-interview sessions to build better rapport with kids.

In addition to home interviews, we also relied on diary studies to gain a deeper understanding of a child’s (and family’s) daily technology use. More specifically, the diary study also allowed us to better understand the child’s experience of using the app (ex. User satisfaction, perceived value of app) over a longer time period. Given that completion for diary studies is often low, we included daily phone check-ins where parents were reminded to complete the activities with their children. These calls also served as additional support for families, since participants in emerging markets were often struggling with how to complete the diary study.

Previous use of a diary study in emerging markets revealed the inaccuracy of self-reported satisfaction ratings, where kids and parents would provide highly favorable responses to satisfaction levels for an app, but follow-up interviews revealed otherwise. This made it challenging to uncover issues that kids had with the app (ex. Usability issues, content appeal). As a result, instead of getting kids to rate how much they liked an app, we turned this into a game where we encourage kids to look for issues they had with the app. This indirect method of allowing kids to provide negative feedback allowed us to uncover insights we wouldn’t have otherwise been able to, if we used the traditional satisfaction ratings.

We also discuss other ways of gamifying the diary study to obtain more in-depth qualitative insights to children’s app usage.

Author

• Carissa Kang, Google
  Presenting Author