One of the most frequently asked questions during our presentation calls (this week we already had several) is: “what kind of projects can we used Sicché for?”
Well, we decided to shed some light on this with this blog entry.
First of all Sicché is a tool for qualitative or qual-quantitative asynchronous online research projects, that means that 1) it is not suggested for purely quantitative projects 2) being asynchronous it requires a time dilation that will allow participants (interviewees) to answer through a longer stretch of time, usually several days, in those moments when they have nothing to do and are willing to answer your questions (this is a very important element as it influences the quality of results!)
But let us go on and go through some examples of use. We will divide them in different “areas”.
1. ONLINE DIARIES (anything that spans from vlogs, blogs, journals, at-home tasks, pre-tasks or anything of the sort)
These are “first person recollections”, often set to “individual view”, 1-to-1 with the moderator / researcher, it is also possible to program “group discussion” moments where participants will be able to interact with one another depending on their recruitment variables, tags, and more… To make answering more compelling and fun we suggest using questions that can be answered via video, audio or pictures, but also using one of the associative tests already present on the platform. Of all the tools available to the researcher the ability to create “personas” – that is to create groups of people that think or are alike – is of great use during the moderation and the analysis phases. Diaries are useful as a standalone project or as pre / post In-depth-interviews or focus groups both online and face to face.
2. USER EXPERIENCE (UX & UI projects, innovation, design thinking, service, and products development)
These are projects that revolve around testing of interfaces (apps, sites, and platforms), online environments, smartphone, or cross-device apps. On Sicché it is possible to limit tests to specific devices (e.g.: it is possible to make it so that participants can only answer through their smartphones) or keep track of the devices participants are using during the project. It is possible to upload images of prototypes or interfaces that need to be tested and with “PIN” questions it will be possible to analyse specific elements of the UX and UI. The discussion can, of course, be set as individual as well as group, this to allow more “real-life” experiences (individual navigation behaviour) or more creative moments (new ideas, suggestions, improvements that group talk can spark)
3. ADVERTISING & COPY TEST (testing advertising in various formats: video ads, viral videos, spots, TV Series, movies, print ads, print mock-ups, institutional communications)
To test audio – video content we have specific questions and activities that will allow spontaneous reactions (limiting how many times an interviewee can view the material to 1 or 2 times, or the possibility to set a fixed time frame for still images) and deepening the analysis with the use of “pin” (up to 5 per question) interviewees can use to signal the best and worst parts of the videos / images, why they like it / dislike it, what captures attention and what not… and more!
4. CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE (when it is vital to monitor users’ experiences: events, sale points, mystery shopping)
We are the first platform in the world to have introduced the ability to bind questions to a specific location and time: interviewees will have to travel to the selected location at the correct time and they will be allowed to answer your questions thanks to geo-localisation. In this way it is possible to test stores, shop windows setups, events all of this being sure that the participants are effectively at the location. It is still possible to have individual or group activities even in this mode.
5. DIGITAL ETNOGRAPHY (when the goal of the project is to “live the participant’s experience”, understanding what goes inside them directly)
By using multimedia question types, such as answers via pictures, answers via videos, answers via voice or image associations (and by exploiting artificial intelligence, which is included in the price), digital ethnography takes on another meaning. It will be possible to see the consumer in action, while cooking the requested recipe, while trying out the prototype being tested, while experiencing his or her usual environment, without bias due to the presence of the researcher.
6. CREATIVE PROJECTS (co-creation with consumers and clients, gamification, etc….)
We are innovators, creative, qualitative researchers. That is why we have introduced some tools that you will not find in any other qualitative online platform (and we are further innovating in this sense - stay tuned!). We have various associative tests, soon to be scientifically validated, which help companies to understand the perceived, experienced, emotional and functional elements linked to each concept or question. We have introduced the paintings test, currently undergoing scientific validation with the University of Turin. We are developing some gamification techniques, to encourage group co-creation, various types of qualitative-quantitative questions are already present that will help the institute and the company to make interviewees participation less a 'duty' and more a 'pleasure'.
7. BRANDING & POSITIONING (brand assessment projects to evaluate brand image, brand equity, CSR, sustainability, positioning, brand reputation)
We have the most sophisticated tools for identifying and evaluating brand experience and image: from image associations (see creative projects, above) to semantic differentiators, which include dozens of adjective/word pairs that help institute and customer to bring out the perception of a brand and its positioning.
8. LONG TERM COMMUNITIES
Sicché already lends itself both to short-term use (e.g. a few days or 1-2 weeks) and to projects that cover a longer period of time (several weeks or months). In any case, we are working on an ad hoc version, designed for long-term communities, to make certain logics even more fluid, adding dedicated functions….Stay tuned!
So, in summary, there is no area or type of qualitative research that does not lend itself to the use of our platform. For example, it has been used for research on corporate climate, for a the last phase of a workshop that took place in person, in short... do what you want with it, as many have told us... it's so flexible that it could be useful for areas we honestly haven't thought of yet!
