By: Chris Binney, Research Manager

You’ve got two minutes to yourself and what is the first thing so many of us think about doing? Getting out our phone to check our email, post a tweet, update a Facebook status, the list of possibilities goes on. The idea of doing nothing has disappeared almost completely.

We’re always connected with the web.

With smartphone penetration growing at a rate that will see one in two Australians owning a smartphone in the coming few years (if not sooner), the research industry has rightly seen the potential of having a constant internet connection in your pocket. Why not compete for people’s down time by conducting research instead of posting that picture of breakfast to Instagram?

The flexibility of online mobile research platforms give the ability to access people in places and at times that previously were thought too difficult. Think about walking from a supermarket and being asked to rate the level of service that you had just experienced? Why not provide a detailed video review of a product when in the store.  The possibilities that are opened through greater access are huge but how else can mobile benefit over traditional online research?

• Engagement with tasks both quantitative and qualitative is higher when conducting a survey that is relevant to your surroundings. Furthermore, to this,

• Recall when undertaking a task is stronger. We’re much more likely to recount experiences as or shortly after they have occurred.Of course it is widely accepted that a combination of stronger engagement and better recall leads to…

• Better data quality.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, how many words can a video buy you? As smartphone adoption rises in Australia, it’s only natural for research to have a presence in this arena.

Latitude has recently completed its first qualitative mobile phone study – talking to 22 mums and their kids. Over a period of two weeks we asked mums for feedback, challenged them to tasks, sent them on shopping trips and had them interview their kids (all done with smartphone in hand!). In total they generated over three hundred video clips for the project.

One of the benefits of using mobile for qualitative research is its ability to effectively collect point in time data. Through this medium we were able to observe behaviours as they happened at home, in the supermarket and during usage occasions, allowing us to better understand the decision-making process.

A new innovation for research – keep posted for more learnings about mobile qual!

According to research done by Google recently, there will be more web searches done on mobile phones than will be done on desktops by 2013. In more traditional markets like Australia and the US, a more standard progression in technology has seen the desktop become a feature of most households over the past 15 years. However in emerging markets such as India and China, access to desktop computers was limited during their expansion in the west and now instead of following the trend of western markets, consumers in these countries are skipping desktop computers and the fixed internet connection in preference of mobile devices. Across the world mobile internet usage has increased 3000% in the last three years, largely driven by the access that consumers in emerging economies have to these previously out of reach devices.

It seems only natural that research should take advantage of this shift in reliance on mobile internet usage. Whilst being able to contact a respondent at their desktop at any time at any place has always been one of the foundations of online research’s benefit over traditional methodologies, mobile research takes this one step further and allows us to interact with respondents in their natural surroundings whenever we want.

The convenience of being able to reach for our phones and access the Internet anywhere is something that should be jumped upon by researchers. The devil makes work for idle hands, so why not use time when sitting on a train, in front of the TV at home as a time to undertake research.

A company in New Zealand has done something very similar. After the devastating earthquake in Christchurch, the plumbing to houses has been significantly impacted and residents are having to make do with portaloos installed on street corners. In these portaloos, a firm has begun recruiting participants for research through adverts placed on the walls. Surveys asking for opinions about the reconstruction efforts are sent and in some cases completed whilst…umm…taking care of business.

Being constantly connected through Internet enabled phones presents such a strong opportunity for companies to get an immediate read on their consumers. To take advantage of even the shortest amount of downtime to complete research can easily be seized upon. Being able to get feedback in either a qualitative or quantitative study could potentially take hours, not days or weeks.