It’s time for in-person, on campus research to make its return
Florence Largillière, Senior Researcher
I came back from a few days of in-person research this summer with one question on my mind: why are we not doing more of these?
The pandemic made us all go online, and it can be tempting, for very good financial and resourcing reasons, to conduct your audience research online only. Surveys are made for it, and all the tools you need for more interactive qualitative research now have an online version – who doesn’t love a slightly glitchy Miro board?
In-person research has thus become relegated to a bonus step in our research projects, if considered at all. It can seem unnecessary, especially at a time when universities, and wider organisations in our sector, are short on time and money. After all, we’re getting all the insights we need from online research, no?
Well… we can and we do conduct excellent audience research online. But there are so many benefits to being in the spaces where it all happens that it feels a shame not to take advantage of them.
First, there are the obvious benefits of in-person workshops, focus groups, and interviews. Being in the same room and seeing people face-to-face allow more direct and natural interactions, as well as giving us access to respondents’ body language and facial expressions. More pragmatically, it also forces them to give us their full attention, away from work or social media distractions.
Second, doing research on campus enables us to find and chat to people we would not spontaneously think of or talk to in our research projects, such as those working in the cafeterias, libraries, career centres, or health facilities. These people are central to university life, and often full of insights that staff more detached from the day-to-day of students may miss.
In the same vein, being on campus and conducting intercepts (those vox-pop interviews TikTok is so fond of) is a brilliant way to access people we usually struggle to recruit, i.e. those who are less engaged, less aware of research opportunities, don’t fill in surveys, etc. Intercepts are often done in a more casual environment, and can lead to more spontaneous, less controlled answers. People will quickly focus on what matters to them and what makes them react.
But even without talking to people, in-person observations are a form of audience and experience research for a reason. They give us an understanding of universities as concrete, physical spaces students inhabit and move through. They can give you insights people won’t mention, because their everyday habits and movements are so obvious to them, so part of their lives they won’t think of them. Observations allow us to see for ourselves where students actually go and what they do, what they like, how they use different spaces (study rooms, libraries, gyms, cafés…).
Finally, being on campus can also be a great way to listen to students ‘unfiltered’. Think about how joining campus tours during open days, and taking notes of people’s reactions and facial expressions could inform your insights. Or what eavesdropping by lecture halls and seminar rooms could teach you that you wouldn’t get in more classic focus groups or interviews.
Remember, what people say, what they do, and what they say they do are three different things. In-person research allows us to access each of these three levels of audience behaviours:
Eavesdropping and asking around will give you (parts of) what people say
Observing will show you what they do
And more classic forms of qualitative research will tell you what they say they do
So now, what can you do?
Invite us on your campus, because nothing beats a pair (or two) of fresh eyes (and our Senior Researcher loves travelling across the country)
Spend more time on your campus, put yourself in your students’ shoes, look around as if you’d never been there before
Spy eavesdrop and talk to student-facing staff to uncover insights students themselves may not share with you
Want our help?
At Pickle Jar Communications, we have over a decade of audience research experience. We know each organisation is different, and we offer bespoke consultancy services, and always adapt our research to exactly what you need.
So get in touch – we look forward to hearing from you!
