Research Insights
Research & Analysis Takeaways
1. People will be capturing a lot of media in the field; Most of it they will ditch; some they will keep and annotate.
Photo and video tell more of the story than what can be conveyed in words. It’s the fastest, and easiest way to record a story while in the field.
TAKEAWAY: Need ways to quickly capture information in the easiest way possible while on site
- It should be super easy to add information to forms;
- Users need an overall view, so that they can easily put in primary info (like a name) and add supporting info later
2. There are 2 types of users; their purpose and process of capturing evidence may be very different
Common person / citizen journalist
- They are motivated by emotion; they are either compelled by what they see, or are driven by an emotional connection with a cause.
- Their purpose in gathering evidence is primarily to contribute to something they care about.
Trained journalists
- They have experience in gathering information from the field and go with the intention to ‘make a story’.
- They generally have a plan, and focus before they go in on site.
- Their purpose is to make a story, more ‘final product’ orientated than contribution orientated.
TAKEAWAY: Need flexibility in how the app is used
- Need the ability to customize, and/or add extra information
- Need the ability to add my custom info: audio, notes, form field
3. Characters
Need to identify everyone in the frame; can assume face detection
Relationships between people (maybe in form, or extra)
Character roles in the story (in form)
Always need phone numbers, contact info (maybe in form, or extra)
TAKEAWAYS: Auto face detection & Contact Info
Could automatically detect faces
Could have an optional form field for contact information, and export (or show in list form) all contact info for a certain project
4. Building
There will likely be several passes at getting all of the info
- during the event/action
- the next day visit
- multiple visits (depending on the type of story)
- contacting individual people
TAKEAWAY: Easy to add to
Should be easy to come back to a project or image and add more annotations or complete forms
5. “In Office” / Post Field Review
After gathering info on site, users will potentially have a mess of media:
- LOTS of footage
- jotted notes, audio/video interviews
- partially complete forms
TAKEAWAY: We could allow for multitasking when users put info from their quick field notes into a form.
Ex: You can listen to an audio interview, while adding notes into a form.
IDEA: Guides for User-Friendly Forms
We have minimal control over the content of the forms. However, we can create a guide for organizations to use, to help them create the most user-friendly form. Here are some examples of tips:
- Use multiple choice when possible (if there are less than 6 options); always allow an ‘other’ field with text box
- Clump questions into sections, if there are more than 12 fields
- Put the most important info and easiest to gather while in the field, first