Online qualitative research comprises a variety of methods of qualitative data collection. These methods take place in the digital world. Furthermore, the results are not produced quantitatively. This article discusses the different online qualitative research platforms, their benefits, and tips for conducting this kind of research. But it is a reality that these methods overlap with each other.
For example, the use of insight communities can facilitate recruitment for online focus groups, user testing, and mobile ethnography. Similarly, the use of a smartphone ethnography app can facilitate capturing the pre-tasks or supporting diaries of live chat groups or bulletin boards.
Although there is no clear distinction between the online qualitative research platforms, attempts can be made to classify them into different types. Some of the questions arise when we discuss the online qualitative research platforms. For example, is it synchronous or asynchronous? Or is it continuous or time-bound? Similarly, there is a question regarding the participants of the online qualitative research platform: are they a part of the ongoing community or, specifically, did they get recruited for taking part in the study?
The other dimension of sources of data is also discussed. The data is collected either in text, image, video, audio, or a combination of these four mediums.
Online qualitative research platforms:
The following online qualitative research platforms are discussed in this article.
1. Live chat focus groups
It is a replication of the structure of traditional focus group discussions. For this purpose, participants from six to eight are selected. The moderator utilizes a text chat interface for talking to these participants for about 60–90 minutes. The participants give their open, in-depth opinion on the specific topic.
The moderator uses focus group software to share pictures, videos, and audios as stimuli with the participants. Most of the online qualitative research platforms have their own benefits as compared to offline methods. It is easier way to recruit the participants in the study because they don’t have to leave their houses. This method is cheaper because there is no travel cost involved.
The moderator’s job is to post questions to either the whole group or specific people. This will facilitate his discussing and clarifying the comments, or sometimes he or she can discuss sensitive topics as well.
It is required to use an online focus group for the project, and it is important that there be interaction between participants. The online qualitative research platforms of live chat focus groups include Recollective, InsightHub, VisionLive, FlexMR, and CMNTY.
2. Video-Based Focus Groups and Interviews
There are certain platforms that use video to conduct live qualitative discussions on research topics. They may be one-to-one or in groups. These platforms have the facilities of both live chat and video-based online focus groups. There are certain benefits to live chat groups. For example, the live chat helps the respondents record their non-verbal responses. Additionally, there is an opportunity for immediate interaction with speed among the participants.
These online video groups are cheap when we use Zoom or Skype. The other dedicated options on the platforms can be beneficially used in market research. These options can do better in one-to-one, in-depth interviews that are productive in B2B research or in situations where you discuss sensitive topics. Some platforms can give access to a large number of participants in group discussions as well as one-on-one interviews. They encompass discuss.io, Forsta, Suzy, Instapanel, and Schlesinger, along with many others.
3. 
The bulletin and forums are asynchronous. The boards can even run for days or weeks. Here, the moderator adds the questions and then moderates and responds to the individual answers or posts new questions for the participants in the group. The respondents receive these new questions through SMS, emails, or mobile notifications. At the same time, they receive alerts about the moderator’s or other participant’s replies.
There are certain advantages to forums and boards. For example, because the moderation is not live, a large number of participants can be handled. Such boars and forums can recruit up to 100 participants. In this way, large amounts of data are collected. These data are analyzed with various analytical tools. The researcher is able to categorize the responses of the participants.
The other advantage of boards and forums is that since the methodology is asynchronous, the participants can review the videos at their convenience and, if required, give responses.
Lastly, the hybrid form of research can be facilitated due to the large number of participants. They can post quick questions like “Which design is your favorite?”. The other question can be, “If the cost of this product is $X, would you buy it?”. These questions help in developing directional consensus.
Schlesinger, Qualboard, and Itracks are examples of such forums and boards.
4. Mobile ethnography and diary platforms
Both types are discussed in detail below.
Mobile ethnography:
It is sometimes referred to as digital ethnography or autoethnography. It is a method through which the researcher observes those recruited respondents who use smartphones to journal their everyday lives, feelings, and behaviors with reference to a specific research topic. Mobile ethnography has been adopted as a methodology due to the wide range of uses of smartphones, video on 4G, and the outburst of social networking. So the researchers are able to use this technique productively. They can simultaneously observe the multiple participants’ everyday lives. They can observe the participants in multiple locations at a minimum cost as compared to traditional ethnography.
How does mobile ethnography work?
This process involves the recruited participants. These recruited participants use their smartphones to record their everyday activities and then share them with researchers. With the use of a mobile ethnography app, the participants share or post their notes, videos, or photos with the researchers related to the research topic. A video diary study is particularly a good source to observe the natural, contextual behaviors of the respondents in their surroundings. Selfie video and in-the-moment video recording are also good sources for expressing one’s opinions.
The respondents carefully record their daily routine activities with the help of smartphones and share them with the researchers in the form of pictures, videos, selfie videos, or sometimes written notes through the mobile ethnography app. Some of the researchers prefer to use mobile ethnography platforms where they get the opportunity to interact with the participants in the course of fieldwork. In this way, the researchers can probe the actions, feelings, and thinking of the respondents.
Mobile diaries
Evolving in the past few years, mobile diaries have helped users record and capture in-the-moment feedback through video responses and pictures. Furthermore, a log-in desktop component is also included. More importantly, the format of the delivery of mobile diaries is a survey with multiple-choice questions or open-ended questions. These survey responses were quantitatively collected from hundreds of participants. A three-step process is adopted for the collection of information.
- A pre-survey is conducted so as to establish a baseline of users.
- For recording the experiences of the participants, a check-in feature is used.
- Lastly, a post-study exit survey is conducted to record the changes in the behaviors of the people.
5. Insight communities
In this type of online qualitative research platform, the group of consumers voluntarily takes part in the research projects for monetary benefits. Their duty is to attract consumers who remain involved in the idea and are ready to provide qualitative responses about it.
It is often possible to set up a community of people according to a particular interest. An example of such community can be dog lovers, video gamers, etc. The people in such an area can interact with each other and share their opinions.
The platform of the insight community encompasses “incling, recollective, HatchTank, and FlexMR”.
6. Chatbot Groups
These platforms perform the function of engaging respondents in discussions about research. The bot part is movable in numerous tools of research.
7. User testing Research
This platform is designed for capturing the natural reactions of users during their navigation of a website. For this purpose, certain tools are used here for recording the voice, face, and screen of the respondents during their use of digital products. In this way, they are watched by their clients, who then come up with huge analytical tools designed for research. UserTesting, Lookback, and Loop11 are examples of user testing research.
8. Live streaming video of offline qualitative research
The function of this platform is more than just video streaming. It enables the relevant parties to check and view the profiles of respondents, post questions, and continue to chat with each other in the live session. The tools used for this purpose are time stamping and tagging. An example of this live streaming video is “Forsta.”
Benefits of online qualitative research
- It has a worldwide reach.
One of the benefits of online qualitative research is that it can be conducted across the world. Furthermore, it can be conducted in many languages.
- Some of the techniques are adapted to take advantage of the unique characteristics of the internet.
- The sample included in this research is superior as it represents the target audience in a better way. For example, the sample can be from rural areas and smaller cities. Similarly, the major urban cities can also be represented through this kind of research.
- There is no pressure from social goups.
- An online environment is created where everyone can discuss sensitive topics such as politics, money, etc.
- The participants can respond according to their convenience after reviewing the questions of the moderators.
- The response of the respondents can be deeper as they can think for longer due to their availability.
Tips for conducting online Qualitative Research
The following tips can be productively used to conduct online qualitative research:.
i. Diversity of participants:
Contrary to traditional qualitative research, it doesn’t require the recruitment of participants. The generally overlooked participants, such as busy professionals, parents, or people who cannot travel due to money or time factors, can be selected for the collection of the required information.
ii. Engage participants:
Qualitative research has the challenge of engaging its participants in the study. The researcher should look for some way to engage their participants in the study and collect more authentic responses from them.
iii. Mix the format of the research:
To make correct responses, it is required to mix the format of the research. For example, one way is to arrange a one-on-one video call to collect the required information. Then the researcher can study the videos of the participants, etc.
iv. Flexibility with responses:
The researcher can adopt flexible ways of recording the responses from the respondents. For example, they can either ask them to type their answers on the online discussion board or shoot a video to record their responses. In other situations, they can record their responses in an audio clip.
v. Combination of qualitative and quantitative findings for maximum benefits:
The qualitative and quantitative data can be combined to get a broader picture of the responses of the participants.