In this blog we explore how remote Mobile Ethnography offers a compelling solution for exploratory UX and Design Researchers looking to undertake qualitative research in a hybrid new normal.

Over the recent past, we have witnessed a huge behavioral shift as a result of digital transformation. Digital is the new buzz word for all of our activities - from meetings to payments and grocery shopping. In a way, the pandemic has fast-tracked the move of everything to online. Customers have been seeking more convenient and accessible options for a long time so one could argue the move to remote and digital especially for retail and the hospitality sector was only a matter of time.

Customers are now casting their votes with purchases and only choose experiences that add value to the process. Websites are now the shop fronts with the home page replacing a greeting at the entrance and instant chats replacing store assistants. With the ever-growing competition, UX and Design are taking a central stage recreating the personal, intimate experience the users seek as a substitute for the in-person contact they are used to.

The need for doing remote exploratory UX research

The massive shift towards digital has greatly expanded the audiences using online tools. Services and platforms formerly only used by younger people are now experiencing large influxes of senior shoppers. While being a great opportunity for online business growth, it also imposes many UX research and design challenges for brands.

With new audiences lacking the digital experience many online processes can be too complex and require additional support which can overwhelm customer care teams. Customer support teams transitioning to working from home adds an additional strain on the efficiency and level of care, leaving the ever increasing numbers of online shoppers frustrated and unable to find any support. 

Designing omni-channel shopping experiences

Omni-channel e-commerce will certainly become the new normal. Not only will the purchase journey become digital, so will after purchase care and support. This is a huge experience design challenge for brands who need to embrace digital transformation.

Omni-channel will put significant strain on all delivery services. Backlogs and delays during the pandemic are understandable however, it is predicted that even after the lock down measures are lifted, social distancing will still be encouraged, and online purchases will still be the preferred way to shop.

Impacts of disrupted logistics are no longer exclusive to small enterprises and have begun to affect retail giants like Amazon - who have been forced to change their business model and are still turning away the shipments of ‘non-essential’ goods.

This suggests adapting business models to ‘delivery-first’ and designing a seamless, omni-channel shopper experience will be essential. Companies must now re-think their logistics and supply chain and possibly move away from the most cost-efficient approach to one driven by data and new customer demands. 

This will be a huge experience design challenge and understanding the context of all actors in an omni channel shopping new normal will be a critical UX research requirement.

The hybrid working experience

The shift to hybrid working will also require a fundamental redesign of the employee experience. As more and more people are now working remotely, ensuring strong communications and improved workflows will be essential. Through smart, empathetic and data-driven design it will be easier to ensure continuous employee engagement and higher motivation that will fuel organisational change.

These are only some of the experience design challenges all organisations can expect to be faced with over the next few months. As uncertainties grow making smart, data-driven design decisions are essential to ensure long term success of the business in the new economic landscape.

Having the ability to remotely research customers, employees and partners on a more intimate level can help in designing a UX and CX that stands out from that of competitors and creates a truly valuable experience. Leveraging research methodologies such as mobile ethnography can be a key to future experience design success. Thanks to its agile and remote capabilities, mobile ethnography offers an invaluable insight into ‘in-context’ and in-the-moment experiences - and how they shape any user journey. The need to understand this is a critical requirement for all UX research teams designing for a hybrid new normal.  

What is Mobile Ethnography in the context of UX research? 

Ethnography is a qualitative research methodology that originated in anthropology and was employed for gathering empirical data on societies and cultures. Data collection was done through in-field participant observation and the recording of field notes. Traditional Ethnographic Research aimed to describe the culture of those who were studied (i.e. to describe a people, an ethnos) through writing.

Mobile Ethnography now makes it possible for UX researchers to remotely do exploratory research with users in any location, at any time via smartphone. ‘Mobile’ has made ethnography affordable to every brand, where once it was merely the exclusive preserve of major brands with the deep pockets to employ the method. As a result, more and more UX researchers and Experience designers are now using Mobile Ethnography and Diary Studies as  cost-effective, scalable solutions to carry out remote user experience research.

How Mobile Ethnography can support your UX and Design Research

Understanding the customer and employee journey and designing around their needs is the key to making any UX design efforts successful. With the 4G and smartphone revolution most people now use their mobile phones for all their research and shopping. With Indeemo’s Mobile Ethnography App, UX research teams can capture the everyday lives of your users through notes, photos, video, and mobile screen recording.

Mobile Ethnography has a unique capability to give you an in-depth understanding of ‘in-context’ and in-the-moment user experiences, helping paint a clearer picture of the brand touchpoints and how all stakeholders experience a particular product or service. 

Conclusion

As we are now entering a new, normal characterized by profound uncertainty with many opportunities and threats not yet fully understood. It is thus important to generate rich, exploratory UX insights into how to best re-invent a new augmented journey. 

Data-driven design will be key in creating the new experience and can fuel the organizational growth even through the crisis. With the support of mobile ethnography, exploratory UX researchers and experience designers will be able to create a more agile business model that truly stands out from competitors through creating an exceptional customer journey. 

The Indeemo App and the UX Researcher Dashboard means that collecting, moderating and analyzing experience insights is easier, quicker and more insightful than ever before. By visualizing every touchpoint with various channels you can quickly collate your data to see what the user / customer journey is really like.

With features like mobile screen recording and desktop recording, rating, customizable tags and journey mapping you’ll be able to walk in your respondent’s shoes and get a really intimate, honest insight.  Having one comprehensive, familiar tool to complete your analysis will also save your team time and money and remove the guessing.

About Indeemo

Indeemo's mobile ethnography app and qualitative research platform helps researchers, designers, Insights teams, and brands capture authentic, in-context, in-the-moment behaviors and feelings that help them better understand what really matters to their customers. By merging mobile, video, and private social networking technologies, Indeemo's agile, mobile ethnography solution delivers rich, contextual insights at scale and in real-time.

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