Changing Face of Online Research

Issues and challenges familiar to offline researchers are becoming more dominant online, according to some of the UK industry's best known Internet specialists. An article in next week's MRWho looks at trends in online research, touching on panel recruitment, accompanied surfing, 'inclusion' regulations and skills needs.

Whereas senior appointments will often ask about experience of Internet research, the key skills for a junior or middle-ranking recruit - and to a great extent for senior people too - are traditional research skills and aptitudes. It is possible to teach online techniques and thinking in a relatively short space of time, says the article.

One area in which mainstream online MR agencies are thought to be lacking is UI (User Interface) techniques. Accompanied surfing exercises (ie a respondent sitting in front of a screen with a researcher and trying out a site) are a vital element of Web site research but can fail to produce truly useful data, the article suggests, even if project execs take over the task instead of leaving it to interviewers.

MRWho is published most months and distributed as a .pdf file by email. Subscription is free. To subscribe please email mrwho@mrweb.com stating your name, job title, company name, email address and the country in which you are based. The March edition appears early next week.

More details of MRWho at www.mrweb.com/who

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas unless otherwise stated.