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Project Scope & Methodology

1. The project will begin with an extensive phase of desk research taking in academic and commercial thought on the impact of social media and online technologies on consumers. The term ‘technologies’ spans current devices with online capabilities including mobiles, iPad, PC/Laptop/Netbooks, gaming systems, e-readers and MP3 players.

2. This will be followed with a qualitative stage consisting of a longitudinal diary study with 15 households. Sampling will be based around household structure to ensure thorough understanding and evidencing of the varied scope and influence of digital technologies. The aim of this phase is to unpick the digital mindset (i.e. attitudes, attachments and dependency on digital technologies) that characterise those within the household in addition to documenting household behaviours and technology use.

3. The diary study will run for a period of a month and will apply a mixed method approach including the following to ensure that the household structure, individuals and the relationships between household members and with digital technologies are fully understood. The diary study will include:

a. An individual questionnaire completed by all household members.

b. A summary of the household structure including a technology audit and mapping key rooms.

c. 3 face to face interviews – a beginning one as a household, individual interviews during the study and a closing interview as a household.

d. All household members will be asked to keep an online diary to record their digital use and experiences. The diary study will be moderated on a daily basis, giving a continuous dialogue with participants.

e. Participants will be asked to complete a series of structured tasks during the study and record their experiences in their online diary.

i. Participants will be asked to live without key devices (internet, mobile etc) and report on their experiences.

ii. ‘A day in the life’ recordings. Selected participants will be asked to keep a video diary of certain days and events during the study.

iii. At the end of the day, pairs of participants will be asked to record the day’s key new events and importantly, chart the devices, locations and sources which had been used to acquire this understanding

iv. Shared news task. Using the same structure as (iii), ask participants to record their understanding of the days news events but using specific devices and sources, as instructed.

4. A 1,000 response survey will quantify key themes and trends.

The survey will be representative of the UK population, by key demographics and income. The analysis will also be structured around the family types researched within the diary study. The survey will blend online surveys and telephone surveys to ensure it is fully representative of the UK population.

5. Building on our previous projects of ‘Digital Ageing’ and ‘Internet on the Move’, we will use factor analysis and cluster analysis to create a ‘universal’ segmentation to explain ‘digital lives’ in the UK in 2011.