Having difficulty interviewing children? Use mobile methods!

Concepting school food through mobile research with children: a case study for the Municipality of Copenhagen

by Julie Gade

This case study is about a mobile study with children done for the Municipality of Copenhagen. The Municipality wanted to reform the food in public primary schools of Copenhagen. In the pre-studies they wanted to gain knowledge on how school children experienced three different test concepts for school food.

However it was difficult to interview young school children using traditional face-to-face methods, therefore a study was initiated where children used mobile phones to document their behaviours and thoughts with images, video and text. The children shared their documentation through an online space for collecting mobile research. They also commented on each others photos and videos online, thus creating online conversations around food and breaks in school. At the end of the study, selected children participated in a group discussion and created short films about their experiences, based on the mobile documentation.

The study gave the Copenhagen Municipality a deep insight into how the children experienced the food concepts designed for them. The insights gained were extremely valuable as they were communicated through rich visual and narrative material.

To hear more about this case study, please join us at the International conference on Market Research in the Mobile World, 2-3 Dec 2010 in Berlin. Julie will be presenting this case study and will answer any questions you may have.

To see the speaker panel and the range of topics to be discussed at this conference, please visit:
http://www.merlien.org/upcoming-events/mrmw2010.html

Julie Gade (left) is the Founder and Managing director of Story Field. She has a Masters degree from the University of Copenhagen where she wrote a thesis on qualitative mobile research. She has previously worked for 3 years as a User Experience Consultant, for LBi Copehagen. Her work involves working closely with international clients, such as IKEA, Phillip Morris and Etihad Airways.