I'm a huge fan of The Onion and happened to come across an old article of theirs titled "Focus Group Reveals: 95 Percent Of Americans Would Like to Go Home."  It's funny and a bit disheartening at the same time, only because it's mostly true... 

Let's face it, the focus group participant experience hasn't changed much since this article was written (1997) and isn't likely to change much over the next 10 years.  You can doll up a focus group room with a "creative" atmosphere and feed participants all the M&M's they can stomach, but it's still the same experience (ignoring for just a second the role of a great focus group moderator and stimulating topic :) 

It's time for change in the qualitative market research world...

It's time that qualitative market researchers started to think more about how to enhance the experience of research participants.  I've recently come across a few demonstrations of new and unique survey question types that draw on "Web 2.0" tools to enhance the experience of survey takers, but haven't seen great strides in the qualitative research space.

The question is how qualitative researchers can make the experience actually "fun" for participants.  I'm reminded of a favorite quote of mine from Plato - "You can learn more about a person from one hour of play than from a year of conversation."  As qualitative researchers, how can we harness the concept of "serious play" into a better overall experience for participants and tangible research findings for our clients? 

Online qualitative research (including online bulletin boards, online focus groups, online research communities, etc...) has helped to change the focus group experience since this Onion article was written, by allowing people to participate at their convenience from home or work and offering up new ways for people to express their thoughts and opinions.  That's a step in the right direction.  I think qual researchers can do better though...

What do you think? 

How can qualitative researchers make research "fun?"  What role will online research play in this (if at all)?  At PluggedIN, this is something we're always thinking about in our research communities and research community platform, but we're always on the lookout for the latest and greatest.  Am I just not catching what's "cool" in the qualitative world?

Comments are welcome!