Curio Research Quarterly Vol. 23
Hello, curious people! Happy 2024, and welcome to the latest installment of my newsletter. I’m talking about leadership activities and using research to overcome misconceptions about sustainable choices in this issue.
Business
Work
I finished my contract with 10up and jumped into a project with Spatial Research + Design. With this project I’ll evaluate a new site design for a company owned by the British Columbian government. They introduced 1,000 new features and are trying to figure out how to make it easy for users to navigate them.
Spatial booked me into February to work on another project for the same company. That will combine interviews and participant diaries to evaluate a digital onboarding process with biometric identity checks. We will work around participants using personally identifying information without inadvertently capturing that sensitive data. It’ll be tricky but hopefully very beneficial to their users.
I will also enter phase 2 of the research project with SixZero, working with their client in the trades industry. Last quarter we conducted interviews with users on the shortcomings of the current app that handles onboarding and training of tradespeople, and as which features would be desirable in a new app. We got a lot of good information, and I delivered a report that laid out what is needed and why.
In phase two, we will take the concept designs from SixZero and show them to app users for feedback in a three-week interactive process.
Week 1 - Original concepts for feedback
Week 2 - Evaluate new designs based on the previous week’s feedback
Week 3 - Repeat Week 2
This iterative phase will lead into phase three, where SixZero creates a high-fidelity prototype for traditional usability testing.
Leadership
My term as president of the Qualitative Research Consultants Association is going well. I selected a board based on knowledge of the organization and congeniality, and it’s paying off.
I’ll lead a strategic planning session with the board before the conference. We’ll be reviewing and iterating on a fairly similar strategic plan to last year because we simply don’t move that fast, and my plan is to focus on small achievable goals. I volunteered to facilitate because the results will benefit my successors’ terms more than my own, and this way we don’t have to spend money on a facilitator.
The Website Task Force is also rolling along. We got UXTweak to sponsor the project in exchange for advertising at the annual conference and a listing in our directory. Now, we have access to a platform for tree testing and card sorting, which will be very important for the interviews starting in February.
Conferences
This year’s QRCA annual conference in Denver will be my big showboating moment. I’ll have to get on stage to make a speech, present the various awards, and lead the AGM/town hall.
While I usually look forward to learning as much as socializing, being on the board means I don’t get to do as much learning. Instead, I'll be glad-handing with sponsors, posting as much as possible about the conference on social media, and encouraging QRCA newcomers to join and volunteer.
Business and Sustainability
We are in the vibes economy. Even though all economic indicators and stock portfolios are going up, consumers constantly feel they’re on the edge of catastrophe. Persistent economic inequality and mass layoffs don’t help. Those bad vibes affect people’s economic and political choices, resulting in people acting against the evidence in favor of their gut feelings.
How do vibes affect our progress toward sustainability and greenhouse gas reductions? Living a low-impact lifestyle is complicated. You’re usually dealing in tradeoffs rather than obvious decisions. This means people may make choices that feel and appear more sustainable than they are.
A person who sources their omnivorous diet from the local farmers market may feel like they’re living the hippie high life, but they’re creating more CO2 consequences than a vegan getting everything they need from a big box store. Someone who drives an electric vehicle may feel a sense of environmental superiority. Still, they’ve got nothing on someone who lives in a walkable neighbourhood and opts for public transit for longer trips.
How can green businesses, civic organizations, and NGOs help people make evidence-based choices, even if the right choice doesn’t feel as earth-friendly and back-to-nature as the option that increases our carbon footprint? We need to do more thoughtful branding and messaging to either shift peoples’ perceptions of what sustainability looks like or make the correct option fit into their preconceived notions.
Imagine fake meats at the farmers market. Nuclear power plants sitting in the rolling fields of a nature sanctuary/carbon sink that used to be a garbage dump. Opting for investing in high-speed rail over a fleet of electric vehicles and a regional charging network.
Vibes matter. Public perception matters. We can’t just hand people evidence and expect them to make the right choice. We need to research the current mental paradigm and act accordingly, and qualitative methodologies are great for finding those opportunities. Logic plus emotion is a very effective combination if done well.
Personal
Travel
The holidays were slow for us. We went to a small town in the interior of British Columbia to spend Christmas visiting my in-laws. It was tranquil and uneventful.
I’m looking forward to arriving in Denver a few days before the QRCA conference to enjoy the city before the work begins. I’ve already planned on meeting other like-minded early arrivers for Sunday brunch at a drag bingo event not far from the hotel. Before and after that, who knows? I hear the Denver Museum of Art is pretty cool, and there are several outdoor spaces to wander through while experiencing near-freezing temperatures. It should be fun.
Media
There’s been a lot of good media to consume lately. Boy Genius, the post-pop all-female supergroup, dropped their album last year and it was named one of the best albums of the year by several outlets for good reason.
I am all for demonstrations of good breakups in media—less messy breakups being the norm. Relationships ending can be beautiful and happy with only the faintest twinge of melancholia.
My favorite mini-series is Normal People. I even made my friends watch it during the pandemic so they could love it with me.You root for the relationship, eventually succeeding, and it does succeed, just not in a predictable way. They break up, but it's a good breakup. They’re both better for having been together, and that’s what makes it beautiful.
the British comedy series Starstruck was a three-season marvel. A hapless woman who can’t seem to get her life together has a one-night stand with a movie star, which turns into a real relationship.Throughout three seasons, they break up and get back together until they finally break up for real in a final and healthy way that leaves them both open to more suitable and no less deserving partners. The fact it was clever and charming every step of the way didn’t hurt.
More of good breakups, please and thank you.
Giving Back
This past year, I focused my giving on supporting Better Environmentally Sound Transportation. They’re a local organization I have a lot of experience with as a local board member, and their entire mission is to help people make those evidence-based decisions regarding local and regional transportation.
Happy 2024! Enjoy your year. Do good things and make good choices.
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