our research is our method, not separate from
deeply involving a community means people > research process > your own wants and needs
small orgs often don’t have time to do the research collabs they want to do and big orgs don’t have consistent strategy across isolated teams
‘Move Slow and Learn Things’ -> move at the speed of users and accommodate their needs and prior experiences
goals: understanding a problem space / building a preliminary solution / validating previous research / insights for advocacy
doing desk research on specific communities before approaching them or defining research goal is really important - they’ve often posted public blog posts, accounts, articles etc already on the troubles they’re facing - don’t want to waste anyone’s time
is there a need for an academic scholarly framing in research for it to be vigorous
the complexities of tech systems / social systems makes it more difficult to question, we need interdisciplinary work for that
moving away from current conceptions of robust/reliable/legitimate
don’t bring everything into the sameness, work within relationality - bring the coexisting differences
participant sampling - can’t represent an entire population - purpose and strategic sampling to see who offers meaningful insight, or who can help deepen and clarify understanding of particular issues

Resources

Overview of some quantitative, qualitative and mixed research methods (and stuff on usability testing and useful case study) here ^bf9418
https://praguk.wordpress.com/glossary-of-terms/methodology/
Sage Research Methods Online

methodology is the overall approach, why and how
connect your question to the theories of others
research methods are the specific tools and activities

a thesis is
- writing a really long proof of why the question/hypothesis works and how your work proves it
a thesis can be
- you’re allowed to eg build on other open source stuff
- both practise-based and practise-led
- mixed methods
how to pick focus
- what do i want to change
- what makes me angry
- what do i want to do for months
- start with why
- what is the story you want to tell
- what do you want to convince people of
how to pick methodology/frameworks
- what are your values
- what is supported by prior theory and practise
- what integrates an ethics of care
research done with care
- contributing to community with this knowledge
- addressing underpinning social/economic/political injustices
- avoid repeating previous mistakes (thorough literature review)
- aware you have blindspots (even on your blindspots)
- proving reliability (consistency of measure) and validity (accuracy of measure)
- defensible - you should be able to defend your research, own what you say

scheduling regular reflection understand the limitations and successes

reflecting isn’t just looking back but shaping direction how is it informed by your positionality

Ways to reflect Collective • Brainstorm • Groupchat • Interview • Peer Feedback • Reading Group Personal • Diary • Ethical Review • Mapping • Notebook/Sketchbook • Position Statement • Voice Recording

research direction

research direction over concept
what it is you want to explore or test or find out
what is the project doing and what are you trying to understand
performing slow labour

what actually is a research question

Not yet unanswered
Open ended (not a yes or no question)
Specific clear and concise
A structuring mechanism
A work in progress
Your guide along the way

you need to do research to find research to do