RR_09: Research design (2) - interview protocol

INTERVIEW PROTOCOL

Area I: Purposes and behaviors

The questions in this section will depend on the results of the surveys and the online observations, and will vary depending on the participants. However, some of the sample questions can be:

1. Your status updates seem to document your personal life. Can you comment on this? What kind of information about your personal life you would like to share with your friends on Kaixin? What information you do not like to share? How do you draw the line?
2. You do not seem to share much information about your personal life but re-post items from other sources very often. Can you comment on this? What motivate you to re-post items?
3. You have many friends on Kaixin or Renren who you do not personally know (you have not met in person). How did you become friends on Kaixin or Renren? Can you comment on that?
4. Among groups of classmates, friends, boyfriend, and family members, what group do you think you communicate most via Kaixin or Renren? Why?
5. You use a mobile device to use Kaixin or Renren a lot. What are the situations of using mobile access to Kaixin?
6. You seem to communicate with your friends a lot with private messages on Kaixin or Renren. What is the differences between using Kaixin or Renren private messaging and other messaging technologies such as email, mobile text messaging, or private messaging on other websites?

Area II: Technology adoption

1. Why did you start using Kaixin or Renren? What factors motivated you to do that?
2. How often did you use Kaixin or Renren when you first started using it? Is there an increase or decrease of use comparing now and then? Why do you think you have (not) increased or decreased your use of Kaixin?
3. What did you use Kaixin or Renren for mostly when you first started? What do you do use it most for now? Is there any change? Why?
4. Do you know how to use Kaixin or Renren better than when you first started? Do you use more features on Kaixin or Renren than when you first started? What are these features? What motivated you to use them now and/or what prevented you from using them in the beginning?

Area III: Usability problems and user's solutions

1. Do you consider Kaixin or Renren easy to use? Why or why not?
2. What about Kaixin or Renren that bother you or limit you from doing what you wish to do? How do you deal with these problems?
3. If you have a problem using Kaixin or Renren, what do you do? Why? (related to question # in the survey instrument)
4. Are you happy with the features and interface of Kaixin or Renren? Why or why not? What about it that you wish to change?
5. Are you happy with the general service Kaixin or Renren provides? Have you experienced breakdowns, errors, bugs, interruptions, loss of data, privacy violation, or other problems? Is information you need about how to use Kaixin or Renren accessible? How is your experience with technical support or customer service if any? How do these experiences affect your use of Kaixin or Renren?
6. What are other similar websites you are using? Do you use them more often than Kaixin or Renren? Why?

Area IV: Learning artifacts

1. Are there any promotional materials, user manual, online help, technical reviews, or other documents or artifacts that motivate you to Kaixin or Renren, help you learn to use it, or improve your use of it? What are they?

Area V: Characteristics unique to Kaixin and/or Renren compared to Facebook

Area VI: Personal perception

1. How important is Kaixin or Renren as part of your life? In what ways is it important or not important? How does it fit in your life? What made you think this way?
2. In what ways will your life change if you stop using Kaixin or Renren? How do you think these changes will affect your life in general?

RR_08: Research design (1)

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

1. How do cultural contexts affect the design of Web 2.0 websites/applications for social affordances?
2. How do users localize Web 2.0 websites/applications? In other words, how do users incorporate specific Web 2.0 websites/applications into their lives?

METHODS
I will conduct a comparative study between three groups of participants, Chinese users living in China, Chinese users living in the U.S., and U.S. users. The study will consist of three phases.

Phase 1: comparative analysis and heuristic evaluation

In this phase, I will conduct a comparative qualitative analysis and heuristic evaluation of the designs of the three websites, Facebook, Kaixin, and Renren. Dilger (2010) rightly argues that function is the “core value” in “Web 2.0 style” (p. 17). Therefore, the analysis and heuristic evaluation will focus on the functional characteristics (not only features) of the three websites—their similarities and differences. Meanwhile, with a user-centered approach, my analysis will be organized by the roles the users play when they use the websites, namely design characteristics for users as writers (creators and senders of information), and those for users as readers (receivers of information).

The purpose of the analysis and evaluation is to identify the distinct characteristics in the design of the three websites. The results of the analysis and evaluation will be used in formulating specific questions for further inquiry in how the properties of the websites afford the users' activities in their sociocultural contexts and how they fit in the users' lives. The results in this phase will be used to design the survey instruments, interview instruments, and the guideline for observations in the next two phases.

Phase 2: surveys and activity report/diary study

In this phase, I will conduct email surveys with the participants. The survey instruments will be designed based on the results of the comparative analysis and heuristic evaluation of the three websites. The survey instruments will cover questions in three areas. First, the participants' demographic information and their use of social networking websites in general. Second, the users' specific use of one of the three websites, one that they use most frequently and most integrated in their lives. Third, some additional questions on their experience with and perceptions of different website among the three if applicable.

Meanwhile, the participants will be asked to log their activities on one of the three websites that they use most frequently for a specific period of time (e.g., 3-4 days). This log will include all of the user's activities on the website. The participants will be asked to record the content of specific messages occurred during this time if they are willing to. If they do not agree to share the content, they will be asked to report some basic information of the messages such as the purpose and the length.

The data analysis in the phase will be both quantitative and qualitative. The goal is to identify the users' goals, choice of tools/features, and problems/breakdowns of use.

Phase 3: in-depth semi-structured interviews and fieldwork/observation

These are qualitative case studies of individual use of the sites. The interviews will follow up the issues identified in the surveys and activities log/diary analysis. The participants will be asked to explain their perceptions, preferences, activities and behaviors revealed in the second phase of the study.

Then field observations will be conducted in the familiar environments (mostly likely their homes) of some volunteering participants. The participants will be asked to use the Internet as they typically do, while think aloud what they are doing and why they are doing it. The observation sessions will be videotaped.

The data collected in this phase will be transcribed and analyzed qualitatively. Each participant who participate in this phase will be an individual case study of the use of these websites in his/her specific context.

SITES SELECTION

The study will be conducted in Kunming, China and Atlanta, GA, U.S.A. The two cities are similar in size and regional status. Kunming is a Southwestern city in China, the capital city of Yunnan province. As of 2008, Kunming has a population of 5,290,000 (National Bureau of Statistics of China [NBSC], 2008). It is the economic, cultural, and political center in Yunnan province, and is China's gateway to Southeast Asia. Kunming is also a historical city that has had human settlers since as early as 30,000 years ago, and has been a cultural and political center in the region since the 3rd century BCE (Encyclopædia Britannica, 2010).

Atlanta, GA, is the capital city of the State of Georgia in the Southeast of the U.S. As of July 1, 2008, Atlanta metro area has an estimated population of 5,729,304 (U.S. Census Bureau [USCB], 2008). The city is the economic, cultural, and political center in Georgia and the Southeast U.S., and is a transportation hub in the region. Atlanta is a historical city as well, developed with the railroads in the 19th century and was a major city in the Civil War and the Civil Rights Movement. Both cities can to a certain extent represent medium to large metropolitan cities in their respective countries. They also share similar status as historical cities where cultural traditions of the region are preserved.

WEBSITE SELECTION

The websites selected in this study will be two Chinese social network websites, Kaixin (www.kaixin001.com), and Renren (www.renren.com), a U.S.-based website social network Facebook (www.facebook.com). These websites are chosen because they represent the most accepted and successful practice of social network website design in China and the U.S. respectively, evidenced by their large number of users and heavy traffic. Built in 2004, Facebook is the most successful social network website in the world. According to Alexa (2010a), a web information company that tracks the traffic of all websites in the world, Facebook's traffic ranks the second in the world, only second to Google,1 and 927, 483 websites link to it.2 Kaixin's traffic ranks the 123rd in the world and the 20th in China, and has 3,089 websites linking in (Alexa, 2010b). Renren's traffic ranks the 109th in the world and the 18th in China, and has 1,840 websites linking in (Alexa, 2010c). The three websites are very similar in their design and the two Chinese websites are the most popular of their kind in China, where Facebook, undoubtedly the most popular social network website in the world, is blocked by the government. The popularity of these websites among Chinese and U.S. users makes them representative of most users' choice of social network websites.

References

kaixin001.com. (2010, October 10). Retrieved October 10, 2010, from http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/kaixin001.com

Kunming. (2010). Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/324836/Kunming

renren.com. (2010, October 10). Retrieved October 10, 2010, from http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/renren.com

National Bureau of Statistics of China. Main social and economic indicators of provincial capitals and cities specially designated in the state plan. (2008). Retrieved from http://www.stats.gov.cn/tjsj/ndsj/2009/html/K1003e.htm.

U.S. Census Bureau. Annual estimates of population of combined statistical areas: April 1, 2000 to July 1, 2008. (2008). Retrieved from http://www.census.gov/popest/metro/CBSA-est2008-annual.html.