With 2013 around the corner, we thought we’d look back on the trends our experts predicted over the last few years and give you an update on those past trends and let you know how they’ve developed or turned out. 
I’m going to put some insights here and I’d love to hear YOUR opinion on how these trends have come to pass today.
- Gamification – We said gamification was going to become prevalent and it has — but not as quickly or in the way we may have expected. Today, gamification inside of surveys most commonly occurs as respondent engagement and interaction with the survey instrument.
- Mobile – When we first talked about the mobile trend, Romi Mahajan talked about collecting feedback in the context of the experience. For example, instead of waiting for someone to ask us about an experience days or weeks later, we can use our mobile devices to deliver our feedback “in situ” as he called it. This is still the case — only more so. You can expect even MORE feedback via mobile. The challenges will be in integrating the data and transforming it into actionable decisions.
- Panel communities – Leonard Murphy, another of our expert panelists described it as a microcosm of social networking. The very context of panels is transforming from a group of people who share similar demographics to a community of people who are passionate about a specific topic. In fact, the set qSample.com is Survey Analytics step into that new world of panel communities. The qSample panel communities are motivated by the subject and the exchange of information rather than simply receiving a reward for answering questions.
- User experience – In our discussion in 2012, we talked about the fact that market research has traditionally NOT been very focused on the user experience. It’s not that we, as researchers, didn’t care, it’s that it never dawned on us that people could actually ENJOY or want to participate in a survey. What we’ve learned is that people LOVE interacting with platforms. It’s in this space that the gamification trend has most taken hold. “Touch screens and advanced online interfaces as well as our growing attachment and familiarity with our computers and mobile devices have made interactive, graphic and entertaining user experiences an absolute must-have in research and data collection.
LEARN ABOUT: User Experience Research
This is just a short recap of the trends we’ve been talking about in the past. We’d love to hear what YOUR experience has been with these trends. Do you see other trends or do you see these same trends expressing themselves in new and interesting ways?
Leave us your comments and we will incorporate them in future articles!
