Research Reflection

Using my research resources, I had aims and achievements I wanted to complete during the time allocated to my research. I firstly wanted to get to know my target audience, introduce them to the concept of Snapthat and finally what they would like from the app; on top of this, I wanted to get inspiration for how my apps branding would take form and how I would go about marketing the app. The most key element of my research was knowing that my app, although not being realistically launched, would be successful and popular with its target audience.

For my primary research, I used a variety of research methods such as a case study to get to know what made apps similar, successful- to handing out questionnaires and doing focus groups. All of my primary research was beneficial in one way or another to achieve a clear understanding of what made apps useable to what my target audience would desire from the app's concept, right down to choosing the name and colour themes that would make it disguised as a brand, I was also privileged enough to attend a talk on digital marketing by Google, to have a clear understanding of how I can digitally market successfully. For my secondary research, I read book Gen Y Why Not? A useless book which did not have enough educational material to boost my knowledge on my target audience, disregarding this I found some of my secondary research to boost my knowledge into a new direction especially when I considered things like competitors of Snapthat. In carrying out my research on multiple different platforms such as online, books and social media, I felt like I used such a large amount of resources to give a big variety to my research work.

I have criticised my book review choice a lot already but apart from that, no small piece of the research I have conducted will not help me in some way or another. I feel like the two surveys conducted by myself were the most beneficial to me in terms of being educated in what my target audience like in current apps, how they feel as a demographic and what I can do to make the app appealing to them. My secondary research helped me to cement my knowledge on knowing how current and popular apps are working and pinpointing design flaws and successes, before beginning my research I didn't have a clear idea of how I would design my app with its theme and layout for example but my discovering new apps through my research, I have a vision in mind. Whilst producing my research I have learnt a lot about creating a digital marketing plan, something I genuinely didn't know existed until the talk I attended. It was very beneficial for me to learn about what a digital marketing plan is and where to take one as a beginner with a mock company, taking the steps necessary to follow a strict action plan means that marketing should be successful, another key piece of information learnt from the talk given to us. I will use this and experiment with different marketing methods to find which one would suit 'Snapthat' the most.

The three most useful pieces of research I have conducted are probably the ones that I have referred to the most, my first has to be the second questionnaire I conducted. I believe this is due to the high level of responses I collected, having such a high volume means that I have collected data from a large group of participants in my target audience meaning the data is more accurate. Looking at similar apps and creating a case study on one specifically, analysing what worked and what didn't was also beneficial to me. In creating this case study I could really in depth about what the users think, which is a very important aspect, to how they market the app, something I will need to look closely into. Finally and similar to my previous research, creating an analytical piece on competitors of Snapthat was very important, in doing this, as a user I could understand how creators use apps content and positioning to make them user-friendly. In doing this I saved myself a lot of time and can also have a strong understanding of what my target audience would like from the app in order for it to be made successfully and without doing this research I do not think I would have the understanding to envision how it comes together like I do now.

Completing my research I feel like I now have the understanding of what my target audience would like from this app from knowing small details such as colours to us to large pieces of information such as which scene size I will be modelling the app's template in. My experimentation will come next in my FMP process, focusing in on the overall branding of the app such as the logo. My research being completed means that I now have the confidence to experiment knowing just how the data given back to me will influence this, I will refer back to my research during blog posts of my experimentation to show why I chose certain elements of my design work.