Hi Martin and others,
Silvana's account of XSight and its goals is really helpful for other
users of current qualitative software. At QSR, we have for some years
had market researchers asking us about NUD*IST or NVivo, and always
responding to a demo by saying something like "that's great but my
deadlines are instant and my work doesn't require return to data..." We
decided that rather than shoe-horn such research tasks into our
qualitative software (or change NVivo to suit their very different
needs) we'd let them design a product for what they *do* want to do -
and XSight is the result. (It's the same principle that led us to
develop NVivo as a new product rather than replace NUD*IST - there's
fabulous variety out there in the qualitative world and no one product
can or should try to serve all the researcher needs.)
The latest QSR newsletter has answers to questions about the relevance
(or not) of XSight to more traditional qualitative researchers. And
there's a "product tour" showing how it works on the website if you're
curious about this very different product.
http://www.qsrinternational.com.
So, XSight is quite explicitly not designed for academic qualitative
research or teaching - but we do expect that some projects and some
courses may use it, for some purposes. It's for quick research where new
reliability and credibility is wanted - an MR researcher told me he
thought of it as quick and clean! The Durham conference in September
will include a sharp look at this other world of qualitative work, as
will the CAQDAS day Tom and I are doing on Wednesday 8 September on
teaching with software.
cheers,
Lyn
Lyn Richards, Director, Research Services, QSR.
(Email) [log in to unmask]
(Ph) +61 (03) 9840-1100. (Fax) +61 (03) 9840-1500
(Snail) Second floor, 651 Doncaster Rd.,
Doncaster, Vic 3108, Australia.
http://www.qsrinternational.com
-----Original Message-----
From: qual-software [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of
SdG Associates
Sent: Sunday, 4 April 2004 5:53 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: XSight
Hi Martin and others interested,
I've beta tested XSight and have already used it while observing a
usability
evaluation of the product.
It is a completely new product and bears no relation to N6 or NVIVO. It
is
aimed at the market research market although I think there may be some
interest in the product in the academic market - particularly in
business/management schools.
Its purpose is to help those who do research which requires a quick
turnaround. So there is no need to work from transcripts - although you
can - but you can work from notes or you can work live in XSight itself.
That is what I did in my observation of the usability evaluation.
Participants were asked to work through a semi-structured protocol to
see
how they were able to navigate around XSight. They were asked to 'think
out
loud' as they explored the software. I was in another room watching a
live
time video of them. I could see the screen of their computer, so I
could
see how they were exploring the software. There was also an inset video
of
their head and shoulders at the bottom of the screen - so I could see
their
expressions. And I could hear what they were saying. I made notes
directly
into XSight. I also marked them up onto analysis frameworks which were
based on the protocol of the evaluation. So I could copy and paste
verbatim
quotes from my notes into the appropriate part of the framework. I
could
also add my summaries of their comments and add my interpretations. I
successfully did this for 3 separate participants - which was done over
1
day. I could then quickly produce tables to compare the 3 participants
on
various topics - e.g. what they liked best about the program, what they
liked least, what was easy, what was hard, the terminology etc. In the
tables, I would see their full verbatims or my summaries. And I could
filter and reorganise the tables to focus on certain issues. I could
also
search my frameworks or my notes. And I could also write a report
directly
in XSight which would be in a format ready for WORD or PowerPoint. This
is
a key feature of the product - the ability to write a report or a
presentation which can be exported directly to PowerPoint or WORD. In
my
little experiment above, I could have had a top line report done under
24
hours - as the inputting of the data was done live while I was
observing.
The people who were really doing this research would have gone through
the
videos again and do a more careful analysis in XSight.
One of the basic differences is that you are not coding as you do in
traditional CAQDAS software. You are marking up transcripts or notes -
and
the key ones you are copying to the appropriate place in your framework.
You
are free to create any kind of framework you want but the programme
comes
with some structured frameworks - such as brand sorts and concept
development.
You are probably wondering how the people I observed rated the software.
Well, it would not be fair for me to comment because I was not there for
all
the evaluation trials. And I did not have the opportunity to review the
videos again. But what people liked was the way it integrated the data
with
report writing and interpretation. The ability to produce good quality
PowerPoint presentations was a very important consideration. It still
requires some training but not to the same extent as other CAQDAS
software.
My feeling is about a day. For academic researchers who require in-depth
analysis you would be better off with the other CAQDAS software
available.
But for straight forward market research and focus groups which require
a
quick turnaround, XSight will be extremely useful. It will not require
the
large investment in time of learning an academic CAQDAS software or a
lot of
time invested in document preparation and coding. And the benefit of
producing your presentation directly in the software is a big timesaver.
I will be offering training and consulting in XSight in the near future.
Silvana
Dr. Silvana di Gregorio
SdG Associates
Research & Training Consultants
Tel/Fax: +44-(0)20-8806-1001
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
Web-site: www.sdgassociates.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Martin Stoll" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, April 02, 2004 6:51 PM
Subject: Re: Please Unscubscribe me
> must say that Unscubscribing is a completely different kind of a verb
-
> Unscub (something to do with the UN and WMD or is it something to do
with
> scuba diving?)
>
> Anyway real reason for mailing is to ask if you know anything about
the
> latest offering from QSR - called Xcite. There is a slick
presentation on
> their website
> http://www.qsrinternational.com/products/productoverview/XSight.htm
and
they
> are advertising in the market research press... is it just a cut down
> version of N6 NVIVo or is it something new and different?
>
> Regards
>
> Martin
>
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