A Unique Online Annotation Service That Works!

A unique study enabled me to use a unique online service with great results. The client wanted to know if the content being added to their corporate website is understandable, useful and believable to its intended audience. And, the study had to be conducted inexpensively, so live research was out of the question.

Think about it for a minute – how would you test reactions to an almost 20-page document using online qualitative methodologies? Most of the well-known online methods are not set up to meet the demands of this task, especially when you consider how you might analyze the results.

Lucky for me, when I was approached about this study I had recently reviewed the online products and services provided by iTracks and recalled what I regard to be a niche product called iMarkIt. I believe that it is designed for online concept testing. It allows participants to insert comments anywhere on a page. It is quite robust with many options which made it relatively easy to devise a way to make it work with this project.

I asked reviewers to read through the document which was divided into sections, and to insert comments as needed related to three main categories: “Hard to understand”, “Not helpful or relevant” and “Biased or untruthful”. Each time participants responded in one of these three ways to the content in the document they inserted the appropriate colored tag (similar to the tagged comments you see when using the Review function in Microsoft Word) and typed a quick clarifying text message. In total 55 participants read the document and left about 700 comments.

The product makes analysis easy by showing the “hot spots” in the document; the places where multiple participants inserted comments. You can also view all of the comments in a spreadsheet and sort them by participant or type. The final report quantified the overall reaction to the content and identified the areas that might benefit from revision. The entire process took a little more than a week to complete.

In my opinion, iMarkIt is a great tool and a great way to leverage the advantages of online research for projects requiring feedback in a quick and inexpensive manner that do not require the deep motivational insights provided by working live.

I believe that the number of creative solutions to fulfill unique qualitative market research needs has never been as wide-ranging. For me, finding the best tool for the job is a fascinating challenge.

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