Field research is the process of collecting data directly from the source rather than relying on secondary and tertiary sources. Conducting field research isn’t easy in today’s digital world. But with a little creativity and resourcefulness, it’s not as difficult as some people might think. We live in an information-rich society where data is accessible at our fingertips almost anytime, anywhere. With that in mind, it should come as no surprise that there are plenty of tools out there to make your job easier when conducting field research. Here are 7 useful tools to conduct field research in the information age:

What is Field Research?

Field research is the process of collecting data directly from the source rather than relying on secondary and tertiary sources. Field research is conducted in the field - that is, in the real world, where it actually happens. It is not conducted in the laboratory. It is a way of investigating human behavior outside of a laboratory setting.

Why is Field Research Important?

Field research is important because it is the only way to understand and observe a person’s behavior in a real-world setting. Laboratory experiments are artificial, and the results are not applicable to real-world scenarios. Field research allows researchers to observe people in contexts that reflect their daily lives. It also allows them to collect data in ways that reflect real-world practices. As a result, the insights gained from field research are generalizable to the target population. Field research is also useful because it allows researchers to observe and record naturally occurring events. When researchers use laboratory experiments, they can control some aspects of the setting and the events that occur. But they cannot control everything, and the situation is not a real-world scenario.

Ubiquitous Recording Device: Smartphone

A smartphone is a versatile field research tool. It can record audio and video, take photographs and a host of other things. Depending on the smartphone, one can even conduct remote interviews. While the microphone quality on smartphones may not be at par with a dedicated digital audio recorder, it’s good enough for most of the field research situations. And of course, it’s more convenient to have everything in one device.

Remote Interviewing Tools

If you’re conducting an interview remotely, a good research tool for remote interviews is Zoom. Zoom is a video conferencing tool that lets you conduct one-on-one interviews. It supports video, voice, and even lets you share documents. A nifty feature of Zoom is the video recording. You can turn the feature on, and it will record the entire interview. You can then use it to transcribe the recording later.

Conclusion

The conduct of field research is important to situational and cultural researchers since it is the only way to acquire authentic data. Field research provides the researcher with a chance to see the situation or culture in which research is being conducted and to interact with the people in that situation. It gives the researcher a chance to view the setting and the events as they occur naturally, without any interference from the researcher. Field research is useful because it allows researchers to observe and record naturally occurring events. When researchers use laboratory experiments, they can control some aspects of the setting and the events that occur. But they cannot control everything, and the situation is not a real-world scenario.  Field research is the only way to acquire authentic data. It provides the researcher with a chance to see the situation or culture in which research is being conducted and to interact with the people in that situation. It gives the researcher a chance to view the setting and the events as they occur naturally, without any interference from the researcher. Field research is useful because it allows researchers to observe and record naturally occurring events. When researchers use laboratory experiments, they can control some aspects of the setting and the events that occur. But they cannot control everything, and the situation is not a real-world scenario.

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With Zorp, you can build an app for field research in minutes, manage workflows and create tasks around them. Zorp also has a dashboard where you can monitor all the research data collected.