How To Find Golden Treasures When Doing Research
There is this irking and pesky little thing about trying to do some research online and that is always coming across sources you can’t use. Wikipedia, anyone? It is the first resource on a Google search and probably the one that most people read first. Yikes! It definitely isn’t the most reliable, but doesn’t Wikipedia always have it all?
How do I begin my research?
Before jumping into the black hole that is Google, I need to first come up with a goal for my task. What is the purpose of my research? I had been given the task of doing some research on a prominent trend in interactive media. My goal is then to learn what fueled the rise of this trend, who adopted this trend when it was just a baby and what are the future predictions when it reaches maturity. Therefore, I am looking for “causes”, “adopters” and “predictions”. Anything that doesn’t fit these categories will not make the cut.
How do I search for my data?
If I were to do some research for one of the biggest trends in interactive media, I would make sure to know first what kind of sources I need. If anything, technology news is extremely buoyant and thus it can be exasperating trying to find references online worth securing as convincing.
I will be looking for evidence, statistics, claims and a guarantee that the author has some credibility. Everyone has a voice online, but people decide to use it in different ways. The graphic below depicts the value of sources you may come across when doing research being the lower levels the least recommended. The availability of ideas and opinions is plenty; but that of evidence-based pieces of information (which top the pyramid) is very limited. It is extremely easy to find biased articles and blog posts when the authors fail to offer a contrasting viewpoint and even by forgetting to disclose their investment in the issues. The higher up the pyramid, the more trustworthy the information will be.
How do I collect my research?
I obviously don’t have the time to spend hours and hours browsing through Google to render these sources. Unlike the saying, it is sometimes in your best interest to have the “mountain” come to you instead of you becoming Muhammad having to make it all the way up there. For this, you use search tools such as keywords, boolean operators and set up Google Alerts.
For instance, setting up an alert for “self-driving cars” is not as precise as “self-driving cars AND Tesla”. Both pertain to the same topic but the former may probably render the most unrelated information, while the latter may narrow down your search to technical publications that are specifically talking about Tesla’s adoption of autonomous vehicles.
How do I organize my data?
After I collect all the data, I still need to remove the snow from the road to make the path easier to see. This is when data sorting process needs to be done. I was first exposed to this process during an observation assignment and I was pleasantly surprised by troublesome it can be without a clear agreement on the goal of the research.
As I start to notice patterns and themes, this is where the gains from this whole arduous process start to be reaped. There are going to be key drivers and key players who are slowly shifting this ever changing industry. These are often Microsoft, Google, and even Tesla, but every once in a while someone like you and me can spot a trend early enough to be able to jump in the game. Perhaps after finding out where this trend came from and who is using it, you may able to make predictions for yourself.
What do I do with my findings?
So if your boss asked you to do some research and you have spent hours collecting, filtering, organizing and analyzing data to create an unbeatable report on a hot trend, you will definitely have surpassed your boss’ expectations. However, remember you have some “gold” here, so it is up to you to decide whose eyes get to enjoy this new little treasure of yours.
References
Deloitte. (2017). Tech Trends 2018. Retrieved April 17th, 2018, from https://www2.deloitte.com/insights/us/en/focus/tech-trends.html
Google. (n.d.). How to search on Google. Retrieved April 17th, 2018, from https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/134479?hl=en
Maricopa. (n.d.). Types of Evidence/ Understanding Research Articles. Retrieved April 17th, 2018, from https://learn.maricopa.edu/courses/804760/pages/types-of-evidence-slash-understanding-research-articles?module_item_id=4859570
