Thursday, April 7, 2011

Chapter 3 – Methodology



 In this dissertation, I will look into human psychology of adults and older adults, and find issues related to the usage of the internet and problems adults encounter when they start aging.  To help in determining this, various research methods will be used. Both quantitative and qualitative research will be conducted, because I will be looking for both few precise and detailed answers, and also a good amount of answers from various social classes that will help me throughout my findings.
Quantitative research will be carried out to middle aged individuals which I will be base my project on the findings I will get. Surveys will be conducted amongst different social classes and individuals who have different background and education. The reason is to find out how many individuals are willing to use the internet to shop, pay or use internet banking facilities and if they are willing or not to pay for a helping hand which will get them through these issues.
Since this dissertation will be focused on middle aged individuals, the quantitative research will be based on males and females over the age of 40. It is not known yet whether there are more males who make use of the internet or females. Males and females will also be questioned randomly, based on their education background and social statuses and not by their gender, but most importantly, the age will be fundamental and not other issues.
Over 50 middle-aged individuals have been questioned in this survey which I’m confident it will be enough to conduct some positive outcome for my research. In the survey, people will be asked whether or not they make use of the internet and consequently what they use it for. I may find that some people already make use of the internet and benefit from the online services while I may find other individuals who don’t make use of it at all. This dissertation project will not be based on any of these two last mentioned, but on individuals who make use of the internet but not yet of its benefits to pay bills or banking services, regardless of the reason behind this.
Individuals will be asked other questions such as if they are willing or not to pay for interactive animation CD that would help them through internet issues. Might be that I will get a negative response for that and will have to take actions accordingly. To help me understand better from whom I’m getting answers is the occupation field that has been added to determine what kind of education the individual was exposed to.
Another strategy for my quantitative research will be based on the official statistics found in NSO – National Statistics Office, Malta. A survey on ICT usage by households in 2008 revealed that internet access in Malta. The objective of this survey was to obtain relevant indicators on information communication technology usage by households and individuals in Malta and Gozo. The target population comprised persons who live in Maltese households and who are aged between 16 and 74. A sample of 1,500 from the target population was taken by selecting a random number of individuals. The first section of this survey was directed towards obtaining information on availability of ICT items within the interviewee’s household. The second section was aimed directly at the interviewee, thus enabling the NSO to obtain information on the personal use and preferences of the individual in this sector. These data are comparable to the data of other EU countries who participated in this exercise. These precise statistics will help in getting an accurate idea of the usage of the internet in Malta.

Qualitative research will consist of gathering information from books and websites as well as interviews. Interviews are proposed for this research, to various possible middle aged customers of my final product, which means I will be conducting interviews after my dissertation project is complete. In the interview, individuals will be asked whether the solutions I have proposed have succeeded or not. Other questions in the surveys will focus on the typography, white spaces, simplicity, timing and interactivity used in the project and if they have been effective or not.

From the books which I mentioned in the literature review, fruitful information will be gathered and collected to be further discussed in the findings chapter together with examples and references. The information gathered from these books and websites, helped determine what kind of questions should be asked when conducting the surveys and what questions to ask during the interviews to see whether these have made the right research.

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