Mobile sensory research

Mobile sensory research a new mobile research method... 

But as for any other trend, there are not only pros but also cons to mobile sensory research. The development of an own-research app is first of all connected to high costs. Like aU innovations in their early adoption phases, apps too require new competencies. Since the knowledge on how to implement new technologies is mostly non-existent in the early phase, services need to be bought in either as individual or off-the-shelf solutions. This saves costs but reduces freedom and independence in-home solutions secure independence but are mostly rather time and cost intensive. Mobile research has further critical limitations, such as limitations on the number of... 

Since, especially for consumer journeys, it is important to measure product liking at the right place and time, we have chosen the consumer journey of a body care product as case study because it nicely offers the opportunity to assess the strengths and weaknesses of mobile sensory research. 

Taking all previously gathered information into consideration, we conclude that mobile research delivers benefits additional to those of traditional sensory research, such as high external and ecological validity as well as rapid data delivery (see Table 21.1). That is why we believe it to be worth being considered as new approach in the sensory community. 

Materials science associated with fracture mechanics has mainly been confined to composite materials such as concrete, ceramics and metals. Much of the emphasis of the research has been on preventing fatigue and failure rather than designing for it to occur. The way a structure deforms and breaks under stress is crucial for properties such as flow and fracture behaviour, sensory perception of structure, water release and the mobility and release of active compounds. In the case of foods, the ability to break down and interact with the mouth surfaces provides texture and taste attributes. The crack propagation in a complex supramolecular structure is highly dependent on the continuous matrix, interfacial properties and defects and the heterogeneity of the structure. Previous structure-fracture work has dealt with cellular plant foods, and it has been demonstrated that the fracture path differs between fresh and boiled carrots due to cellular adhesion and cell wall strength as well as cell wall porosity and fluid transport (Thiel and Donald 1998 Stoke and Donald 2000 Lillford 2000). 

Testing consumer insight using mobile devices a case study of a sensory consumer journey conducted with the help of mobile research... 

The story is qnite different, however, in the context of IHUTs, which are getting more and more popular since producers are increasingly also interested in high external validity. In IHUTs, consumers test products as they normally use them, and answer a paper/pencil questionnaire afterwards or go to their PC and fill in an online questionnaire. For this type of research, switching to mobile devices does offer clear advantages compared to data collection via paper/pencil or PCs that are linked to different problans. Paper/pendl questionnaires need to be posted back to the research agency and coded in order to be analysed. Online questionnaires that are answered on the respondent s PC often go hand in hand with a place and time break (i.e. products are e.g. tested in the kitchen and the questionnaire is answered in the workroom or living room). This results in such problems as biased data due to distorted memory, especially for sensory and affective experiences. 

The previously presented and discussed case study of a consumer journey conducted with the help of mobile research was not only carried out to better understand consumer journeys of a sensorial perceivable product, but also to gather insights on the methodology of mobile research. In the course of the survey we as researchers, but also our respondeuts, gained experiences that were positive but also, to some degree, negative the recruitment of the respondents proved to be more challenging because we did not only need to consider the standard recruitment ... 

A journey assessment is especially relevant for products that are consumed over a longer period of time and for which a change of their sensorial characteristics occurs and assessments (answering a short questionnaire) that need to be done not only at different points of time but also at different locations. Since mobile research offers the... 

To draw a final conclusion, we would like to come back to the title of this book - rapid sensory profiling techniques. So is mobile research a rapid method ... 

To answer this question, we first need to understand that mobile research is not a sensory method as such, but rather an auxiliary that can be applied to facilitate existing sensory methods. Mobile devices can be used in standard CLTs and IHUTs - two possible ways of gathering information about products. Since CLTs - as the name already implies - take place at one or few location(s), mobile devices are more related to difficulties (e.g. small screens, more difficult data entry) than advantages and can thus not really be recommended. 

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