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Our observations of the world around us
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The Livescribe Pulse Smartpen, Part 1: Anticipation
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We are eagerly anticipating the arrival of the newest addition to our data collection and analysis quiver: the Livescribe Pulse Smartpen. And just in time, as Justine and I headed into the field (Raleigh, N.C. and Denver, Colo.) to learn about the new home buying and customization process. Our primary task will be ethnography: lots of observation, inquiry, video capture, and note taking, all within limited spaces. The challenge, as always, will be making sense of the pages of notes during observation. We’re hoping the Smartpen makes it a little easier.
The Smartpen is just that – a writing instrument that does much more than put ink on paper. It helps give context to all those scribbles. Here’s how USA Today described it recently: “[It] writes in ink like any ordinary pen. But your Bic can’t perform clever stunts like this. You can record audio while you sketch or scribble, then play it all back through a built-in speaker with a tap of the pen…”In the past, we’ve had success using other text analysis tools. One of my personal favorites is Concordance, an app that allows for proximity searches and high frequency word analysis of transcript text documents. I love the results and even more so love the casual tone of the messages you receive throughout such as “This is a very large file and will produce a huge concordance. Proceed anyway?” (You’ve gotta love R.J.C. Watt, web pioneer and the author of the app.)
But this next project has an aggressive timeline and we ‘re hoping for a quicker way to “relive” the experience without having to use Concordance or go back and watch video to sync it with our notes. Chris Rockwell came across the Smartpen and ordered it for us. We can’t wait to discover the data analysis goodness we hope it will bring. For starters, we hope it will:• Keep us from having to track time codes while we are busy observing.
• Give us good quality audio without having to carry around a separate piece of technology.
• Help us to better make sense of our messy notes—and faster!
• Attach quotes to images/words stimulus chosen during the participatory exercises.
• And, of course, let us be the first in the office to use such a cool new device. (Professional rivalries here? Nooo…)Stay tuned for our follow-up post, “The Livescribe Pulse Smartpen: Part 2: Judgment Day.”
