Enterprise AR oriented research questions can be addressed by a mix of “tried & true” methodologies mostly developed in social sciences (e.g. survey research or IDIs), highly AR specific, technical methods (e.g. quantifying the impact of vergence-accommodation) or mix of these methodologies.
Research methodologies with a history in other disciplines have been extensively documented. For example, AAPOR has issued Best practices guidelines for survey research, QRCA for qualitative research, or the work HFES has done for defining technical standards in Human Factors and Ergonomics.
Choosing the right methodology is a critical step towards ensuring research quality. Research quality refers to the match between the research question and method, selection of subject, measurement of research outcomes, and protection against systematic bias, nonsystematic bias, and inferential error.
However, there is a lack of consensus in the academic community on the specific standards that the enterprise AR research process must follow to guarantee its quality, and the compliance to the defined research standards. Generally speaking, however, scientific research is a documented process (checklist), comprising several steps, which attempt to ensure the credibility, applicability, consistency and neutrality of the results.
In case of quantitative research the criteria to assess its quality include the internal validity of the results (context, sample size, power calculation), external validity (ecological generalizability, verified predicted relationships, etc.), reliability (consistency, if replicated), replicability (can others reproduce the results?), and objectivity (unbiased).
AAPOR Best Practices Guidelines for Survey Research
You must be an AREA subscriber and logged in to access this content. Please login or click below to create your free AREA subscriber account and access this valuable content today.
Need more advice on the types of membership you cant get? Click here for our FAQ section on memberships.