Data alone does not create an insight. It takes analysis and synthesis to render meaning and impact. Researchers rely on tags to make that connection, and dscout is announcing a brand new system to make sense of mission data through tagging.
The dscout platform has always supported tags, a tried-and-true method for organizing open-ended and qualitative data. This release offers a more precise, flexible, and visual coding system that encourages collaboration. Tags are not only easier to use, but are designed in a way to spur creativity and surface insights as project data are collected.
Our new tagging system offers a host of benefits:
- It's cross-platform: Tagging on dscout is really a system, spread across every tool on dscout. With it, themes you notice in your Recruit screener can be carried into your Diary mission, refined, and then fully explored in a Live session. Tagging on dscout offers continuity, hardening your insights.
- It's flexible: Tags can be applied at a range of altitudes in the platform to match your needs and data streams. Mark an entire section of an interview or a single response within a mission entry. However you want to structure your data, dscout supports it.
- It's intuitive: To apply a tag, simply highlight the text of interest and up pops an interactive menu, where you can create a group, add a tag to an existing group, or simply highlight the text. No extra windows, modals, or frames to fuss with. Tagging aligns with your workflow and doesn't get in the way of it.
- It's visual: Sometimes seeing is believing with tagging, and we've created a central view to support findability, collaboration, and management of tags. Frequency bar charts offer glanceable top-line intel or atomized, in-progress info on how themes and trends are emerging. The power of tagging is magnified with this visual UI.
- It's collaborative: Our new tagging structure isn't rigid, and anyone with a researcher seat can create a tag, scaling the "who-saw-what" nature of analysis. This offers a window into what data and details matter to your stakeholders and teammates. Triangulation has never been easier.
Our new tagging UI is accessible from any open-ended data across the platform: simply highlight any text (a transcript, a response) and a menu will appear. You can also add a tag at a question level by clicking "tag response" from the bottom. The centralized tagging view is accessible via the tag icon on the entries, applications, or session view.
For management and organization of your tags, click the tag icon for a view of all tags and tag groups. Here, you can get a top-line view of what themes are emerging (via the frequency distributions), filter for insights (by scout, demographic, or question variables), or zoom into specific participant moments to grab quotes/media for deliverables. Counts offer quant data on what's most important and can be customized by participant, moment, or individual response. One-click exports (and imports) make this a flexible management system for your project-level analysis.