Survey
I conducted a short survey to hear feedback from participants. A survey consisted of only 4 questions and was done via google survey for the sake of easiness and 5 out of 6 participants replied so far. From this survey, I was able to get some insights and especially the following two information was useful; (1) $3 would be an appropriate price. (2) at most once a week is an appropriate. These insights will be used for the future lunch events.
Intention behind survey
There are two main purposes of this survey; to know (1) their expected price range and (2) frequency how often they would join the lunch event again. I also tried not to pay much attention to know if they were satisfied with the lunch or not because I felt (1) to validate that via online survey was very difficult, people tend to say nice things, and (2) they all seemed satisfied based on the conversation I had while they were eating.
Survey invitation
Here is the email template. It was made based on the class slide and try to put the necessary information (what:ask to do survey, why: to improve future event, how: just 4 questions and takes a few minutes) as simple as possible.
Dear xxx,Thank you very much for joining the lunch event (Miso-soup).
I am reaching out to ask you to participate in the survey. I am planning to have this event regularly in the future. I would really appreciate your feedback so that it helps me make a better lunch event for you!
The survey should only take a minute or two to complete and is comprised of 4 questions. Your responses will remain confidential.
Link to the survey: https://forms.gle/cntTfDzsvvE5nXEQ7
I greatly appreciate your time and any feedback! Thank you in advance.
Survey result detail
Other random thoughts/findings
First of all, it was fun. It was fun for me that I was able to talk with participants while they were eating, just chatting, sharing my thoughts behind my project, hearing there opinion and reaction, getting to know how they feel about their food experience, etc. In Japanese, we have a word 同じ釜の飯を食う, eat the same food from the same pot, meaning that there is a special bond between who eat the same food from the same pot (like family/friends/companies/sports team/etc). It would be great if IDM can have such a community feeling to improve our study/research environment.
Additional documentation for part 3
I realized that I forgot to document an important process in my part3 documentation, which is participant's experience flow.
Initially, I prepared (1) bowl/spoon/ladle (2) an event flyer (3) signup sheet. Later, I added two more things (4) Venmo code and (5) Money box so that participants can pay money easier.
An event flyer worked well for those who did not know my project. They seemed get interested and like the project, and some of them said they would join next time.
Signup sheet did not work well because I was at the kitchen all the time, I knew everybody who joined, and some of the participants even did not realize it. I will need to make it more functional in the future if I get more participants and/or to make it possible that I do not have to be in the kitchen all the time.
Venmo code and money box worked well. The money box made people realize that this was not an free event and 2 participants out of 6 paid through Venmo.