Hashtags

I tested the 'hashtag' part of my cultural probe on 7 classmates. The probe asked participants "what are the 5 hashtags that define 'conscious living'?" Right off the bat Hannah asked whether she could look at Instagram to find relevant hashtags. I said that was fine, because in the real probe I wouldn't be there to tell people what not to do. But I suppose I could introduce limitations to the probe when I first give it to participants. However, I want the probe to be quite open to allow people to contemplate the questions in any way they feel fit.

Two of the 7 participants only had 4 hashtags. I don't know whether this is a problem, because again I want the participant to be able to respond to the probe in their own time and space. I'll need to talk with Emma about this. I wasn't able to read some of the responses. I think if I know two or three of the responses I should be able to work out what the others say with some forensic linguistic analysis.

Rik edited the instructions to the probe, removing the 'the' that comes before '5 hashtags'. He said that the 'the' made him feel like there could be wrong answers. I also noticed that some of the answers were quite design-related, highlighting the fact that I need a wider sample to include a better variation of people, cultures, lifestyles etc. I should also talk with Emma about going about finding that sample and reaching out to potential participants.