Primary Research

User Research Part 1 

One of the weaknesses of the concept critique was my target audience and trying to get to know the audience as much as possible. Therefore, I have decided to undertake primary research in the form of an online survey. "Surveys are an ideal form of primary research if you want to target a large group of people. If you need significant data and want to poll a sizeable group, then this is an ideal option" (Survicate, 2019). I created a survey on Google Forms to gather this research. I posted this survey on LinkedIn and other forms of social media to gain responses, I got a total of 40 responses. I divided my survey into two parts, the first section asked questions on the gender gap in tech and the second section asked questions about the app I will be making and the features specifically. 

I acknowledge that I can withdraw my answers at any point, and if I have any questions, I can contact the researcher via their email address: ll16clc@leeds.ac.uk or icsjme@leeds.ac.uk.

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I give permission for my results to be analysed as part of this project in an anonymised form. 

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Demographic 

How old are you?

Under 18 - 0%
18-23 - 62.5% 
24-29 - 15% 
30-34 - 5% 
35 years or older - 17.5%

To which gender would you identify yourself?

Male - 35%
Female - 62.5%
Prefer not to say - 2.5%

Do you currently have any coding knowledge?

A great deal - 12.5%
A lot - 12.5%
A moderate amount - 12.5%
A little - 25%
None at all - 37.5%

If yes, please specify what language(s)?

Majority said "HTML, CSS, PHP, JavaScript"
1-3 people said "Java, jQuery, Ruby, C#, Swift, Python" 

Do you work in the tech sector?

Yes - 30%
Aspiring to work in - 22.5%
No - 47.5%

Gender Gap

Do you believe there are more males in tech than females?

Yes - 92.5%
No - 7.5% 

Do you believe that there is a gender pay gap in the tech sector?

Yes - 40%
No - 7.5%
Don't know enough about it - 52.5%

Have you ever experienced gender bias or discrimination in the workplace/education?

Yes - 47.5%
No - 52.5%

Why do you believe it is important to have an equal gender workforce in tech?

"I believe it is important to have an equal gender workforce in tech as I feel like a lot of women are put off of the sector because it is male dominated, so making it more equal will promote more women to pursue a career there."

"Equality, equal opportunities and less prejudice about women doing a stereotypes “male” role."

"So that equal ideas can be shared and so that certain industries aren’t dominated by particular genders."

"Tech is increasingly part of everyone’s lives and the people building it should be representative of the people using it"

"Diverse workplaces are likelier to be psychologically safe. And psychological safety creates room for people to be unafraid of trying new things, experimenting and making mistakes."

"If you do the same job with the same amount of effort and dedication you should get the same pay. Man or women it doesn’t matter, it only matters in their qualifications and skills."


How long do you think it will be until gender diversity in tech is equal?



Do believe that the tech sector would benefit from having an equal gender workforce?

Yes - 92.5%
No - 7.5%

The app and its features 

Do you find apps useful for learning?

Yes - 87.5%
No - 12.5%

Would you find (or would have found) an eLearning app to teach code in an personalised and interactive way, useful?

Yes - 82.5%
No - 17.5%

How do you think an app could improve the gender gap in tech?

"It is accessible to all, no matter the time or place so even if the tech industry is more male dominated other genders don’t have to feel intimidated or excluded as they can just do it from the comfort of their own home on their phone."

"It would mean that learning code is more easily accessible, so more females may take an interest in this. It’s something they can do on their own, so they can know whether they have an interest in it, without having to share it with other people. It could be that females conform to the stereotypes and believe males are better in tech, but an app could help them realise they could be better too" 

"It would make the field more accessible as it would be easier to learn and less intimidating, therefore allowing women to learn code in a basic/early form before they begin to pursue a career in the sector" 

"Everyone would be able to use it"

"Apps are commonly used by both genders. I believe that if an app were to be informative yet fun like a game for example, it would would open people up to the fun side of learning in technology."

"It could increase the accessibility for females / other gender groups to the world of coding, through convenient means (an app)"

"It won't"

 What would you expect to see on this type of app? Select all that would apply.


Which of these features would you find the most useful?



How often do you believe you would use this app?

Never 
1 - 7.5%
2 - 22.5%
3 - 37.5%
4 - 15%
5 - 17.5%
Always 

Do you have any further suggestions that you believe would be good to include in this app?

"You could have an option for the more advanced coders to become ‘helpers’ meaning that if they’re online, they can have a badge for their profile displaying they are a helper. The advanced coder could then have the option on their side to say whether they would like to be in helping mode each time the log on - in helping mode, they can accept to help people in real time through live chat or messaging. If there are no advanced coders available or online, people could then use the community forum instead of getting help real time"

"Open source code or games" 

"Maybe different entry levels so one for beginners, one for intermediate etc, or maybe a 'kids code' section and an adult one? sounds like a great idea anyway :)"

"So like Codewars does, when you submit an answer to a challenge, display other responses, such as the cleanest, the shortest, the most performant, I really couldn’t get on with Codecademy, I’m not sure why, so perhaps something different from this"

"Sections to learn about important female leaders and innovators in tech including quotations and videos"

"A space to chat to people to build a community of women coders"

"Community links and search for events in the area" 

"Being able to code with friends/ as a group"

"Inspirational blogs/articles from women in tech and maybe job opportunities for the specific language they are learning?" 


Moreover, I contacted the Uni of Leeds School of Computing and I got put in contact with Dr. Vania Dimitrova an Associate Professor. They sent me an interesting graph showing the gender split in Computing in the last 5 years. There is a large number of males compared to females and the number of females is in line with the national percentage of females. 


They are soon to release the Athena SWAN: Silver award application in December as they have a policy unit inequality. "The University of Leeds has been commended for its work to support the career development of talented women working in the traditionally male-dominated fields of Science, Engineering and Technology (SET) in the form of a prestigious bronze award under the Athena SWAN Charter for Women in Science" (University of Leeds, 2019). This research has helped with my project to understand more about the gender gap, the audience, and opinions on the app and its features. Going forward I will analyse these results in more detail. 

Bibliography: 

 Survicate. 2019. How to conduct primary research with surveys. [Online]. [Accessed 6th November 2019]. Available from: https://survicate.com/customer-feedback/primary-research/

University of Leeds. 2019. Athena SWAN. [Online]. [Accessed 12th November 2019]. Available from: https://equality.leeds.ac.uk/initiatives/leeds-gender-framework/athena-swan/ 

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