Evaluation (Research Techniques)

The research has been a tricky project.
I knew what I wanted to find out, however, phrasing the questions - or indeed finding the right questions without making people uncomfortable - was extremely problematic. As a result, I do feel I compromised on the questions a little too much, and thus did not find out exactly what I had intended to by asking them.
That said, the results I did achieve helped just as much with the project as the exact figures I would have liked could have.

I would like to have conducted some in-person interviews, which may have allowed me to extract more detailed information from interviewees about why they engage in this way of life, as well as potentially providing some additional photographic subjects. (N.B. I did have 2 other subjects lined up, however both mine and their schedules prevented us from meeting and carrying out the shoot.)

The choice of using a survey to record information was definitely a strong decision; within the first day it had 10 responses (the total number came in at 24 after 3 weeks live,) so it shows how fast it can be distributed.
Unfortunately, as previously mentioned, this was let down by questions that were not so strong.

Perhaps my second strongest decision was choosing to send the survey first two two individuals who knew multiple cosplayers and were part of a forum for those who partake in the activity, which is where most of the responses that followed originated from. This allowed me to get information from a range of individuals, as opposed to just those I knew and were basing my assumptions off of.

The results I achieved were not exactly as I had wanted, as mentioned earlier on, which is a result of the poor questions asked. However, I was able to make use of the data I recorded. As I didn't have exact figures, I worked off of the approximates that I received, which meant I could still continue with the project as planned.

If I were to continue this research in the future, I would like to find out how a cosplayer decides who they want to cosplay; what factors influence their choices and how they set about obtaining the correct materials to create their costume. I would also press for more exact figures when it came to expenditure.