FDS support Mobile Detective

FDS have recently completed research for Intute, a leading academic website dedicated to helping students find the best web resources for studies or research.

Four years ago Intute developed the Internet Detective, an online tutorial. This tutorial has already become an extremely popular tool, helping students assess the academic validity of websites, their content and how to correctly reference such sites.

As mobile internet use increases dramatically, so does the expectation of quality from users. With this in mind, plus the feedback from a market review, Intute proposed the development of the 'Mobile Detective', a mobile specific site that offers all the features of the Internet Detective.

Looking to develop this product further with future users, FDS International was commissioned to complete two key objectives:

• To provide user data to allow a full development of the proposed service in a way which is aligned to student user needs;
• To discover the user requirements for the Mobile Internet Detective with a view to designing a technical specification for a prototype tool.

Using qualitative methodologies, FDS built a picture of how users validate the information found on the web, their impressions of the Internet Detective and how such a tutorial could be adapted to a mobile platform. FDS also explored the possible use of webcasts and podcasts in addition to learning the best ways of marketing the Mobile Detective to the academic community.

The findings from FDS' research will form the basis of the next development stage and it is likely that further research will be commissioned during the process before the Mobile Detective comes to fruition.