Google Forms

Introduction

The Google Form is a qualitative coding tool that can be used to track a design process, whether your own or a team’s. The student marks the box(es) corresponding to the description that best fits the time frame observed. The box(es) can be filled per minute, every five minutes, 15-minutes, etc. This can also be used for longer time intervals: every ½ week for a 4 week project, every week for a 12 week project.

Benefits of this capture method

Easy for an instructor to set up (with an adjustable time interval).
Can be easily filled out on student's phones, without the need for paper or writing implements.
Students can be given a QR code or a URL to access the form quickly.
The data are collected digitally so the instructor has full access to the data during/after the activity.

NOTE: Converting the form data to actual signatures requires a little post-processing, so unless the instructor has a macro or time during class, this capture method works well only if the results do not need to be shown immediately after the activity. Visualizations can be quicker if you use conditional formatting in the spreadsheet that the Google Form generates.

Instructions

Create a simple Google Form with 3 main sections:

Name of team (or recorder)
List of design process categories (plus brief definitions if needed)
Matrix question with time intervals as rows and design process phases as columns.
- If there are more than 10 time intervals, consider dividing this question into several parts - i.e. Minutes 1-10, Minutes 11-20, etc.)
- If you are using a long time interval (daily, weekly, etc.), you may want to change the settings in the Google Form to allow students to go back and edit their submitted responses. In this way, students can save their progress by submitting the form, and then return and edit their response for successive data entries.
(optional) Open response section for other notes/observations

Here's a link to a sample Google Form for reference.

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Outcomes

Here's a sample Google Sheet of processed data for reference.

Tips and advice

Create a QR code or shorthand URL so students can access the form.

Ensure all students doing the data recording have the form open on their phone/computer before the activity starts.

Remind the student recorders to keep the form open throughout the activity and only submit it at the very end.

Make sure the form is set up so that the recorder can select multiple design process categories for each time interval if they so choose. (i.e. use checkboxes, not radio buttons).

When processing the data, shrink the column width in the Google Sheet so each cell is roughly square, then use conditional formatting to convert each response to a colored cell to create visual design signature.