A generative, multi-method study of how people form genuine relationships in online communities — using diary studies, interviews, and arts-based analysis to surface the emotional signal traditional coding misses.
Online communities struggle to create real connection and retention. One community — the BTS fandom 'ARMY' — does it exceptionally well. Understanding why is directly useful to any social or AI product trying to build belonging.
How do members form strong interpersonal bonds online, and what role do shared emotional experiences and self-disclosure play?
Surfaced the emotional mechanics of belonging that standard thematic coding flattened — and produced findings communicable beyond a report, to non-research stakeholders.
Belonging, self-disclosure, and bond formation are exactly what engagement and retention teams care about. I studied a community that excels at them, treating it as a model system for what makes people open up and stay.
I gathered data from digital observation of the r/bangtan community, in-depth interviews, and diary studies (Jamboard/Miro), transcribed and managed in Dovetail — then did something deliberate at the analysis stage.
Line-by-line in-vivo coding captured what people said but lost the felt experience that drives bonding. Poetic analysis preserved emotional texture; comic-based analysis turned a participant's arc into a narrative non-researchers could feel — extending reach beyond an academic paper.
Constraints I balanced: I anchored the creative methods to the research questions with a deductive pass first, so exploration stayed rigorous rather than decorative — and protected participant privacy by showcasing only pilot/sample data.
What I'd change: Poetic analysis was new to me and I second-guessed how much to condense — I'd timebox the creative passes and pair them with a member-check to validate interpretation.
What I'd keep: Anchoring arts-based methods to the research questions with a deductive pass. It's what kept the creativity accountable.
Open question: Which of these bonding mechanics transfer to communities without a shared emotional artifact like music?