For this pilot study, an online questionnaire was created using the JISC platform.   Its purpose was to generate a first of its kind intergenerational inventory of digital possessions within the home, specifically identifying the types and quantities of digital possessions within the home and the extent to which these may be considered special or meaningful. Individuals from three generations within a family (children, their parents and grandparents) were required to complete the questionnaire.  

The sample consisted of 11 families (average of five respondents per family) living in Didcot, Oxfordshire, a location purposefully chosen because it is a statistically average UK town (ASI Data Science, 2017) in addition with further interview with local families (in the Bournemouth and Ringwood area).  Participants were recruited via a professional market research recruitment agency and through snowballing techniques. 
Questions were based on individual types of digital possession (e.g. emails, ebooks, digital music, communication apps, etc) to establish if individuals had these (dichotomous), how many they had (open), how often they access them (multiple choice), and how special they were (semantic scale). A copy of the research protocol (interview schedules) and codes utilised in the data analysis are provided below.