When words become difficult

Multiple dimensions of our experiences such as visual, embodied and sensory experiences cannot always be easily expressed in words. Traditional qualitative methods may struggle to access these deep-rooted complex and emotional aspects. Tourism scholars have called for innovative methodologies to unravel layers of diverse meaning in phenomena. This article critically reflects on a visual tool called the ‘MeBox’. It was adopted in our study to explore senior travellers’ responses to loss following a major life event. The ‘MeBox’ method enabled participants to express embedded and tacit knowledge to reflect on their lived experiences. We critically review the ‘MeBox’ methodology, and provide practical learnings for scholars who may want to adopt this method as a means to understand lived experiences that are difficult to express in words

Critical Incident Technique · Critical reflection · Embodied cognition · Epistemology · Knowledge management · Lived experience · Pedagogy · Political science · Programming language · Qualitative research · Social science · Sociology · Tacit knowledge · Tourism · Computer Science · Diverse Aspects of Tourism Research · Empathy and Medical Education · History · Migration, Health and Trauma · Participatory Visual Research Methods · Psychology · Artificial Intelligence