Qualitative Research

For many years, UX research professionals have been able to conduct their user research either remotely or in person. But now the remote user research is the only option for the foreseeable future. 

Fortunately, I managed to conduct user research in person to see how the new product will be designed to be more useful and where it is the place to improve.

The field of user experience has a wide range of research methods available, ranging from tried-and-true methods such as lab-based usability studies to those that have been more recently developed, such as unmoderated online UX assessments.

Today I would like to view Qualitative Research

Qualitative Research involves collecting and analyzing non-numerical data (e.g., text, video, or audio) to understand concepts, opinions, or experiences. It can be used to gather in-depth insights into a problem or generate new ideas for research.

Qualitative research is used to understand how people experience the world. While there are many approaches to qualitative research, they tend to be flexible and focus on retaining rich meaning when interpreting data.

Common approaches include grounded theory, ethnography, action research, phenomenological research, and narrative research. They share some similarities but emphasize different aims and perspectives.

Methods of Qualitative Research

Qualitative research methods reveal the attitude of the target audience with reference to a particular topic. They basically originate from behavioral and social science. Moreover, it presents detailed outcomes and the inferences can be described easily from the data analysis.

The most commonly used qualitative methods are:

• Interviews
• Observation
• Case Study
• Record Keeping
• Content Analysis
• Focus Groups

Types of Qualitative Research

There are six main types of qualitative research that are widely used in educational, business, and government organizations.

These include:

• Phenomenological Method
• Ethnographic Research
• Grounded Theory Method
• Case Study Model
• Historical Model
• Narrative Model

Benefits of Qualitative Research

Qualitative research pays attention to human instincts and makes their observation based on human experiences. It happily embraces the gut instinct to collect any form of data.

Qualitative research pays attention to human instincts and makes their observation based on human experiences. It happily embraces the gut instinct to collect any form of data.

Yes, facts are important, and it is statistics that help to identify the actual trends, but at the end of the day, it is a human experience that makes the behavior of two individuals different and helps to gain a better perspective of the situation.

Qualitative research often tries to preserve the voice and perspective of participants and can be adjusted as new research questions arise. Qualitative research is good for:

Flexibility

The data collection and analysis process can be adapted as new ideas or patterns emerge. They are not rigidly decided beforehand.

Natural settings

Data collection occurs in real-world contexts or in naturalistic ways.

Meaningful insights

Detailed descriptions of people’s experiences, feelings, and perceptions can be used in designing, testing, or improving systems or products.

Generation of new ideas

Open-ended responses mean that researchers can uncover novel problems or opportunities that they wouldn’t have thought of otherwise.

Strengths and Weaknesses of Qualitative Research

Qualitative can be beneficial in the following ways:

• All the problems and the topics covered under this research are in detail.
• This method majorly focuses on small groups which ultimately do not require more expenses when compared to quantitative research.
• On the emergence of new developed information and findings, the revision, direction, and framework of the data can be done easily quickly.
• The data is collected from a small group which bounds it to be universal for a large population.
• The data with this method is collected based on genuine efforts and gives a clear vision of what can be expected.

Weaknesses of Qualitative Research:

• As the data is collected for a small group, due to which assumptions cannot be made beyond the small group of people.
• It becomes difficult to demonstrate, maintain, and assess the rigidity of the data.
• Collection of statistical data is not easy and cannot be done solely by using this method.
• As the data is in big quantity, analysis, and interpretation of the data takes much time.
• The responses of the subjects might be affected as the researchers are bound to be present during the process of data gathering.