Qualitative Design Research: Methods for the Why & How
A guide to the 5 types of qualitative research methods
There are many different research methodologies at our disposal for product discovery, testing, and validation in UX.
These research methods can be categorised in various ways. Evaluative, generative, explorative, quantitative and qualitative methods are some terms you might be familiar with. The distinction between quantitative and quantitative is often considered the most fundamental.
Fred Kerlinger, a renowned quantitative researcher, once controversially said, “There is no such thing as qualitative data. Everything is either 1 or 0.”
Of course, such an inflammatory remark was met with an equally divisive retort from D.T. Campbell, “All research ultimately has a qualitative grounding.”
Aside from this pedantry, user researchers agree that incorporating elements of both quant’ and qual’ methods will lead to accurate and thorough results in most studies.
Anyway, enough chit-chat, let’s dive into qualitative design research.
What is qualitative design research?
Qualitative design research focuses on abstract fields of data such as experiences and concepts. It allows us to investigate people’s opinions and understand users often utilizing informal communication.
This is opposed to quantitative methods, where we achieve numbers and statistics, a measurable ‘quant-ity’ of a particular thing.
Most of the time, designers use qualitative methods, as most of the time, designers are working with abstract phenomena that fall under the umbrella term of ‘user experience’.
What’s an example of qualitative data?
A classic example of qualitative data could be the transcript or voice recording of a user interview. Another example might be the results of a usability testing round. Both of these sets of data contain users speaking about their experiences.
The field of UX is, of course, about users (people) and their experiences (phenomena), so as you would expect, most designers use qualitative methods more frequently than quantitative methods.
The 5 types of qualitative research methods
There are many methods that can be used to gather useful qualitative data by observing and studying participants to discover the ‘why’ and ‘how’ of user behaviours. These different methods can also be stratified into categories (albeit with some crossover between each). This is, of course, subject to interpretation, but John Creswell’s categorisation (in his book ‘Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design’) seems to be helpful.
1.) Case Study
A case study describes an intensive approach whereby multiple types of data from different sources are used to explain a person, a group of people or an organisation.
Case studies can also be described as systematic investigations of an individual, group, community or other ‘unit’ whereby the researcher analyses data related to several different variables.
Case studies can help examine complex phenomena in a natural setting to increase their understanding. The steps taken during a case study approach can help deconstruct complex phenomena to develop a manageable research question.
An example might be an investigation of the challenges runners face when using exercise apps whilst running and the possible strategies they could use to overcome these challenges.
2.) Phenomenological Study
According to Creswell, a phenomenological study ‘describes the meaning for several individuals of their lived experiences of a concept or a phenomenon. In other words, it focuses on describing a phenomenon that all the participants have experienced, such as running a sub-3 hour marathon.
Creswell suggests that phenomenological studies can be used whenever we wish to describe an event, activity, or phenomenon. Here, several different methodologies can be used in order to better understand the meaning that participants associate with the subject of the examination. In other words, researchers assess participants’ points of view based on their experience to better illuminate their motivations.
An example might be exploring the lived experience of runners who have successfully run a sub-3-hour marathon.
3.) Grounded Theory
In contrast to phenomenological studies, where researchers strive to know the core nature of an event, activity, or phenomenon, grounded theory seeks to explain it theoretically. The number of participants involved in grounded theory studies is often high (25+) to come up with a more reliable theory.
This type of qualitative research method can be employed to better understand why a user community interacts with a product in a certain manner. In other words, grounded theory research helps to generate theories that emerge from or are ”grounded” in data.
An example might be how runners use exercise apps to track their mileage to prevent injury.
4.) Ethnography
Ethnographic research is a type of qualitative research method where participants are observed and (sometimes) interacted with in their natural environment. Its roots lie in cultural anthropology, where researchers would immerse themselves amongst communities (often assimilating with the research participants) to better understand groups and the context in which they interact.
Ethnographies have a broader scope allowing for a better understanding of the complexity of group behaviours, revealing inter-relationships among several dimensions of group interactions, and providing context for behaviours.
An example might be to go long-distance running with several exercise app users over the course of months and observe how and why they use the app in that particular context.
(For a fascinating example of anthropological ethnography, check out Dame Ann Marilyn Strathern’s classic text ‘Women in Between’ based on research conducted in Papua New Guinea during the 1960s and ‘70s.)
5.) Narrative Study
The narrative type of qualitative research methods attempts to coalesce a sequence of different events, most often from only one or two participants. This can be achieved by conducting interviews and reading associated materials. The discovered events can then be formulated into a final story (or narrative) with different themes. Sometimes the interviews may occur over long periods of months or even years.
By analysing data gathered from narrative studies, researchers can critically appraise concepts and theories and better understand why users behave as they do. In contrast to a case study, narrative research explores how a participant has acted in various contexts over some time, rather than in just one context in depth.
An example might be exploring the life of one professional long-distance runner. Researchers could put together a ‘biography’ of sorts that combines interviews, observations, and photographs of the participants to better understand their running habits and exercise app preferences.
Check out our Continuous UX Research course to learn more about how to run qualitative design research and discover product opportunities weekly.
