Quantitative & Qualitative Research
So what’s the difference?
Whether we talk about quantitative or qualitative research (survey), both are just shattering in the whole research stage within a project, and that is why I will talk about both of them in one blog post.
But first, let me explain to you a bit about the research itself —
Research is one of the first and simultaneously the most important parts of the whole Design Thinking process. It creates a nucleus for the Discovery phase, whilst every other phase is dependent and builds upon it.
Quantitative Research
When doing quantitative research, I mostly work with what Google offers me. It worked for me when I was a beginner, it works for me now, but I’m always searching for new tools, which I can expand my toolkit with. Lastly, I found SnapSurveys, and it serves really really well, but it’s paid.
Quantitative research is used to quantify attitudes, opinions, behaviors, and other defined variables — and generalize results from a larger sample population. It uses measurable data to formulate facts and uncover patterns in research.
Quantitative research is used to generate a huge amount of data, which can be transformed into statistics.
Data harvesting can be done by:
- Online surveys
- Paper surveys
- Mobile surveys
- Telephone interviews
- Online polls
- Longitudinal studies
- Website interceptors
- Systematic observations
Qualitative Research
Oh, sweet qualitative research. ☺️
As you can clearly tell, I prefer this one. And the answer to the question: “Why?”, is very simple. It is WAY MORE personal. The individual face-to-face or at least Skype communication puts much more depth into the whole solution of the problem you’re about to solve. You don’t just get the results in the form of answers. You get the emotion — and that is what matters the most.
Qualitative research is primarily exploratory research. It is used to gain an understanding of underlying reasons, opinions, and motivations. It provides insights into the problem or helps to develop ideas or hypotheses for potential quantitative research.
Qualitative research is used to uncover trends, opinions, motivations and helps dive deeper into the problem.
Data harvesting can be done by:
- Focus group discussions
- Individual interviews
- Observations (Thinking aloud, Eye tracking, Heat mapping, …)
Thank you for your time and if you’d like to share some insights on this topic, just drop me a comment down below.
Erik Fiala
