Research Rundowns

Qualitative Research Design

This review provides an overview of qualitative methods and designs using examples of research. Note
that qualitative researchers frequently employ several methods in a single study.
Basic Qualitative Research Characteristics
1. Design is generally based on a social constructivism perspective.
2. Research problems become research questions based on prior research experience.
3. Sample sizes can be as small as one.
4. Data collection involves interview, observation, and/or archival (content) data.
5. Interpretation is based on a combination of researcher perspective and data collected.
Keywords
 Transcribing is the process of converting audio or video data to text for analysis.
 Coding is the process of reviewing notes and discovering common “themes.”
 Themes describe the patterns/phenomenon as results.
Overview of Methods
1. Interview (Individual, focus groups)
What is the difference between an interview and a survey? Primarily, open-ended questions differentiate
the two. Qualitative researchers are concerned with making inference based on perspective, so it is
extremely important to get as much data as possible for later analysis. Researchers spend a considerable
amount of time designing interview questions. Interviews are designed to generate participant
perspectives about ideas, opinions, and experiences.
2. Observation (Individual, group, location)
How is data derived from an observation? The researcher may use a variety of methods for observing,
including taking general notes, using checklists, or time-and-motion logs. The considerable time it takes
for even a short observation deters many researchers from using this method. Also, the researcher risks
his or her interpretation when taking notes, which is accepted by qualitative researchers, but meets
resistance from post-positivists. Observations are designed to generate data on activities and behaviors,
and are generally more focused on setting than other methods.
3. Document Analysis (Content analysis of written data)
What types of documents do qualitative researchers analyze? Virtually anything that supports the
question asked. Print media has long been a staple data source for qualitative researchers, but electronic
media (email, blogs, user Web pages, and even social network profiles) have extended the data qualitative
researchers can collect and analyze. The greatest challenge offered by document analysis can be sifting
through all of the data to make general observations.
A Few Qualitative Research Designs
1. Biographical Study
A biographical study is often the first design type that comes to mind for most people. For example,
consider O’Brien’s John F. Kennedy: A Biography. The author takes a collection of archival
documents (interviews, speeches, and other writings) and various media (pictures, audio, and video
footage) to present a comprehensive story of JFK. In the general sense, a biographical study is considered
an exhaustive account of a life experience; however, just as some studies are limited to single aspects of a
phenomenon, the focus of a biographical study can be much narrower. The film Madame Curie is an
example. Crawford studies the film from a biographical perspective to present the reader with an
examination of how all aspects of a film (director’s perspective, actors, camera angles, historical setting)
work to present a biography. Read the introduction and scan the text to get a feel for this perspective.
2. Phenomenology
Your first step should be to take this word apart – phenomenon refers to an occurrence or experience,
logical refers to a path toward understanding. So, we have a occurrence and a path (let’s go with an
individual’s experience), which leads to a way of looking at the phenomenon from an individual’s point of
view. The reactions, perceptions, and feelings of an individual (or group of individuals) as she/he
experienced an event are principally important to the phenomenologist looking to understand an
event beyond purely quantitative details. Gaston-Gayles, et al.’s (2005) look at how the civil rights
era changed the role of college administrators is a good example. The authors interview men and women
who were administrators during that time to identify how the profession changed as a result.
3. Grounded Theory
In a grounded theory study, interpretations are continually derived from raw data. A keyword to
remember is emergent. The story emerges from the data. Often, researchers will begin with a broad topic,
then use qualitative methods to gather information that defines (or further refines) a research question.
For example, a teacher might want to know what effects the implementation of a dress code might have on
discipline. Instead of formulating specific questions, a grounded theorist would begin by interviewing
students, parents, and/or teachers, and perhaps asking students to write an essay about their thoughts on
a dress code. The researcher would then follow the process of developing themes from reading the text by
coding specific examples (using a highlighter, maybe) of where respondents mentioned common things.
Resistance might be a common pattern emerging from the text, which may then become a topic for
further analysis.
A grounded theory study is dynamic, in that it can be continually revised throughout nearly all phases of
the study. You can imagine that this would frustrate a quantitative researcher. However, remember that
perspective is centrally important to the qualitative researcher. While the end result of a grounded theory
study is to generate some broad themes, the researcher is not making an attempt to generalize the study
in the same, objective way characteristic of quantitative research. Here is a link to a grounded theory
article on student leadership.
4. Ethnography
Those with sociology or anthropology backgrounds will be most familiar with this design. Ethnography
focuses on meaning, largely through direct field observation. Researchers generally (though not always)
become part of a culture that they wish to study, then present a picture of that culture through the “eyes”
of its members. One of the most famous ethnographers is Jane Goodall, who studied chimpanzees by
living among them in their native East African habitat.
5. Case Study
A case study is an in-depth analysis of people, events, and relationships, bounded by some unifying factor.
An example is principal leadership in middle schools. Important aspects include not only the principal’s
behaviors and views on leadership, but also the perceptions of those who interact with her/him, the
context of the school, outside constituents, comparison to other principals, and other quantitative
“variables.” Often, you may see a case study labeled “ethnographic case study” which generally refers to a
more comprehensive study focused on a person or group of people, as the above example.
Case studies do not have to be people-focused, however, as a case study to look at a program might be
conducted to see how it accomplishes its intended outcomes. For example, the Department of Education
might conduct a case study on a curricular implementation in a school district – examining how new
curriculum moves from development to implementation to outcomes at each level of interaction
(developer, school leadership, teacher, student).
Can you act them out with you being the researcher and using the class as your population? If you come up
with a silly / trivial research 'topic' it could be quite humorous and harmless but memorable.
For example: Investigating doctoral students' attitudes towards chocolate.
PURPOSIVE SAMPLING: Pick someone without much thought (e.g. front row?) and ask what they think
about chocolate. Record on the board / flipchart (summarise with a word or phrase e.g. 'love it' / 'enjoy' etc).
Ask someone else - record again - if another positive, record nearby (with another keyword or just a tick etc
beside the first one). Keep asking people, sort of 'quick fire'. Loosely group/sort responses as you place them
on the board (this is illustrating - simply - how you are analysing the data as you go and noticing what you are
getting). I can imagine you might get quite a lot of people saying 'love it' and maybe some saying 'hmm, it's
okay but not my favourite' etc ... after collecting a number of responses you can look at the balance / coverage
and say something like, "Okay, lots of positive and neutral responses here ... I don't really need any more of
those ... is there anyone here who *doesn't* like chocolate?". This illustrates how you analyse the sample and
then deliberately seek further respondents who might offer something different / check to see if there are any
contradictory cases etc out there.
CASE STUDY: Start again. Pick one or two people. Sit them on chairs at the front and have a longer
conversation with them about chocolate. When did they first experience it? What does it mean to them? Who
introduced them to chocolate? Explore their preferences within the general category of chocolate ... etc.
Illustrates the small sample size but greater depth.
SATURATION: Start again. Ask someone where they get their chocolate from. Record on board (e.g.
supermarket, service station ...). Keep asking as in purposive example above but at the appropriate time say
"Okay, you're all telling me places I've already got here. I'm not going to bother asking anyone else. I think we
must have covered it."
QUOTA SAMPLING: Say, "Okay, I need three people who love chocolate deeply, three people who can 'take
it or leave it', and three people who really don't like chocolate." Assemble the group of volunteers ... they are
your 'sample'. Illustrates the balance between pre-determined categories of interest, but you can show by just
looking at the 9 people how the sample group may not be 'representative' of the whole class in other ways e.g.
gender, age etc.
SNOWBALL SAMPLING: Put a numbered list of the class's names (first names only) on the board - if a large
class, print this ahead of time to stick up!! Otherwise just quickly write their names down. Say, "I'm working
on my sampling - I've already asked you all, so I've interviewed XX (number of students in class) doctoral
students but I really need YY (some bigger number) doctoral students in my sample. Do any of you know
anyone else who is a doctoral student? Can you put me in touch with them?" Students will give names (first
names only for the purpose of the exercise) of friends / people they have met who are also doctoral students
but not in this class. Illustrates the idea of using people within your existing sample to put you in touch with
other potential participants who fit your criteria (in this case doctoral students).
Of course at the end of this type of activity you can reflect on the challenges of each strategy.
When we speak about a qualitative research study, it’s easy to think there is one
kind.

But just as with quantitative methods, there are actually many varieties of
qualitative methods.

Similar to the way you can group usability testing methods, there are also a
number of ways to segment qualitative methods.

A popular and helpful categorization separate qualitative methods into five

groups: ethnography, narrative, phenomenological, grounded theory, and case
study. John Creswell outlines these five methods in Qualitative Inquiry and
Research Design.

While the five methods generally use similar data collection techniques
(observation, interviews, and reviewing text), the purpose of the study
differentiates them—something similar with different types of usability tests. And
like classifying different usability studies, the differences between the methods
can be a bit blurry. Here are the five qualitative methods in more detail.

1. Ethnography
Ethnographic research is probably the most familiar and applicable type of
qualitative method to UX professionals. In ethnography, you immerse yourself in
the target participants’ environment to understand the goals, cultures,
challenges, motivations, and themes that emerge. Ethnography has its roots in
cultural anthropology where researchers immerse themselves within a culture,
often for years! Rather than relying on interviews or surveys, you experience the
environment first hand, and sometimes as a “participant observer.”

For example, one way of uncovering the unmet needs of customers is to “follow
them home” and observe them as they interact with the product. You don’t come
armed with any hypotheses to necessarily test; rather, you’re looking to find out
how a product is used.

One of the most famous ethnographers is Jane Goodall, who studied chimpanzees by living among
them in their native East African habitat

Particpants are very selective- 4ps

Disadvatages- mam munic

2. Narrative
The narrative approach weaves together a sequence of events, usually from just
one or two individuals to form a cohesive story. You conduct in-depth interviews,
read documents, and look for themes; in other words, how does an individual
story illustrate the larger life influences that created it. Often interviews are
conducted over weeks, months, or even years, but the final narrative doesn’t
need to be in chronological order. Rather it can be presented as a story (or
narrative) with themes, and can reconcile conflicting stories and highlight
tensions and challenges which can be opportunities for innovation.

For example, consider O’Brien’s John F. Kennedy: A Biography. The author takes a collection of
archival documents (interviews, speeches, and other writings) and various media (pictures, audio, and
video footage) to present a comprehensive story of JFK. In the general sense, a biographical study is
considered an exhaustive account of a life experience

3. Phenomenological
Your first step should be to take this word apart – phenomenon refers to an occurrence or experience,
logical refers to a path toward understanding. So, we have a occurrence and a path (let’s go with an
individual’s experience), which leads to a way of looking at the phenomenon from an individual’s point of
view. Phenomenology has its roots in a 20th century philosophical movement based on the work of the philosopher
Edmund Husserl. As research tool, phenomenology is based on the academic disciplines of philosophy and
psychology and has become a widely accepted method for describing human experiences. Phenomenology is a
qualitative research method that is used to describe how human beings experience a certain phenomenon. A
phenomenological study attempts to set aside biases and preconceived assumptions about human experiences,
feelings, and responses to a particular situation. It allows the researcher to delve into the perceptions, perspectives,
understandings, and feelings of those people who have actually experienced or lived the phenomenon or situation of
interest. Therefore, phenomenology can be defined as the direct investigation and description of phenomena as
consciously experienced by people living those experiences. Phenomenological research is typically conducted
through the use of in-depth interviews of small samples of participants. By studying the perspectives of multiple
participants, a researcher can begin to make generalizations regarding what it is like to experience a certain
phenomenon from the perspective of those that have lived the experience.

Following is a list of the main characteristics of phenomenology research:

 It focuses on these four aspects of a lived experience: lived spaced, lived body, lived time, and lived human
relations.
Lived space- man and environment
What is it like to experience being trapped in a natural disaster, such as a flood or hurricane?
What is like to survive an airplane crash?
Lived body- man and himself
How does it feel to live with a life-threatening aneurism?
How do cancer patients cope with a terminal diagnosis?
Lived human relation- man and people around us
What is it like to be a minority in a society?
What is it like to be a victim of sexual bullying?

Say for example: Car accident, is it lived body, space or human relation?
Another example: Student absentees
Experiences of students living in distant areas
Experiences of students living in poverty
Experiences of students with social anxiety

4. Grounded Theory
Whereas a phenomenological study looks to describe the essence of an activity
or event, grounded theory looks to provide an explanation or theory behind the
events. You use primarily interviews and existing documents to build a theory
based on the data. You go through a series of open and axial coding
techniques to identify themes and build the theory. Sample sizes are often also
larger—between 20 to 60—with these studies to better establish a theory.
Grounded theory can help inform design decisions by better understanding how
a community of users currently use a product or perform tasks.

For example, a grounded theory study could involve understanding how software
developers use portals to communicate and write code or how small retail
merchants approve or decline customers for credit.
 6. Case Study

Case study research refers to an in-depth, detailed study of an individual or a small group of
individuals.

Quantitative studies commonly ask questions of who, what, where, how much and how many. Case studies, on the

other hand, are used to answer questions of how or why. They are commonly used to collect in-depth data in a

natural setting where the researcher has little or no control over the events and there is a real life context. Often

times, the goal of a case study is provide information that may research in the formation of a hypothesis for future

research. Case studies are commonly used in social science research and educational settings. For example, case

studies may be used to study psychological problems such as the development of a child raised by a single, deaf

parent or the effects on a child who had been isolated, abused and neglected until the age of 12 years old. Case

studies could also be used in an educational setting to explore the development of writing skills in a small group of

high school freshmen taking a creative writing class.

Effects of isolation in young children

Mason (1947) The case study of Isabelle who had been kept in isolation in a dark room with her
mother who was deaf and without speech gives insight into the development of children by an
extraordinary case. Isabelle had not been given an adequate diet and had severe rickets. During
her isolation she communicated with her mother using gestures. The mother escaped from the
isolation when Isabelle was about six years old. On her admission to hospital Isabelle behaved
like a wild animal and only made croaking sounds. After one week in the hospital she started to
make speech sounds and seemed to pass rapidly through the normal stages of speech. After 18
months she had a vocabulary of over 2000 words, could read and write, and could compose
imaginative stories.

Summary
The table below summarizes the differences between the five qualitative
methods.
Method Focus Sample Size Data Collection

Observation &
Ethnography Context or culture —
interviews

Narrative Individual experience 1 to 2 Stories from

& sequence individuals &
 documents

People who have

Phenomenologica
experienced a 5 to 25 Interviews
l
phenomenon

Develop a theory Interviews, then

Grounded Theory from grounded in 20 to 60 open and axial
field data coding

Interviews,
Organization, entity,
Case Study — documents, reports,
individual, or event
observations