Comments on: Qualitative versus quantitative research, Part II

By: OKUMU-RINGA PATRICK ALOY

OKUMU-RINGA PATRICK ALOY — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 21:34:03 +0000

I have read this article and have made good use of it in my discussion with course=mates in my PhD Public Policy class year 3.

Can you give more articles on the various aspects of research designs.

Okumu-Ringa P.A. /okumuringa@yahoo.com

By: Imtiaz Manzar

Imtiaz Manzar — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 07:40:26 +0000

Would appreciate more compartive studies regarding Qual versus Quant

By: Quantitative vs. Qualitative Research | Michael Roller

Quantitative vs. Qualitative Research | Michael Roller — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 02:04:55 +0000

[...] techniques, but Sam Ladner has given great definitions to these two types of design research on his blog. The qualitative process is iterative with the going back and forth from data to sense-making or [...]

By: Stein Communications The Scoop » Blog Archive » A Research Resource

Stein Communications The Scoop » Blog Archive » A Research Resource — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 11:47:10 +0000

[...] qualitative and quantitative research on her blog, Design Research, and has added a nice, succinct post that gets at the fundamental benefits of qualitative research, viz. that it’s [...]

By: sladner

sladner — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 12:04:10 +0000

Very true, Harry. I particularly agree about when to do qual and quant research (see my other post regarding that).

By: Harry

Harry — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 07:15:37 +0000

Hi Sam, nice post. As a user-centred design practicioner, there’s a couple of things I’d add to your great summary.

Firstly, qual and quant are usually brought in at different stages of the design process. When you have no product to test yet, or when you only have a sheet of vague requirement specs, qual is the only way to go. Later on, once the product has taken shape, you move into the business of nailing down the finer details and optimising your design decisions. These two different stages are often refered to formative (early on) and summative (later on) evaluation.

Today, with web-based products & services, quantiative research is very popular for live products because once they are out there, it’s trivial to collect behavioural data and to compare the effects of design changes using before/after, A/B or multivariate testing. In this context, quantitative research is much cheaper than qualtiative research – there’s no recruitment cost and it’s easy to get high volumes of users. Conversely, with face to face research, quantitative is a lot more expensive.