QUALITATIVE VERSUS QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH

Criteria
Purpose Group Studied Variables Type of Data Collected Form of Data Collected

Qualitative Research
To understand & interpret social interactions. Smaller & not randomly selected. Study of the whole, not variables. Words, images, or objects. Qualitative data such as open- ended responses, interviews, participant observations, field notes, & reflections. Identify patterns, features, themes. Subjectivity is expected. Researcher & their biases may be known to participants in the study, & participant characteristics may be known to the researcher. Particular or specialized findings that is less generalizable. Exploratory or bottomup: the researcher generates a new hypothesis and theory from the data collected. Dynamic, situational, social, & personal. Explore, discover, & construct. Wide-angle lens; examines the breadth & depth of phenomena. Study behavior in a natural environment. Multiple realities; subjective. Narrative report with contextual description & direct quotations from research participants.

Quantitative Research
To test hypotheses, look at cause & effect, & make predictions. Larger & randomly selected. Specific variables studied Numbers and statistics. Quantitative data based on precise measurements using structured & validated data-collection instruments. Identify statistical relationships. Objectivity is critical. Researcher & their biases are not known to participants in the study, & participant characteristics are deliberately hidden from the researcher (double blind studies). Generalizable findings that can be applied to other populations. Confirmatory or top-down: the researcher tests the hypothesis and theory with the data. Regular & predictable. Describe, explain, & predict. Narrow-angle lens; tests a specific hypotheses. Study behavior under controlled conditions; isolate causal effects. Single reality; objective. Statistical report with correlations, comparisons of means, & statistical significance of findings.

Type of Data Analysis Objectivity and Subjectivity Role of Researcher

Results Scientific Method

View of Human Behavior Most Common Research Objectives Focus Nature of Observation Nature of Reality Final Report

Criteria
Purpose Group Studied Variables Type of Data Collected Form of Data Collected

Qualitative Research
To understand & interpret social interactions. Smaller & not randomly selected. Study of the whole, not variables. Words, images, or objects. Qualitative data such as openended responses, interviews, participant observations, field notes, & reflections. Identify patterns, features, themes. Subjectivity is expected. Researcher & their biases may be known to participants in the study, & participant characteristics may

Quantitative Research
To test hypotheses, look at cause & effect, & make predictions. Larger & randomly selected. Specific variables studied Numbers and statistics. Quantitative data based on precise measurements using structured & validated data-collection instruments. Identify statistical relationships. Objectivity is critical. Researcher & their biases are not known to participants in the study, & participant characteristics are

Type of Data Analysis Objectivity and Subjectivity Role of Researcher

be known to the researcher. Results Scientific Method Particular or specialized findings that is less generalizable. Exploratory or bottomup: the researcher generates a new hypothesis and theory from the data collected. Dynamic, situational, social, & personal. Explore, discover, & construct. Wide-angle lens; examines the breadth & depth of phenomena. Study behavior in a natural environment. Multiple realities; subjective. Narrative report with contextual description & direct quotations from research participants.

deliberately hidden from the researcher (double blind studies). Generalizable findings that can be applied to other populations. Confirmatory or top-down: the researcher tests the hypothesis and theory with the data. Regular & predictable. Describe, explain, & predict. Narrow-angle lens; tests a specific hypotheses. Study behavior under controlled conditions; isolate causal effects. Single reality; objective. Statistical report with correlations, comparisons of means, & statistical significance of findings.

View of Human Behavior Most Common Research Objectives Focus Nature of Observation Nature of Reality Final Report

Qualitative and quantitative research

Qualitative research is used to explore and understand people's beliefs, experiences, attitudes, behaviour and interactions. It generates non- numerical data, e.g. a patient's description of their pain rather than a measure of pain. In health care, qualitative techniques have been commonly used in research documenting the experience of chronic illness and in studies about the functioning of organisations. Qualitative research techniques such as focus groups and in-depth interviews have been used in one-off projects commissioned by guideline development groups to find out more about the views and experiences of patients and carers. Quantitative research generates numerical data or data that can be converted into numbers, for example clinical trials or the National Census, which counts people and households. Qualitative research focuses on gathering of mainly verbal data rather than measurements. Gathered information is then analyzed in an interpretative manner, subjective, impressionistic or even diagnostic. Heres a more detailed point-by-point comparison between the two types of research:
1. Goal or Aim of the Research

The primary aim of a Qualitative Research is to provide a complete, detailed description of the research topic. It is usually more exploratory in nature. Quantitative Research on the other hand focuses more in counting and classifying features and constructing statistical models and figures to explain what is observed.

Read also: Aims of Research

Qualitative Hypothesis Description Broad Quantitative Narrow

Whole picture Focused Conclusive

Type of Research Exploratory 2. Usage

Qualitative Research is ideal for earlier phases of research projects while for the latter part of the research project, Quantitative Research is highly recommended. Quantitative Research provides the researcher a clearer picture of what to expect in his research compared to Qualitative Research.
Qualitative Quantitative Phase Early Late

3. Data Gathering Instrument

The researcher serves as the primary data gathering instrument in Qualitative Research. Here, the researcher employs various data-gathering strategies, depending upon the thrust or approach of his research. Examples of data-gathering strategies used in Qualitative Research are individual in-depth interviews, structured and non-structured interviews, focus groups, narratives, content or documentary analysis, participant observation and archival research. On the other hand, Quantitative Research makes use of tools such as questionnaires, surveys, measurements and other equipment to collect numerical or measurable data.
4. Type of Data

The presentation of data in a Qualitative Research is in the form of words (from interviews) and images (videos) or objects (such as artifacts). If you are conducting a Qualitative Research what will most likely appear in your discussion are figures in the form of graphs. However, if you are conducting a Quantitative Research, what will most likely appear in your discussion are tables containing data in the form of numbers and statistics.
5. Approach

Qualitative Research is primarily subjective in approach as it seeks to understand human behavior and reasons that govern such behavior. Researchers have the tendency to become subjectively immersed in the subject matter in this type of research method.

In Quantitative Research, researchers tend to remain objectively separated from the subject matter. This is because Quantitative Research is objective in approach in the sense that it only seeks precise measurements and analysis of target concepts to answer his inquiry. Read also: Qualitative research, Quantitative research

Determining Which Method Should Be Used

Debates have been ongoing, tackling which method is better than the other. The reason why this remains unresolved until now is that, each has its own strengths and weaknesses which actually vary depending upon the topic the researcher wants to discuss. This then leads us to the question Which method should be used? If your study aims to find out the answer to an inquiry through numerical evidence, then you should make use of the Quantitative Research. However, if in your study you wish to explain further why this particular event happened, or why this particular phenomenon is the case, then you should make use of Qualitative Research. Some studies make use of both Quantitative and Qualitative Research, letting the two complement each other. If your study aims to find out, for example, what the dominant human behavior is towards a particular object or event and at the same time aims to examine why this is the case, it is then ideal to make use of both methods.
Related pages:

Strengths and Weaknesses of Quantitative and Qualitative Research

By Demetrius Madrigal and Bryan McClain Published: September 3, 2012 Both qualitative and quantitative methods of user research play important roles in product development. Both qualitative and quantitative methods of user research play important roles in product development. Data from quantitative researchsuch as market size, demographics, and user preferencesprovides important information for business decisions. Qualitative research provides valuable data for use in the design of a productincluding data about user needs, behavior patterns, and use cases. Each of these approaches has strengths and weaknesses, and each can benefit from our combining them with one another. This month, well take a look at these two approaches to user research and discuss how and when to apply them.

Quantitative Studies

Statistical analysis lets us derive important facts from research data, including preference trends, differences between groups, and demographics. Quantitative studies provide data that can be expressed in numbersthus, their name. Because the data is in a numeric form, we can apply statistical tests in making statements about the data. These include descriptive statistics like the mean, median, and standard deviation, but can also include inferential statistics like t-tests, ANOVAs, or multiple regression correlations (MRC). Statistical analysis lets us derive important facts from research data, including preference trends, differences between groups, and demographics. Multivariate statistics like the MRC or stepwise correlation regression break the data down even further and determine what factorssuch as variances in preferenceswe can attribute to differences between specific groups such as age groups. Quantitative studies often employ automated means of collecting data such as surveys, but we can also use other static methodsfor example, examining preferences through two-alternative, forced-choice studies or examining error rates and time on task using competitive benchmarks. Quantitative studies great strength is providing data that is descriptivefor example, allowing us to capture a snapshot of a user populationbut we encounter difficulties when it comes to their interpretation. For example, Gallup polls commonly provide data about approval rates for the President of the United States, as shown in Figure 1, but dont provide the crucial information that we would need to interpret that data. Figure 1Quantitative data for Gallups presidential approval poll

In the absence of the data that would be necessary to interpret these presidential job-approval numbers, its difficult to say why people approve or disapprove of the job that President Obama is doing. Some respondents may feel that President Obama is too liberal, while others may feel that he is too conservative in his actions, but without the necessary data, there is no way to tell. Only someone with a firm grasp of how they should use and interpret quantitative statistics should conduct such a study.

In a product-development environment, this data deficiency can lead to critical errors in the design of a product. For example, a survey might report that the majority of users like 3D displays, which may lead to a product teams choosing to integrate a 3D display into their product. However, if most users like only autostereoscopic 3D displaysthat is, 3D displays that dont require their wearing glassesor like 3D displays only for watching sports or action movies on a television, using a 3D display that requires glasses for data visualization on a mobile device might not be a sound design direction. Additionally, only someone with a firm grasp of how they should use and interpret quantitative statistics should conduct such a study. For most tests, there is an overreliance on the p-value and sample size. The p-value is a statistic that indicates the likelihood that research findings were the result of chance. If a p-value is less than .05, the findings are said to be statistically significantmeaning there is less than a 5% chance that the results were the result of chance. Its possible to manipulate a p-value by the sample size, but you need a sufficient sample size to have enough statistical power to determine whether a finding is accurate. If your study is underpowered because of its having two small a sample size, you may fail to achieve statistical significanceeven if the finding is accurate. On the other hand, if you achieve statistical significance with a small sample size, you dont need to increase your sample size; the finding is true regardless. While the small sample size makes it more difficult to determine something, if you are able to determine something with a small sample size, its just as true as if you made the finding with a large sample size. By increasing the sample size, you can increase a findings statistical power, but perhaps to a point where the finding becomes less meaningful. Theres a common joke that a researcher can make any finding statistically significant simply by increasing the sample size. The reality is not too far off. However, it is possible to increase sample sizes to a point where statistical significance is barely meaningful. In such a situation, it is important to look at the effect size a statistic that tells you how strongly your variables effect the variance. Basically, statistical significance tells you whether your findings are real, while effect size tells you how much they matter. For example, if you were investigating whether adding a feature would increase a products value, you could have a statistically significant finding, but the magnitude of the increase in value might very smallsay a few cents. In contrast, a meaningful effect size might result in an increase in value of $10 per unit. Typically, if you are able to achieve statistical significance with a smaller sample size, the effect size is fairly substantial. It is important to take both statistical significance and effect size into account when interpreting your data.

Qualitative Studies
Qualitative research studies can provide you with details about human behavior, emotion, and personality characteristics that quantitative studies cannot match. Data from qualitative studies describes the qualities or characteristics of something. You cannot easily reduce these descriptions to numbersas you can the findings from quantitative research; though you can achieve this through an encoding process. Qualitative research studies can provide you with details about human behavior, emotion, and personality

characteristics that quantitative studies cannot match. Qualitative data includes information about user behaviors, needs, desires, routines, use cases, and a variety of other information that is essential in designing a product that will actually fit into a users life. While quantitative research requires the standardization of data collection to allow statistical comparison, qualitative research requires flexibility, allowing you to respond to user data as it emerges during a session. Thus, qualitative research usually takes the form of either some form of naturalistic observation such as ethnography or structured interviews. In this case, a researcher must observe and document behaviors, opinions, patterns, needs, pain points, and other types of information without yet fully understanding what data will be meaningful. Following data collection, rather than performing a statistical analysis, researchers look for trends in the data. When it comes to identifying trends, researchers look for statements that are identical across different research participants. The rule of thumb is that hearing a statement from just one participant is an anecdote; from two, a coincidence; and hearing it from three makes it a trend. The trends that you identify can then guide product development, business decisions, and marketing strategies. Because you cannot subject these trends to statistical analysis, you cannot validate trends by calculating a p-value or an effect sizeas you could validate quantitative dataso you must employ them with care. Plus, you should continually verify such data through an ongoing qualitative research program. With enough time and budget, you can engage in an activity called behavioral coding, which involves assigning numeric identifiers to qualitative behavior, thus transforming them into quantitative data that you can then subject to statistical analysis. In addition to the analyses we described earlier, behavioral coding lets you perform a variety of additional analyses such as lag sequential analysis, a statistical test that identifies sequences of behaviorfor example, those for Web site navigation or task workflows.However, applying behavioral coding to your observations is extremely time consuming and expensive. Plus, typically, only very highly trained researchers are qualified to encode behavior. Thus, this approach tends to be cost prohibitive. Additionally, because it is not possible to automate qualitative-data collection as effectively as you can automate quantitative-data collection, it is usually extremely time consuming and expensive to gather large amounts of data, as would be typical for quantitative research studies. Therefore, it is usual to perform qualitative research with only 6 to 12 participants, while for quantitative research, its common for there to be hundreds or even thousands of participants. As a result, qualitative research tends to have less statistical power than quantitative research when it comes to discovering and verifying trends.

Using Quantitative and Qualitative Research Together

While quantitative and qualitative research approaches each have their strengths and weaknesses, they can be extremely effective in combination with one another. While quantitative and qualitative research approaches each have their strengths and weaknesses, they can be extremely effective in combination with one another. You can use qualitative research to identify the factors that affect the areas under investigation, then use

that information to devise quantitative research that assesses how these factors would affect user preferences. To continue our earlier example regarding display preferences: if qualitative research had identified display typesuch as TV, computer monitor, or mobile phone displaythe researchers could have used that information to construct quantitative research that would let them determine how these variables might affect user preferences. At the same time, you can build trends that youve identified through quantitative research into qualitative data-collection methods and, thus verify the trends. While this might sound contrary to what weve described above, the approach is actually quite straightforward. An example of a qualitative trend might be that younger users prefer autostereoscopic displays only on mobile devices, while older users prefer traditional displays on all devices. You may have discovered this by asking an open-ended, qualitative question along these lines: What do you think of 3D displays? This question would have opened up a discussion about 3D displays that uncovered a difference between stereoscopic displays, autostereoscopic displays, and traditional displays. In a subsequent quantitative study, you could address these factors through a series of questions such as: Rate your level of preference for a traditional 3D displaywhich requires your using 3D glasseson a mobile device, with options ranging from strongly prefer to strongly dislike. An automated system assigns a numeric value to whatever option a participant chooses, allowing a researcher to quickly gather and analyze large amounts of data.

Conclusion
When setting out to perform user research, it is important to understand the different applications of these two approaches to research. When setting out to perform user researchwhether performing the research yourself or assigning it to an employee or a consultantit is important to understand the different applications of these two approaches to research. This understanding can help you to choose the appropriate research approach yourself, understand why a researcher has chosen a particular approach, or communicate with researchers or stakeholders about a research approach and your overarching research strategy. The examples weve provided here provide just a small sampling of the many ways in which can analyze and employ qualitative and quantitative data. In what other ways do you use and combine qualitative and quantitative research? Topic: Columns | User Research