A lot of the frameworks and methods I teach
are qualitative processes: design thinking,
journey mapping, service blueprinting.
They cannot be driven by quantitative data
which gives you the how many and how much answers,
but rather, qualitative data,
which gives you the whats and whys.
I'm gonna run through five qualitative methods.
The first being, user interviews.
It's the most common
and most widely-known qualitative method.
User interviews are at their core
just a one on one conversation.
They allow us to hear first-hand stories
about someone's experiences,
their opinions, their interests.
There's a lot of different ways
you can approach user interviews.
First, they can range from structured
to semi-structured to unstructured.
They can be conducted in person or over the phone.
The next two qualitative methods I'm going to discuss
are forms of field studies,
meaning research that takes place in the user's context
rather than back at the office or lab.
We know what people say they do
is not always what they actually do,
so we have to rely on something other
than just user interviews.
Direct observation is a form of a field study
where you directly observe user behavior.
Observing customers in their own element
doing what they always do is important
to validate and support findings from our interviews.
Direct observation is useful
for conducting design research and user process.
It's great for learning user vocabulary,
understanding businesses' interactions with customers,
and discovering common work-arounds.
For example, listening in on support calls,
watching people move through an amusement park,
or even observing sales staff and customers in stores.
A third qualitative method
is a different form of a field study, contextual inquiry.
Think of a contextual inquiry as a mix
of that direct observation and a user interview.
It's a semi-structured interview method
used to gather information about the context of use.
We first ask users a set of standard questions
and then we observe them and ask them questions.
This is all conducted in the context
and work environments of theirs, not ours.
A fourth qualitative method is a diary study.
They are a research method used to collect
qualitative data about user behavior
and activities and experiences over time
as that user tries to accomplish a specific task or goal.
In a diary study, data is self-reported
by participants longitudinally.
This means that over a longer amount of time
participants are keeping a diary of those daily logs,
of activities or specific experiences.
Diary studies are really helpful in two primary scenarios.
First, you wanna collect that habitual usage data.
What time of day are people engaging with their product?
How are they sharing that content?
What primary tasks are they completing?
Second, any kind of change in attitude,
behavior or motivation over time.
Like brand perception.
How loyal are customers
after they make their first purchase?
How do they perceive a company
after they engage with that brand multiple times?
A fifth qualitative method is focus groups.
Focus groups are a somewhat informal technique
that can help assess user needs and feelings
on both interface design or brand perception.
In a focus group, you bring about six to nine users
to discuss issues and concerns.
The group typically lasts about two hours
and is run by a moderator who maintains the group focus.
Regardless of the methods you choose,
there's really just two things to remember.
First, with qualitative data,
you don't need a lot of people,
but you need the right people.
You can conduct qualitative research
with five participants and you're likely
to uncover rich insights.
However, the tricky part is they have to be
the right five participants.
This means you have to align those people
to the specific user segment or persona
you're doing research on.
Two, aim to use a multi-pronged approach.
Don't just rely on a singular qualitative method,
but rather pull in others,
use two to three different methods
to really ensure you're getting that rich validated data.