This blog post outlines my strategies for how I plan to analyse the research I gather, in order to develop proposals for potential interventions to implement.
Interviews
My go-to process for interview analysis is ‘coding’, as outlined by Corbin and Strauss (2008)
(Corbin, J.M. and Strauss, A. (2008) Basics of Qualitative Research: Techniques and Procedures for Developing Grounded Theory. Third Edition. Los Angeles: SAGE Publications, Inc.)
I read this book from cover to cover while undertaking my first serious research project in a professional context, and it truly changed my way of thinking about qualitative research, and the huge potential it contains for deep, rich insight.
Their ‘coding’ processes continue to inform all interview analysis I do to this day. Their process involves close reading of interview transcripts, pulling out key quotations and grouping them into themes, and using these themes to inform overarching insights, summaries, and potential action (in this case, interventions). This is the process I plan to undertake on the material I gather from both students and staff, which will hopefully give me a broad set of categories and subcategories of ideas to work from.
The raw interview transcripts will be stored in UAL’s onedrive system, then for my analysis I will use my preferred text editing/note taking app Notion, which offers richer tools for this kind of work than standard word processing software.
I will also apply this process of coding to any notes taken from discussions which occur during the workshops or observations.
Workshop
As described in my previous Research Methodologies blog, I plan to run a workshop with students which will set them a drawing exercise, asking them to visualise their ‘dream’ work setting.
An important part of this workshop will be the conversations which accompany the main drawing exercise. I will not be recording these, due to the challenges of multiple participants, and wanting everyone to feel comfortable and at ease during the session, but students will be made aware that I am taking notes, and all students will be given information prior to the session and a consent form, granting permission for their drawings and verbal discussions to be used as part of my research. These notes will be analysed using the coding processes described above, the same as my formal interviews.
In terms of how I plan to analyse the collected drawings, the main method will be content analysis, dissecting each drawing and noting common elements, keeping a record of recurring themes across the drawings.
Hurdley describes a similar approach in one study:
“Content analysis of all 150 questionnaire drawings was valuable in producing a comprehensive “common culture” of domestic display practices, which could then be situated within the available literature on design history.
Hurdley, R. (2019) Drawing as a Research Method. SAGE Publications Ltd. Available at: https://doi.org/10.4135/9781526421036838861.
It is also worth noting the role that the students themselves may play in the analysis of the data…
If the research has been completed in close cooperation with the community, the researcher should ask the community to also participate in the analysis of the material
Jokela, T & Huhmarniemi, M. (2019). Art-based action research in the development work of arts and art education. Availab;e at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/335797712_Art-based_action_research_in_the_development_work_of_arts_and_art_education
At the end of the workshop I will conclude with a group discussion and reflection on the completed drawings, welcoming student thoughts on the collective body of work and what ideas it explores (I will take notes on this).
I will then cross reference the themes from the drawings and accompanying discussion with my other research to see where commonalities can be found.
Survey
I hope to recieve somewhere between 50 and 80 responses to my survey (there being around 100 students across all three year groups of BA UXD, this seems realistic, though may prove optimistic).
In terms of analysing the data once it has been recieved, I am keen to visualise the data for easy consumption and analysis. As a graphic designer with many years working in industry, I have plenty of experience of creating compelling data visualisations. For this project I am excited to try a new tool that I have not had the chance to test before, it’s called Flourish, and looks like it has the potential to save me a lot of time and create beautifully clear visualisations in a variety of different styles. If for some reason this does not work as planned, I will work in Adobe Illustrator as I am accustomed to.
Armed with these data visualisations, I will again explore emerging themes around students work practices and preferences, and cross-reference these with those gathered across my other research methods.
Observations
Observation and/or immersion is a research method that I teach and discuss with my UX students, so I am excited to undertake and analyse my own body of observation based research for the first time in a while. We regularly teach using the IDEO Field Guide to Human Centred Design, and they offer a good reminder that:
It’s crucial to record exactly what you see and hear. It’s easy to interpret what’s in front of you before you’ve fully understood it, so be sure you’re taking down concrete details and quotes alongside your impressions. (P52)
The Field Guide to Human-Centered Design by IDEO.org (2015). San Francisco, Calif.: IDEO.org / Design Kit.
During all observations I will make extensive notes of all I see and hear, and will analyse these afterwards using the same coding process described in my interview analysis methodologies above.
Overarching analysis
Referring again to the Ideo Field Guide to Human Centered Design, a number of methods are proposed for grappling with a large body of data like that which will have been gathered using the methods above. Many of these methodologies rely on discussion with a team, and I hope to take advantage of the good will of one or two close colleagues to talk through my findings. The work that I will have done ‘coding’ my research into themes and sub-themes will set me in good stead for this.
In the UX/User research field, two commonly used methodologies which follow from this type of thematic identification work are insight statements and ‘how might we’s’.
Insight statements take the form of “succinct sentences that will point the way forward” (Ideo), and you typically aim to get 3 – 5 of these. (One potential example might be ‘Students find the noise levels in our studio space overwhelming and stressful’)
Following this, ‘How might we’s’ (or in this case ‘How might I’s!) are created. (There is much literature on the use of ‘How might we’s’, one example which I referred to as a refresher was: Rosala, M. (2021) Using “How Might We” Questions to Ideate on the Right Problems, Nielsen Norman Group. Available at: https://www.nngroup.com/articles/how-might-we-questions/ (Accessed: 22 November 2024).
One example following on from the insight statement above might be ‘How might we reduce the noise levels in our studio space’, OR ‘How might we offer students greater control over the noise level in our studio space’. It is important that ‘How might we’ questions do not suggest a solution (yet). (Rosala, 2021)
This process may seem cumbersome or repetitive, but it offers a vital path to ensuring that the design challenge is being framed correctly.
Design processes are consciously designed to make sure you identify the right problem first before wasting time and money on solving the problem right. This sounds almost trivial, but it is indeed fundamental and does not always come naturally. (p86)
Stinkdorn, M. et al. (2016) This is Service Design Doing: Applying Service Design Thinking in the Real World. 1st edition. Sebastopol, CA: O′Reilly.
Armed with these ‘How might we’s’, it’s time to ideate! Continuing to hold in mind all the ideas raised in the research, I will use my ‘How Might We’s’ as a starting point, and begin to note down as many intervention concepts as possible, possibly utilising a methodology like Crazy 8s. (A fast paced drawing activity which aims to avoid overthinking in the initial ideation phase)
Much like I encourage of my students in the workshop, at this stage, nothing is too impossible or speculative. The initial ideas can be as ‘crazy’ as the name of the process suggests, with realism being injected further down the line. This ensures that creative thinking isn’t crushed too early, and that bold ideas can be considered and then refined into potential interventions.
Following this, I take all of my individual ideas and place them on a value matrix:
If I am lucky, there will be one or more ideas in the top left (high value, low effort) quadrant, which I can refine further and implement for my intervention.
In my next post I will share various documentation associated with my research, including information sheets, consent forms, and preparatory email drafts.