Qualitative+Research+Methods

=Introduction=

Qualitative Research uses smaller but more focused samples instead of large and random samples. The goal of qualitative research is to understand human behaviour and decision making. Qualitative research does not attempt to answer the //what//, //where// and //when// aspect of decision making. Qualitative research focus on the reasons behind decision making such as w//hy// was the decision made and //how// it was made. = =

=Methods= = = >
 * **Secondary Source Analysis**
 * **Case Study**
 * **Focus Group**
 * **Interview**
 * **Ethnography & Observation**
 * **Experimentation**

Secondary Source Analysis
This type of qualitative research is based on information that already exists. The analysis attempts to answer questions such as who made these information, what types of research method did they use and what is the final conclusion.

Case Study
Case study involves an indepth understanding of a single event. From the case study the researcher gain an understanding of why the event happend as it did and what might be important to analyze in future research. Researchers may find trends and patterns in similar cases. These trends and patterns help researchers to either come up with hypotheses or testing existing hypotheses for their study.

Focus Group
This type of qualitative research method involves a group of people. The researcher asks the group about their attitude towards a product, a service or an idea. The setting should be be interactive where participants are free to talk with other group members. This is a tool to gain feedback regarding a product or a service from the public. The collected information from a study group can help a company to develop and test a new product before it is made avaliable to the public. (During a focus group meeting)

Interview
An interview is a conversation between two or more people. The conversation is a structured social interaction between the researcher and the subject. The subject is the potential source of information. The researcher must initiate and control the interview in order to gain information that is relevant to the developing or existing hypothsis. The the interview should be recorded so the researcher can go back and see if there is any detail information he missed at the time of the interview.

(During an interview)

**Ethnography & Observation**
This type of research relies heavily on fieldwork. It is a qualitative description from a direct, first-hand observation of subject's daily behaviour in context. Ethnography is the result of a holistic research method. This means that the properties of the system of research may not make sense alone but the system as a whole determines an important way of how the individual parts behave. An interesting version of observation is the TAP method, which encourages users verbalize their thinking process during task performance.

This type of research involves creating controlled environment (by eliminating as many environmental variables as possible) to determine causal effect between two concepts. For further information, consult this link: Experimentation.
 * Experimentation**

=Reference=

Benyon D, Turner P, Turner S. //Designing Interactive System People, Activities, Context, Technologies//. London:Pearson Education Limited, 2005. __Quantitative Research__. Wikipedia. Dec.1.2006 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qualitative_research Ethnography. Wikipedia De.1.2006 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnography Focus Group http://www.consumer-health.com/images/pic_consumer.gif Interview http://www.jobsrv.eiu.edu/students/interviewing/interview.jpg
 * Text Book**
 * Internet**
 * Images**