Quantitative or qualitative research, is that the question?

As we know, UX research allows us to make a series of decisions that are based on the opinion and observation of users. But, nowadays, there are so many techniques in this field, that things get complicated when you have to choose the most appropriate method for our analysis.

In terms of UX research we find two major research methods, which would be quantitative research and qualitative research. And although many people think that the big difference between them is due to the number of users involved, it is actually due to the type of data that is collected.

Knowing this, the first question that should come to mind when we think of UX research is: qualitative or quantitative? No? Well, this could be a mistake. The question is not one or the other, they are two research methodologies that go hand in hand, the important thing first of all is to ask: what do we want to achieve? So the key to the analysis would be more, what kind of techniques we will use and how we are going to combine them to reach our goal. In this article we are going to focus on when it is more convenient to use qualitative research and when quantitative research.

Qualitative research or how to understand user decisions.

Qualitative research focuses on discovering and deepening opinions, emotional assessments, experiences and motivations. Through the multiple qualitative techniques we can solve the whys of the decisions and questions that users ask themselves when they are using a product or service.

Although qualitative techniques are more common in the early phases of a project to obtain the base information that will then be used in the other phases, qualitative research can be extended throughout the design process to have a deeper feedback.

The best known and used techniques in this type of research would be in-depth interviews, ethnographic studies, focus groups and observation. It is also quite common to carry out qualitative usability tests throughout the design process and, above all, before launching a new product, since it will help us to find problems of use and know exactly how users perceive our product.

To carry out qualitative research, the number of participants does not necessarily have to be large, since with these techniques we are interested in detecting patterns and not accurately quantifying the findings. We are talking about that, for example, user tests and interviews can be carried out between 8 and 12 people, depending on the profile and the objectives of the study, although it should be said that, groups of 5 are also effective to detect recurring insights. This is feasible as long as the users are representative, so in this case the proper choice of participants becomes very important.

And, last but not least, we must bear in mind that qualitative research at the same time can give us a lot of “collateral” information about users, such as consumption habits, more emotional impressions or even personal stories related to the brand or service. This data can be used directly by the marketing and communication department.

Quantitative research or how to understand the magnitude of our findings.

Quantitative research focuses on all those data that can be expressed numerically. Through quantitative research we will get metrics and understand the magnitude of the findings we have.

Typically, the data obtained through this research is used to optimize and improve products and services, as well as to obtain a reliable overview about more specific topics.

The most common techniques in this type of research are A/B tests, navigation tests, web analytics, surveys and quantitative evaluation tests. These techniques will help us prioritize functionalities, estimate the level of a problem, select a design that converts more… And they can be used both at the beginning and at the end of a design process (such as surveys), to quantify the findings obtained, seek improvements and further optimize the current design.

In this case, the ideal number of users who should participate in quantitative research depends on the technique to be used and the margin of error that could be assumed. For example, Jakob Nielsen1 recommends testing with at least 20 users in quantitative research.

In short…

Both qualitative and quantitative research allow us to obtain very valuable data and we can rarely obtain a complete view of the user experience using only techniques of one kind or another. Knowing how many users a specific problem happens to can tell us the importance according to the number of affected users, but it will never give us clues about the reasons and how to solve it. That is why it is so important to achieve the balance between the two research methods. Define your goal and analyze what kind of data you want to get, so you will know what research plan you will need to raise to reach your goal.