[IxDA Discuss] analyzing qualitative data

[chris]

One process our team uses to distill large volumes of interview
feedback into useful recommendations for our UI is a modified
keyword/cluster/textual analysis.  Our technique is a modification of
a couple methods of rhetorical analysis so, unfortunately, I don't
have a good source to point you to.  

To set up we use a basic spread sheet with rows of users and columns
of keywords and functions pertinent to our UI.  For instance if we
were reviewing feedback from a music player application our keywords
would be things like Song, Playlist, etc.  We document the users
phrase or thought associated with each keyword.  Things like, User 1
commented: The playlist is hard to use, User 2 commented: I expected
to be able to sort the playlist by clicking on the heading, etc. 
After everything is sorted into more manageable chunks we take all of
the text about the playlist and see how many people said it was hard
to use, versus how many said it was an improvement, etc.  Patterns
and themes will emerge that can help you see the trends in how a
group is thinking or feeling about aspects of an application.  This
is not really an analysis technique but a process to get from point A
(huge amount of material to go through) to point B (understanding of
what users think).  



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Posted from the new ixda.org
http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=22609