Welcome to this video, where we will present a brief introduction to qualitative research. 

To understand our service users better, we need to conduct research with them to identify their needs, concerns, behaviours, and problems. We typically refer to this as user research. Many user research methods have their basis in the broader area of qualitative research. In this module, we will discuss qualitative research, and how it can help us to understand our service users and build better services.  

Qualitative research involves collecting data from a group of people that is non-numerical and rich in detail. 

This might include interview transcripts, photographs and videos, comment cards, or notes from your observations.  

Because we are more interested in depth rather than breadth in qualitative research, we usually work with a relatively small group of users. Often, qualitative research studies are completed with fewer than 20 people. What’s important though is that you as a designer spend enough time speaking with and listening to that group of people, to collect data that is rich and in-depth, and not just surface-level.  

For this reason, qualitative research tends to use open-ended questions, or questions that have many possible answers. So, rather than asking “Did you enjoy your experience with our service?”, you might ask “Can you tell me about your experience with our service?”. We are looking for stories, not yes or no answers. 

Qualitative research is a vast area, and it’s not something that one can learn to do via a short video like this. However, you also don’t need to be an expert researcher to use the tools of qualitative research to build a better understanding of your service users. In the next video, we will look at a simple process for incorporating qualitative research into a service design project. 

When designing a new service, we will typically begin by conducting some user research. There are several steps involved here. 

First, we need to figure out what our research question is. What do we want to know, that only our service users can tell us? For example, maybe we want to know “What are the main reasons why people use our service?”. Or perhaps we want to understand, “What are the key barriers that prevent people from signing up to our digital platform?”. It’s vital to define a specific question before moving any further, so that your research is focused and useful. 

Next, we need to pick our method. We will be covering some key user research methods and why you might select each one in the next few videos.  

Third, we need to plan our study carefully. Where will we run it? How much time will we need? Which user groups do we need to speak to the most, and how will we invite them to take part? Again, we will be covering these topics in more detail in later videos. 

Finally, we conduct our research with our service users. This is where we can collect invaluable data about people’s problems and needs, that will help us to build better services. As we will discuss in later videos, it’s important to recognise our service users as experts in their own experiences. To get real value from user research, we should be listening more than we are speaking. 

So to summarise: 

• We use methods derived from qualitative research to better understand our service users and their needs and challenges 

• We should have a specific research question in mind, and plan our research carefully 

• Our service users are experts in their own experiences, and we should listen intently and value their input 

 Thanks for joining us for this video, we’ll see you in the next one, where we will explore the different research methods we can use to better understand our service users.