Qualitative user research is just as important a part of rounding out your user research as quantitative. But unlike quantitative research, the data insights can only be as good as the note-taking. This can mean that the way you do your note-taking may have a huge impact on the insights that are taken from the data. We’ll take a look at what qualitative research is, the methods for recording notes in the session and some tips on making sure your notes are robust.

What is qualitative research

Quantitative research such as card sorting or tree testing looks at the 'what' and 'how' of users who want to use your product, qualitative research looks into the why.

Making the most of your users research means you shouldn't only look at what or how users want to experience your product but also why they made those decisions. This depth of knowledge and understanding can ultimately enrich the user experience (UX) and improve your product engagement.

The type of qualitative research that we’ll be talking about is primarily in-person interviews with participants. It includes behavioural observations while completing set tasks and responding to a set of questions relating to the product.

When interviewing participants it is important to have a script, and to stick to that script. This will help drive the interview and ensure you get to the bottom of ‘why’ users are making decisions. Your focus should be on your participant, noticing spoken responses as well as how they are behaving. To this end, it can be useful to have a second person present, whose sole role is note-taking. Video or audio recording a session can be a sure way to review your session in the future, ensuring you don’t miss anything.

Note-taking methods

Pen and paper

While digital tools dominate our usability testing methods, handwritten notes or post-its can still be useful to capture what is happening in a group. This method works the best one-on-one or for smaller groups with a limited amount of data. Trying to make notes with larger groups can quickly become unwieldy.

Benefits

• The information can be collected in the moment and at the time. 
• With the physical nature of writing with pen and paper you are more likely to take fuller notes as your brain is engaged with the process. 
• No keyboard noise. Not having the physical barrier of the laptop can also help to relax the interviewee.

Downsides

• The data can’t be quickly collated into a digital format. 
• A lot of work needs to happen after the session to enter the information into a digital format that can sort and store the information for future analysis, sharing and search.

Text editor or spreadsheet

Using a text editor like Word or Google doc can be a quicker way to add the information into a digital format (skipping the step between pen and paper to digital). 

Benefits 

• The information and data can be entered quickly and accurately.
• No need to enter the information into another format after the session.
• Data can be searched quickly.

Downsides 

• The sound of the keyboard could be distracting.
• Taking notes digitally can be less engaging for the note taker.

Qualitative research tool

Using a dedicated qualitative research tool can facilitate and accelerate the interpretation of your data. A dedicated qualitative research tool, like Reframer, combines the advantages of a digital tool with special features for data analysis.

Benefits

• Speeding up the analysis process.
• Removing the need to copy data into other formats. 
• Making analysis, search and storing of the data swift and accurate.
• Ability to add audio or video recordings directly into the data, keeping everything in one place.
• Sharing notes and data is easy and quick and can include stakeholders throughout the process.
• Consistency across note-taking, with a reliable and consistent format.

Downsides of using a research tool are:

• The sound of the keyboard can be distracting.

While there are benefits to all of three of these methods, note-taking in general can be quite off-putting when undertaking user research.

To help take the pain out of the process, and ease the collection of information, we’ve got 6 tips for making the most of Reframer. 

During the session it is vital to take quality notes, and the outcome of your data, and ultimately insights will rely on these. And there is an art to taking the right notes. These notes can be taken directly by you, the interviewer, or a dedicated note taker could be used. Using a qualitative research tool can ensure that the notes that are taken are consistent and easy to manage. Using a qualitative research tool, Reframer, doesn’t rely on the same person taking the notes each time, helping the data output be consistent. 

9 tips to help you take great notes

Whether you are taking notes, manually or digitally there are a few tricks to help you take better notes, resulting in better data, and ultimately better insights. It can be valuable to have one person facilitating the interview, and able to focus on the participant, while the other is the notetaker, leaving you both to focus on your role is for the session.

Here's nine tips to make sure that your note-taking is as good as it can be:

1. Record your sessions (audio or video): If you can, record the audio and/or video of your session. You’ll be able to listen or watch the session later and pick up on anything you may have missed. Loading into Reframer is quick and easy, and means that the notes and the audio/video are kept together, timestamped and shared easily.
2. Note down timestamps during the session: Make a note of the time whenever something interesting happens. This will help you to jump back into the recording later and listen or watch the part again. 
3. Capture your observations during the session: Capturing observations during the session will allow a fuller understanding of behavioural observations as well as spoken responses. Reframer can help make this simpler with tags that can be quickly added at the time to make note-taking simpler.
4. Make a note of everything – even if it doesn’t seem to matter: Sometimes even the smallest things can have a significant impact on how a participant performs in a usability test. Note down if they’re having trouble with the laptop or device, for example.
5. Stay true to the facts:  Make sure you take the position of an objective observer and don’t make assumptions about how the participant’s thinking or feeling. If you do want to add conclusions or possible explanations of behavior clearly indicate this.
6. Be consistent with your format: Be consistent about your note taking perspective (1st or 3rd person), the style (bullet points vs. floating text) and the format of the timestamps. Clearly differentiate quotes from observations. This becomes simpler with the use of Reframer, meaning you can focus on the session.
7. Carefully paraphrase: Making sure that your notes are clear, and capture what is said and happening in the session is important. It's just as important not to write it down word for word, or to infer what you believe is happening.
8. Highlight missed or incomplete parts: Using time-stamping can become very useful when it comes to noting where there may be missed or incomplete sections. This allows post analysis to quickly find where information is missing and check against audio or video files to fill in the blanks. 
9. Recap after your session: Take time as soon as possible to review the session, while it is still fresh in your mind. Make edits, add missed parts and details. Using a qualitative research tool can mean that you can quickly review the audio or video and add tags and detail to sections quickly and easily. This makes review time quicker and capturing detail easier.

Wrap up

You want to get started with your qualitative research but it all feels a little tricky. Through the Optimal Workshop platform and with our Reframer tool you can get started quickly, and we can help guide you through the process of getting your research underway.

Worried about finding participants? We have that sorted too. With 50+ million quality participants at your fingertips. 

Want to do great user research? Maybe you already have tonnes of quantitative research done through testing, surveys and checking. Data galore! Now you really want to get under the skin of your users, understand the why behind their decisions. Getting human-centric with products can mean creating better performing, stronger and more intuitive products that provide an awesome user experience (UX). An in-depth understanding of your users and how they tick can mean the difference between designing products that just work and products that intuitively speak your users language, make them happy, engaged and keep them coming back.

This is where qualitative research comes into play. Understanding how your users tick becomes clearer through user interviews. Interviewing users will provide human insights that make all the difference, the nuance that pulls your product or interface out of the fray and into the light. 

How do you interview confidently? Whether this is your first foray into the world of user interviewing or wanting to step up your game, there are a few common pitfalls along the way. We cover off 7 of the most common mistakes, and how to avoid them, helping you avoid these on your way to interview greatness! 

How do you conduct a user research interview?

There are several ways of doing qualitative user research.  Here we will talk about in-person user interviews. Great user interviewing is a skill in itself. And relies on great prep, quality participants and excellent analysis of the results. But don’t be put off, all of this can be learned, and with the right environment and tools can be simple to implement.  Want to find out more in detail about how to conduct an interview? Take a look here.

Even if you’re an old hand we’re not all gifted interviewing experts, it’s okay if you lack expertise. In fact, totally nailing interview technique is almost impossible thanks to a ton of different factors. It's your job to keep what you can under control, and record the interview well in the moment for later analysis. Keeping safe all those lovely human centric insights you unearth. 

Here are seven practical user research interview mistakes you could be making, and how to fix them:

1. Not having enough participants

It can be intimidating doing any sort of user research. Particularly when you need to find participants. And a random selection, not just those down the hall in the next office (though sometimes they can be great). And getting a large enough pool of participants that make the data meaningful, and the insights impactful.

Not to worry, there are ways to find a giant pool of reliable interview participants. Either dive into existing users that you are familiar with, and they with you. Or get in touch with us to recruit a small or large sample of participants. 

2. Not knowing enough about your interview participants

Interviews are two-way streets, so if you’re hoping to encourage anyone to be open and honest in an interview setting you’ll need to do your homework on the person you’re interviewing. This may not always be applicable if you’re looking for a truly random sample of people. Understanding a little more about your participants should help the conversation flow, and when you do go off-script, it is natural and curiosity driven.

3. Not creating an open interview environment

Everything about your user interview environment affects the outcome of the interview. Your participants need to feel confident and comfortable. The space needs to remove as many distractions as possible. A comfortable workstation, laptop that works, and even the air conditioning at a good temperature can all play a part in providing a relaxed environment. So when it comes to the interview they are able to demonstrate and explain their behaviour or decisions on their own terms.

Of course, in this modern day, the availability of remote and virtual interviewing has changed the game slightly. Allowing your participants to be in their own environment can be beneficial. Be careful to take note of what you can see about their space. Is it crowded, dim, busy or noisy? If you don’t have full control over the environment be sure to note this in a factual way.

4. Not having a note-taker in the room

Good note-taking is a skill in its own right and it’s important to have someone skilled at it. Bringing a dedicated note-taker into the user interviews also frees you up to focus on your participant and your interviewing. Allowing the conversation to flow. Leaving the note-taker to focus on marking down all of the relevant points of interest. 

5. Using a bad recording setup

Deciding to audio (and/or video) record the interview is a great option. When choosing this option, recording can be  possibly the most important aspect of the interview setup process. Being able to focus on the interview without worrying about your recording equipment is key. Make sure that your recording equipment is high quality and in a central position to pick up everything you discuss - don’t trip at the first hurdle and be left with unusable data. 

A dedicated note-taker can still be of value in the room, they can monitor the recording and note any environmental or contextual elements of the interview process. Taking the stress off of you for the recording set up, and any adjustments.

Another option is Reframer. It’s a great recording tool that can free you up to focus on your participant and the interview. Reframer will audio record your interview,auto time-stamp and provide a standardized format for recording all of your interviews. Post analysis becomes simple and quick. And even quicker to share the data and insights.

6. Not taking the time to prepare your interview questions

Lack of preparation can be a fatal error for any user research and user interviews are no different. Interviews are a qualitative research method, and your questions don’t need to be as strict as those in a quantitative questionnaire, for example. However, you will still need a standardised script to regulate your user interviews and make sure all of your participants are asked the same set of questions. Always leaving plenty of room to go off script to get under the skin of why your participant interacts with your product in a particular way!

7. Not having a plan of action for organizing your data

Qualitative data is unstructured, which can make it hard to organize and analyze. Recording and including all of your interviews on one platform so you can analyze the insights and conclusions together makes it easier to review.  Reframer can do all of this in one place allowing all of your organizational stakeholders access to the data. 

Don’t miss anything in your interviews, you put in the time, the effort and the investment into doing them. Make sure that they are recorded, available and analyzed in one place. For the team to see, use and report against.

Wrap Up

User interviews can be intimidating, to organise, to prep for and even finding your participants can be hard. But user interviews needn’t be too much of a headache. With the Optimal Workshop platform, we take the pain out of the process with participant selection, recording, analyzing and reporting.

If you want a single platform to record, analyze and store your data, take a look at Optimal Workshop and Reframer. And get interviewing!

Return on investment (ROI) is often the term on everyone’s lips when starting a big project or even when reviewing a website. It’s especially popular with those that hold the purse strings.  As UX researchers it is important to consider the ROI of the work we do and understand how to measure this. 

We’ve lined up 5 key ways to measure ROI for UX research to help you get the conversation underway with stakeholders so you can show real and tangible benefits to your organization. 

1. Meet and exceed user expectations

Put simply, a product that meets and exceeds user expectations leads to increased revenue. When potential buyers are able to find and purchase what they’re looking for, easily, they’ll complete their purchase, and are far more likely to come back. The simple fact that users can finish their task will increase sales and improve overall customer satisfaction which has an influence on their loyalty. Repeat business means repeat sales. Means increased revenue.

Creating, developing and maintaining a usable website is more important than you might think. And this is measurable! Tracking and analyzing website performance prior to the UX research and after can be insightful and directly influenced by changes made based on UX research.

Measurable: review the website (product) performance prior to UX research and after changes have been made. The increase in clicks, completed tasks and/or baskets will tell the story.

2. Reduce development time

UX research done at the initial stages of a project can lead to a reduction in development time of by 33% to 50%! And reduced time developing, means reduced costs (people and overheads) and a speedier to market date. What’s not to love? 

Measurable: This one is a little more tricky as you have saved time (and cost) up front. Aiding in speed to market and performance prior to execution. Internal stakeholder research may be of value post the live date to understand how the project went.

3. Ongoing development costs

And the double hitter? Creating a product that has the user in mind up front, reduces the need to rehash or revisit as quickly. Reducing ongoing costs. Early UX research can help with the detection of errors early on in the development process. Fixing errors after development costs a company up to 100 times more than dealing with the same error before development.

Measureable: Again, as UX research has saved time and money up front this one can be difficult to track. Though depending on your organization and previous projects you could conduct internal research to understand how the project compares and the time and cost savings.

4. Meeting user requirements

Did you know that 70% of projects fail due to the lack of user acceptance? This is often because project managers fail to understand the user requirements properly. Thanks to UX research early on, gaining insights into users and only spending time developing the functions users actually want, saving time and reducing development costs. Make sure you get confirmation on those requirements by iterative testing. As always, fail early, fail often. Robust testing up front means that in the end, you’ll have a product that will meet the needs of the user.

Measurable: Where is the product currently? How does it perform? Set a benchmark up front and review post UX research. The deliverables should make the ROI obvious.

5. Investing in UX research leads to an essential competitive advantage.

Thanks to UX research you can find out exactly what your customers want, need and expect from you. This gives you a competitive advantage over other companies in your market. But you should be aware that more and more companies are investing in UX while customers are ever more demanding, their expectations continue to grow and they don’t tolerate bad experiences. And going elsewhere is an easy decision to make.

Measurable: Murky this one, but no less important. Knowing, understanding and responding to competitors can help keep you in the lead, and developing products that meet and exceed those user expectations.

Wrap up

Showing the ROI on the work we do is an essential part of getting key stakeholders on board with our research. It can be challenging to talk the same language, ultimately we all want the same outcome…a product that works well for our users, and delivers additional revenue.

For some continued reading (or watching in this case), Anna Bek, Product and Delivery Manager at Xplor explored the same concept of "How to measure experience" during her UX New Zealand 2020 – watch it here as she shares a perspective on UX ROI.