Please note: This tool is a work in progress and isn’t yet available to all Optimal Workshop customers. If you’d like to opt in to the beta, pop down to the bottom of this article to find out more.

‍

The ability to collect robust and trustworthy qualitative analysis is a must for any team who conducts user research. But so often, the journey to getting those juicy insights is time-consuming and messy. With so many artefacts – usually spread across multiple platforms and mediums – trying to unearth the insights you set out to get can feel overwhelming.

‍

Since launching Reframer in 2019, we’ve had some great feedback from our users and the community. This feedback has led to the development of the beta version of Reframer v2 – in which we’ve expanded the note taking and tagging capabilities, as well as building a more powerful and flexible analysis functionality: affinity mapping.

‍

What is Reframer v2 beta? 🤨

‍

Simply put, Reframer v2 is a workflow that houses your data and insights all in one place. Yes, that’s right! No more context switching between various platforms or tabs. It’s an end-to-end qualitative analysis workflow that allows you to capture, code, group and visualize your data.

‍

‍

We’ve put a lot of focus into making sure that the analysis side of things is easy to learn and understand, regardless of your experience level. It’s also more flexible and better suited to qualitative research with data sets both big and small.

‍

What’s the difference between Reframer and v2 beta? 😶🌫️

‍

The main difference is the analysis workflow. Reframer’s tag-based theme builder has been replaced with an affinity map-based workflow in v2 beta.

‍

The rest of the workflow remains mostly the same, though there are a couple of key differences.

‍

User interface and set up 📲

‍

While the activities within the set up and capture phase remain the same, we’ve updated the user interface to better reflect the qualitative research workflow.

‍

All set up related actions (study overview, tasks, tags, segments, and study members) now live together under one tab – ‘Setup’.

‍

You’ll find your sessions and all the observation data you’ve collected in the ‘Sessions’ tab.

‍

‍

Guest notetakers ✍️

‍

For now, we’ve disabled the ability to invite guest notetakers who don’t hold an Optimal Workshop license. That’s not to say this won’t be reintroduced at some stage in the future, though. And of course, your team members who do have a license will be able to collaborate, take notes and analyze data.

‍

Say hello to affinity mapping 📍🗺️

‍

The biggest (and the best) difference between Reframer and v2 beta is the analysis workflow. In Reframer, themes are created by combining filters and tags. In Reframer v2 beta, themes are created by grouping observations in the affinity map.

‍

‍

Affinity mapping is a flexible and visual way to quickly group, organize and make sense of qualitative data. It’s a popular method amongst research practitioners of all experience levels, though it’s usually conducted in a standalone tool outside of where the raw data is captured, organized, tagged and stored.

‍

Reframer v2 beta makes affinity mapping more powerful and user-friendly than ever – giving you the ability to search and filter your data, and have your observations, tags, and themes all connected and stored in one place.

‍

What exactly does ‘beta’ mean in this case? 🙂⃤

‍

It means that Reframer v2 is still very much a work in progress and isn’t yet available to all Optimal Workshop users. We’re continuing to develop new functionality that will complete the qualitative data analysis workflow and, if you’re part of the beta, you can expect to see new features and changes being rolled out in the coming months. 

‍

There may be a few bugs along the way, and we know the current name doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue so standby for a rebrand of the tool name once it’s ready for general consumption!

‍

We need your help! 🆘

‍

Want to help us make Reframer v2 beta really, really great? We’d love that. We here at Optimal Workshop rely on your thoughts, opinions and feedback to build and update our tools so they benefit those who matter most: you.

‍

If you’d like to opt into the beta, sign up here.

‍

And if you’d like to get down into the nitty gritty about the what, why and how of Reframer v2 beta, check out our Help Center articles here.