There are two main forms of research: qualitative and quantitative.

• Qualitative research focuses on deeply understanding people, including their thoughts, feelings, actions, and experiences. 
• Researchers ask exploratory, open-ended questions like, “why do you feel that way?”, “what is going on for you?” and “tell me more about …?” 
• Qualitative researchers mainly gather people’s words, such as what someone says in an interview, shares during a focus group, writes on social media, or says in everyday conversations. They observe people in real-life settings. 
• Sometimes qualitative researchers also collect images, such as photos, drawings, or videos, and they explore what these might reveal or represent. 
• Qualitative research findings are rich and descriptive, like a window into people’s lives. They help us understand how people think, feel, and behave, and this can guide the design of products, services, and experiences that better meet people’s needs.
• On the other hand, quantitative research studies things by collecting and analysing numerical data to find patterns and draw conclusions.

In summary, qualitative research focuses on: 

• Depth over breadth: It’s about deeply understanding a specific group of people or a particular experience, rather than looking for broad patterns that apply to the general population.
• Building understanding, not testing assumptions: It’s used to uncover how and why things happen, rather than to check if a specific idea is true. 
• Words over numbers: Your research questions are best answered through people’s words, themes, and insights, rather than through numbers, statistics, graphs, or numerical trends. 

Deciding whether to run a qualitative or a quantitative study

Before choosing your research approach, it’s important to first understand what you’re trying to learn:

• Outline your primary objective: What is the main goal of your study? 
• Write your high-level research questions: What do you want to find out? 
• Choose your research approach: Decide whether to use qualitative, quantitative, or ‘mixed methods’; primary (new data you collect) or secondary (existing data). 
• Collect your data: Use methods that suit your approach, like interviews or surveys. 
• Analyse your data and present your findings: Look for patterns, themes, or trends.

This guide focuses on qualitative data collection and analysis.