Do you believe that both qualitative and quantitative research have valuable roles in advancing knowledge in your field of study? Why? Why not?
Advances in web design stem from both quantitative and qualitative research. Researchers often gather quantitative research by asking users to rate specific components of a website that may affect its success, such as the layout, the readability of the text, the navigation, or the color scheme. User responses allow the developers to evaluate the effectiveness of the components. Web designers also gather qualitative research by asking participants to evaluate their experience on the website, explain what they found most helpful, and describe any difficulties they experienced while navigating the website or recommend changes that would improve the site’s general functionality.
Both forms of research provide additional insight into how to improve a website to increase viewer satisfaction, as well as often giving the developers an outsider’s perspective. Quantitative research data will directly measure user satisfaction, allowing the researchers to change aspects of the website that the users found unsatisfactory. Qualitative research allows the researchers to pinpoint problems or features that users may find unpleasant. Most individuals who view a website may not be able to explain how a certain problem might be fixed. However, by navigating the website, they can identify common malfunctions and difficulties in navigation that might render the website a bane, instead of a boon, to the corporation. Frequently, developers are unaware of difficulties because, having designed the website, they already know the information it contains, and where to find it. They are no longer navigators. My uncle knows where to find everything in his messy garage, but if he asked me to go get him a screwdriver from his garage, he would have to wait for two hours while I located it. If I tell him his garage is in chaos, he looks at me with surprise and insists that he knows where everything is. My uncle’s garage may be just what he needs, but it is a nightmare to anyone else. Some websites are like this. For this reason, reviews and assessments from outsiders are valuable to web designers.
The more ‘outsider’ a person is the more valuable the input is. Albert Einstein stated that “If you can’t explain it to a six-year-old, you don’t understand it yourself.” By the same token, if a ‘six-year-old’, or a person who is not computer literate, cannot navigate the website, it is not user-friendly. For this reason, both qualitative and quantitative research should involve participants from very young and very old age brackets, very low and very high educational levels, and very low and very high-income brackets. While university students are most frequently recruited for research, results are inconclusive if they are the only participants.
Qualitative and quantitative research are critical in producing effective and successful websites; the challenge is devising research methods that produce truly beneficial results.
Bornhofen, R. (n.d.). “If You Can’t Explain It to a Six Year Old, You Don’t Understand It Yourself”. BizCatalyst 360. https://www.bizcatalyst360.com/if-you-cant-explain-it-to-a-six-year-old-you-dont-understand-it-yourself/