2.2: Design Research

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The key to designing an effective research methodology is to ask what are the most appropriate research methods, who are the audiences and if the audiences are representative (sampling size). It is also important to ensure that the language used for the research is appropriate and understandable to the audience.

There are two types of information gathering—quantitative and qualitative. Each type has different methods, such as a quantitative survey or questionnaire, or a qualitative in-depth interview or focus group discussion. Depending on what questions still need to be answered, a combination of methods can be used to effectively fill informational gaps.

Task 2.2.1:        Determine the Most Appropriate Research Methods

  • Read Key Information 2.3: Quantitative vs. Qualitative:
Quantitative Qualitative
  • Seeks to establish “how many” and “the relationship between variables.”
  • Facilitates the use of numbers and statistics for aggregating, summarizing, describing, and comparing data.
  • Allows for a broad generalization of findings to the larger population.

 

 
  • Allows the researcher to study selected issues, cases, or events in-depth and detail through direct quotation, interaction, and observations.
  • Seeks to answer the reasons “why.”
  • Is in-depth, exploratory, and allows for more probing.
  • Allows for interaction between the facilitator and the participant(s).
  • Portrays the participants’ emotions, perceptions, attitudes, motivators, etc.

Task 2.2.2:        Detail Audience Demographics (with whom)

As a next step, it is necessary to determine and detail the specific demographics of the targeted research audiences.  This will help to support decision-making and ensure that information is gathered from the appropriate audiences.  As part of this task, it is essential to include women in any sample as their perspectives and roles may differ significantly from men.  It is critical to be confident about the research results and to know that a sufficient number of the target audience has participated in providing the needed information. 

  • Use Decision Making Tool 2.3: Detailing Audience Characteristic Demographics, to develop a demographic outline of the  research audience.  Add additional characteristics as appropriate.
  • Add these demographic details to Product 2: Overview of Research.
  • Develop questions based on this checklist to be included in any research document for the collection of demographic information.  This should be either at the top, for a quantitative research document, or on a separate sheet of paper for a qualitative research document.

Task 2.2.3:        Determine Sample Size (how many)

It is necessary to have confidence that a sufficient number of the target audience has participated in providing the research results.

  • Read Key Information 2.4: Research Confidence:

    The level of confidence tells you how sure you can be of the responses you have received.  It represents how often the target audience would pick the answers indicated by the research results, without needing to conduct the research with the entire audience.   A 95% level of confidence  means you can be certain that members of this population would respond to a question in the same manner 95% of the time.  The internationally accepted standard of 95% is used by most researchers.  Depending on time and resources, this level can adjusted by either +/-3%, +/-5%, or +/-10%.

Task 2.2.4:        Develop Corresponding Research Documents

Use appropriate language in the research documents tailored to each audience.  For example, “septage management” may not be understandable to the audience unless clearly defined and explained.