Data Analysis in Research

research

Qualitative Interviews

After conducting desk research and analyzing existing data analysis tools, I conducted two qualitative interviews. First with a professor of clinical psychology and psychotherapy. Then with a psychology bachelor’s student who had just written her bachelor’s thesis.

User Journey

User journey of the first interview

Opportunity Areas

Different pain points emerged during the various phases of the research process, which led to the identification of several opportunity areas:

• How can the research process and paperwork be digitally structured, organized, and archived?

• How can we support researchers in exploring precisely the connections they are looking for?

• How can we support and motivate researchers to create more vivid graphics and convey the importance of doing so to them?

• How can we help researchers comply with APA guidelines and the various guidelines of journals?

• How could a program be used to manage the entire research process?

• When designing the filter, I went through several iterations and finally decided that the selection should be almost identical to the current version via a modal. The active selection is now displayed via one or more chips. This not only shows that there is an active filter, but also what exactly this filter does. In addition, the location markers for bicycles/scooters do not disappear completely from the map, but remain as small dots.

concept

The Entire Research Process in One Program

One insight from the research is that all relevant data is copied onto paper after analysis in order to document it. However, it must later be retyped elsewhere in order to continue working with it. This carries a high risk of errors and makes it difficult to understand, trace, and verify connections between notes and analysis.

In my project, I am trying to address this problem by managing the entire research process in one program. This allows notes, findings, data, etc. to be collected in one place, traced back to each other, and embedded in other parts of the research process.

The process is very similar across research projects and referenced within the program I designed:

Phases of the research process

Interaction Concept

After completing an analysis, there are multiple ways to take notes and interact with the resulting data.

→ Pinned

If, for example, you want to insert a specific graphic or table that was created in the analysis into the paper at a later stage, you can “pin” it in the analysis so that it can be directly integrated in another phase (e.g., writing).

→ Attached

When writing a note about a specific element, the note is linked to that element and can be traced back to it. Since it is a common use case to write down analyzed data and observations and refer to them in the paper, you can use an attached note, for example, to insert it during the writing phase.

→ Notes

Notes don’t have to be attached to or refer to specific elements. General notes can be reminders or information that is not particularly relevant for later stages.

→ Forked

By selecting part of an element, you can “fork” it. This means you split it off from the original element and save the selected information in a new element. This allows you to continue working with the data later without having to search for it again or copy it down. The forked elements can be traced back to their origin and used individually, e.g., in the paper, but also to create a new table in the visualization phase.

Inserting a Note

In later stages, such as the Writing phase, users will be able to insert and use pinned tables, attached notes, and forked elements. During the writing phase, the side panel displays formatting options, as well as all collected elements and notes.

Overview

Interaction types: Pinned, Attached, Forked, Notes

These examples illustrate the concept behind the project, but the potential and possibilities of these interactions and elements are much greater.