Research data

Research data 

Research can be divided into two categories:

Primary - From a direct source 

• Focus groups

Advantages - Can ask exact questions, more detailed answers, can show prototypes/ sketches

Disadvantages - Pressure to conform to others opinions, expensive to host, time consuming to collate data.

• Interview

• Survey 

• Questionnaires (online/ hand written)

Advantages - Private/ can be filled out anonymously, data can be easily collated, can be turned into graphs and percentages.

Disadvantages - Invalid data/ people may lie or rush, data is not as detailed.

Secondary - already existing data

• Books

• Internet

Advantages - Wide range of opinions and sources, easily accessible 

Disadvantages - Not all sources are reliable, information can be misinterpreted

• TV

Advantages - Audience can be passive 

Disadvantage - Information can be biased

• Magazines/newspapers

Qualitative 

- Typically descriptive, in-depth data used to find out how people think about a given product

- Questions that allow people to write extended responses 

- Can be used to identify likes, dislikes, trends etc

Example of qualitative questions

Quantitative

- Data that can be measured numerically 

- Common example is the Likert scale as it enables interviewees to rate their responses from, for example, 'strongly agree' to 'strongly disagree'

Likert scale 

Market research 

• Interviews
• Online surveys 
• Focus groups 

Talent show questionnaire 

• What genre shows are you interested in and why? (Qualitative)
• Who would you like to see host the show and why? (Qualitative)
• What talent shows have you enjoyed watching in the past and why? (Qualitative)
• How long would you like the programme to last? (Quantitive)
• What do you think the best method of advertising is to promote the show? (Quantitive)
• When do you normally watch TV? (Quantitive)
• How old are you? (Quantitive)
• What gender do you identify as? (Quantitive)
• What devices do you watch TV on ? (Quantitive)