Gosh I'm loving the way IxDA is getting input from all sorts of other
fields. This forum rocks!

I'm have a market research background and what you describe sounds
to me like qualitative coding. If you do a search for this term, you
will find heaps of references for:
- software to assist the process (usually assuming you're working
from transcripts of interviews or focus groups, so probably not so
useful for you)
- papers and books about how to do it
- papers and books about its reliability and usefulness.

My experience in market research was that the subjective nature of
qualitative coding was recognised and mechanisms were put in place to
manage it. These included ensuring the same person or people coded,
that the coding frame was discussed and reviewed by all parties, and
that a random sample of coded information was quality checked to look
for glaring inconsistencies in how the frame was applied.

The thing to remember is that if you want to draw conclusions about
patterns you are observing, then you need to be working with a
complete or at least statistically representative sample. This is
usually *not* the case in qualitative market research but it might be
in your situation. 


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Posted from the new ixda.org
http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=29646


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