@caroline > > > It depends on the design. > > You can have badly done qualitative studies, > > as well as poorly designed quantitative studies. > > True, but it's so much *easier* to mess up on a survey.
Depends on if you create your own questions or use ones that have been tested before. There is allot of literature on what works. All the standard surveys have been tested, some work better than others. On the other hand interviewing well takes allot of skill, and the correct methods. With both methods a bad question, is a bad question. It is very easy to prime people. Would you not say it is more difficult to make a mistake with a pre tested standard survey question, that has been tested many times before than a novice interviewing somebody? Margaret Mead (who some consider to be the mother of ethnography) managed to spend 9 months in Samoa and as the anthropologist Derek Freeman pointed out got it very wrong. In regards to asking people, there is the issue that if something is non verbalised, then verbalising it will change the decision making. (see: Herb Simon, and more recently Ariely et al) I am all for interviewing and observations but it is hard. My dad an Anthropologist, and some of the Anthropologists who I worked with in Africa where very very good at it, but most people are not. As I have said before we employ a mix of both qualitative and quantitative methods in discovering and fixing usability problems—there are inherent risks to both methods. We also test one against the other. James http://blog.feralabs.com 2009/3/12 Todd Zaki Warfel <[email protected]> > On Mar 12, 2009, at 1:32 PM, Caroline Jarrett wrote: > > True, but it's so much *easier* to mess up on a survey. >> > > So true. > > > Cheers! > > Todd Zaki Warfel > Principal Design Researcher > Messagefirst | Designing Information. Beautifully. > ---------------------------------- > Contact Info > Voice: (215) 825-7423 > Email: [email protected] > AIM: [email protected] > Blog: http://toddwarfel.com > Twitter: zakiwarfel > ---------------------------------- > In theory, theory and practice are the same. > In practice, they are not. > > > > > ________________________________________________________________ > Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! > To post to this list ....... [email protected] > Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe > List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines > List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help > ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [email protected] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
