Elevating Qualitative Research: The Power of Visual Design Thinking
You’ve spent weeks in the field collecting interviews, transcribing recordings, and analyzing your data. Now you just have to write the report. You open up Powerpoint, now what? Where do you begin?
Powerpoint being designed for visual presentations should make it easy for you to visualize, design, and communicate your data to stakeholders right? You pick a template and start putting in your key findings and a couple supporting quotes. Done!
Until the client comes back asking you to ‘make your report look nicer’.
Ummm…what?
Sound familiar? All too often I saw, heard - even lived - this exact scenario. Which is why I set out to find a better way to visualize, design, and communicate my qualitative data.
In the realm of data visualization, designing qualitative data has, quite frankly lagged behind quantitative. Unlike quantitative, where there seem to be whole classes on quantitative data visualization, researchers working with qualitative data are not trained on visual communication. They often wind up relying on three things to try to communicate their data:
Templates that do not quite ‘fit’ for their data
Bullet points. Lots and lots of bullet points
Attempting to ‘quantify’ their qualitative visuals into charts, graphs, etc.
Do a google search on qualitative data visualization. These three ‘tips’ are almost guaranteed to pop up somewhere amongst all the information data visualization gurus are putting out. However, I would argue that there is still something missing when it comes to qualitative data design.
That something is Visual Design Thinking.
In this blog post, we'll explore what visual design thinking entails and why it is indispensable for qualitative researchers.
The Essence of Visual Design Thinking
Visual design thinking is not merely about creating visually appealing graphics; it's a problem-solving methodology that seamlessly integrates the principles of design thinking with the communicative power of visual elements.
In plain speak: Visual design thinking is a strategic methodology that integrates design thinking with elements of visual communication.
This approach to visualizing qualitative data not only leverages tools such as data visualization software and graphic design applications, but also incorporates strategic visual communications and design thinking principles to bring qualitative data to life.
Why Visual Design Thinking Matters for Qualitative Researchers
Why should I care about visual design thinking as a qualitative researcher? Why does it matter?
Visual design can be an incredibly powerful tool when it comes to sharing your data. It can:
Enhance Communication with Stakeholders
Nearly 65% of the human population is a visual learner and visualizations have a pretty unique power to act as a universal language. Images, graphs, charts can all transcend the barrier of technical jargon, regardless of the viewer’s expertise level.
By incorporating design thinking principles, researchers can communicate the richness of their qualitative data in a compelling manner, making it accessible to diverse stakeholders.
Facilitate Collaborative Insights
Collaboration lies at the heart of qualitative research. The advantage to utilizing visual design thinking is that it further encourages the use of collaborative tools, fostering engagement and understanding among team members, stakeholders, and research participants. Co-creation projects anyone?
Crafting Compelling Narratives
Qualitative data is collecting lived experiences and stories. Qualitative researchers are storytellers.
Researchers can use visual design thinking to construct compelling narratives that evoke empathy, highlight those key insights, and provide a holistic view of their findings. This narrative-driven approach often resonates with audiences and can facilitate a deeper connection with the data.
Unleashing Creative Idea Generation
Visual thinking stimulates creativity in exploring, generating ideas, and recognizing patterns or themes.
Researchers can utilize visual design tools to map connections between themes, identify patterns, and brainstorm innovative solutions. This approach encourages the discovery of insights that may remain hidden in traditional analyses.
Create or Improve User-Centered Design
In the age of information overload, user-centered design is paramount. This is why we’ve seen UX/UI explode as a multidisciplinary career option for designers, researchers, etc. This focus on the end-user enhances accessibility and impact, whether the audience is composed of policymakers, stakeholders, or the general public.
Applying visual design thinking ensures that qualitative data visualizations are not only aesthetically pleasing but also user-friendly, empathetic, and resonates with your audience.
Iterative and Adaptive Design Process
Research in general, but especially qualitative research, is incredibly iterative. Qualitative researchers are constantly refining and reviewing their data to find new insights.
When visual design thinking is applied early in the research process, researchers are well equipped to refine and improve data visualizations based on insights, ensuring that visual representations evolve to effectively capture the dynamic nature of qualitative data.
Conclusion: A New Frontier in Qualitative Research
Taking these points into consideration, visual design thinking offers a transformative force in qualitative research, giving researchers a new robust framework for visualizing, designing, and communicating their data. This becomes even more imperative as the digital landscape continues to evolve. More and more, we see demand for visual stimulation both from the public (hello TikTok) and business (see PowerPoint as the industry standard for reporting). By embracing visual design thinking, researchers can not only convey qualitative information but also tell compelling stories that resonate with their audience.
Incorporating visual design thinking into qualitative research practices is a paradigm shift towards a more engaging, collaborative, and impactful approach to understanding and sharing qualitative insights. Unlock the potential of your qualitative data with visual design thinking and explore the transformative journey of turning complex insights into compelling narrative - making your research accessible, engaging, and impactful.
Find this helpful or have additional thoughts on the subject? Leave a comment or connect on LinkedIn here .
I’d love to hear your thoughts and ideas!
P.S: Here’s a free resource and reference e-book for Visual Design Thinking and Qualitative Research
