are many excellent HCI texts that focus on observation, task analysis or research methods, but none that focus specifically on qualitative methods. We intend that this book should plug that gap.
A second motivation comes from the perennial question or challenge: what constitutes quality in qualitative HCI research? Is it even research? We should raise the quality of the discourse on what constitutes valid, reliable and valuable qualitative research in HCI. We should also raise the quality of that research, so that it becomes more valuable and has greater integrity.
We have chosen to draw on the analogy of going behind the scenes when making a documentary. Our main sources of inspiration for this have been Dom’s experience of making short films to communicate our research and Ann’s delight at watching “behind the scenes” footage on the making of wildlife documentaries (BBC, 2014). Of course, a qualitative study is expected to have a scientific rigour that is not expected of many documentaries, but they both share issues in gathering data, creating a narrative and representing some aspect of reality to inform an audience. Our focus on going behind the scenes means that we draw a lot on our own experiences, because we know what went on behind the scenes in our studies. So long as there is little tradition of reporting these details, that information is not accessible for other researchers’ projects, and it is difficult to be reflective about the work of others when you don’t have the insider knowledge. So we hope this book will encourage you to consider taking readers of your own research “behind the scenes”—providing them with useful detail and justification on what you did and why.
In this book, we are pre-supposing a good general knowledge of HCI, but less detailed knowledge of qualitative methods. Our primary audience is Master’s and Ph.D. students in HCI and related areas who are planning their individual projects. Other audiences include HCI practitioners who are planning in-depth studies, or people with a background in qualitative methods but who are new to HCI. We hope that this book will help you design and conduct excellent qualitative HCI studies.
Ann Blandford, Dominic Furniss and Stephann Makri, February 2016
Glossary
The following abbreviations are used in this book:
| DCog | Distributed Cognition |
| DiCoT | Distributed Cognition for Teamwork |
| GT | Grounded Theory |
| HCI | Human–Computer Interaction |
| QDA | Qualitative Data Analysis |
| SSQS | Semi-Structured Qualitative Study |
| TA | Thematic Analysis |
CHAPTER 1
Introduction
BEHIND THE SCENES
Qualitative methods play an important role in Human–Computer Interaction (HCI): in requirements gathering, in acquiring an understanding of the situations in which technology is used and might be used and in evaluating how technologies are used in practice. Although there are scores of texts on qualitative methods in the social sciences, there are surprisingly few in HCI. The concerns of HCI are somewhat different from those of the social sciences, with a focus on technology use for informing the design of interactive systems, rather than on social phenomena between individuals, in organisations and in society more generally. Our aim in this book is to take you behind the scenes, to give guidance on how to plan, conduct and report qualitative studies in HCI. Throughout, we draw on the metaphor of making a documentary to bring to life important issues, and to make producing something a more tangible part of the activity. Going behind the scenes allows us to examine important considerations for qualitative research in the field of HCI that have seldom been discussed elsewhere.
The emphasis we place on different topics is inevitably colored by our own experiences. Our research has been in two main areas: healthcare technologies (e.g., Furniss et al., 2015; Hsu and Blandford, 2014; Rajkomar et al., 2015) and interacting with information (e.g., Blandford and Attfield, 2010; Makri et al., 2008a; Makri and Warwick, 2010). The first of these brings challenges, particularly in engaging with patients and dealing with sensitive issues within complex healthcare processes. The second brings a different kind of challenge: that interacting with information is often not the primary focus of someone’s activity; it is a secondary activity that they barely notice, so gathering useful and reliable information about users’ interactions can be difficult. Using these and other experiences, we review challenges and provide advice for designing and conducting qualitative HCI research.
1.1 AN OVERVIEW OF QUALITATIVE APPROACHES AND METHODS IN HCI
There are many, many approaches and methods for qualitative research. Some of them have names, such as Ethnography, Contextual Inquiry, Focus Groups, Grounded Theory, Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis, Discourse Analysis or Thematic Analysis; others do not. Some—such as Contextual Inquiry and Grounded Theory—are widely used in HCI, while others—such as Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis and Discourse Analysis—are not; we focus on the more widely used methods and approaches in this book. Some of these names have precise meanings; others are often used as generic descriptors of qualitative research. For example, Grounded Theory (GT) has been described as a “bumper sticker” (Bryman and Burgess, 1994) to cover a broad range of qualitative approaches, even though there are strong principles underpinning GT proper. This makes it particularly important for HCI researchers to be open and transparent when explaining and justifying the qualitative approaches they have adopted. When writing up an approach, it is essential for researchers to explain in detail what they did and why, giving reasons for adopting, adapting or combining particular established approaches.
Denzin and Lincoln (2011) discuss a research process in terms of five phases, or levels of activity. The first phase is the researcher—you!—who comes to the study with their individual history, experiences, values and understanding; the researcher shapes the research, and should be aware of the role they are playing in the research.
The second phase is the research paradigm. In Chapter 6, we discuss research paradigms in terms of quantitative and qualitative approaches that are widely used in HCI. In brief: quantitative research is most commonly applied to test pre-determined hypotheses, whereas qualitative approaches aim to describe and explain phenomena in a rich, often exploratory, way. Denzin and Lincoln (2011) identify four major paradigms for qualitative research: positivist and post-positivist; constructivist-interpretive; critical (Marxist, emancipatory); and feminist-poststructural. Given the aims of HCI studies, focusing on the design and use of interactive technologies, qualitative HCI research generally fits within the first two of these paradigms, and this book focuses on the constructivist-interpretive paradigm. This paradigm assumes a subjective reality that is shaped by the interpretations of researchers and study participants. This can feel uncomfortable at first, particularly to those who have been brought up in a classic scientific paradigm where it is assumed that there is an objective reality “out there” and that the role of research is to establish what it is. This book is intended to provide tools and techniques to conduct high quality interpretive qualitative HCI research.
Denzin and Lincoln (2011) label their third phase “research strategies.” This is the phase that focuses on the strategy for addressing the research question or purpose of the study. Their list of strategies includes several that are commonly used in HCI, including ethnography, participant observation, ethnomethodology and GT. We discuss these approaches in Chapter 6, after discussing the particular methods that make up a study (Chapters
