Data Analysis: Work smart, not hard

19Jul10

It’s that time again, analysis time. Whether you are in first flush, second flush or not yet started it is never to soon/late to start thinking/reflecting about your approach to analysis. A

Step 1. As my last research partner used to quote: Work smart, not hard. This is not an excuse to slack off, but to direct your energies for better impact!

If I don’t go on an interview, I try to watch the videotapes. Whenever a participant says something I think is interesting or important, I write it down on a Post-it Note and record the timestamp from the video, which makes video-editing clips much easier. In Grounded Theory, this is known as “memoing.”

Rachel Hinman – Demystifying Data Analysis Step

Step 2. Think about your process and document it:

Process isn’t a panacea. It doesn’t make that mountain of data at the end of field interviews any smaller. However, having a process that you can clearly communicate is a powerful skill. It allows people to engage with your work on a deeper level because you can show both the insights and implications you’ve discovered as well as the work you’ve done to get there. Process gives your team a road map to follow, making collaboration easier. In addition, it builds confidence within your organization for your effort, ensuring the hard work you’ve done won’t be dismissed. Rachel Hinman - Demystifying Data Analysis

Step 3. Set rules to the analysis session, this step sets off discussions again and again in the Design Ethnography studio. When there are up to 16 of us conducting the analysis, how can we all understand what each other are saying on a post-it note?

Having explained how things could go wrong, here are some simple Post-it Etiquettes to help each other digest, analyse and synthesize our vast data spread across hundreds of post-its!

Choose different colours of post-its for writing under different categories. If you run out of colours, tag them at the bottom with a code using a 0.5 mm blue pen.

Choose the same dimension and shape of post-its for working within the same category or task.

Use a black Sharpie pen to write on all the post-its.

Write between 3 and 10 words.

Write words of height around the size of your thumb’s nail.

Rashmi Kakde - Post-it Etiquette for Smooth Digestion.

Step 4. Have snacks, you need lots of energy, lots of breaks and lots communication between team members.

In some ways, an ethnographer is just a vessel, a sieve through which the world is organized and presented. Our bodies and minds are our instruments. A harpist wouldn’t dream of performing on an untuned instrument–so why would an ethnographer try to work in a body dissonant with exhaustion, mind a dischordant clash of frustration and misery?

Rachel Shadoan - Our Bodies are Our Instruments

I would definitely check out the whole post Demystifying Data Analysis by Rachel Hinman (who is a design strategist for Adaptive Path), we ended up here after being pointed to it by Palojono on his post on the same subject. Indeed all of the blogs are worth a look, if you have any analysis stories, tips or worries, share it here! And as for me, its time to get back to those brightly coloured rectangles of wonder…

For headers of categories during synthesis, choose a different dimension/shape/colour of post-its, but keep the style homogenous among the header post-its.