Original post on LinkedIn here.

In a 1994 article titled ‘Analysis and Interpretation of Qualitative Data in Consumer Research’ Susan Spiggle “suggests a vocabulary for describing the analytical operations that undergird inference and a framework for thinking about how researchers construct interpretations as they link empirical and conceptual domains.”

Such vocabulary, Spiggle further suggests, can be used by researchers working with qualitative data to think about the procedures of inference—the processes of analysis and interpretation that researchers use to generate conclusions, insights, meanings, patterns, themes, connections, conceptual frameworks, and theories—and communicate to others how they proceeded, so enhancing the development of analytic and interpretive skills for making inferences from qualitative data.

Spiggle makes a critical distinction between analysis and interpretation as the fundamental activities of inference; whereas analytical procedures manipulate data—researchers dissect, reduce, sort, and reconstitute data, breaking down “some complex whole into its constituent parts”—interpretation makes sense of data through more abstract conceptualisations.

As Spiggle continues:

“We can describe data manipulation as a series of operations [which Spiggle does through seven analytic operations]; not so for interpretation. The intuitive, subjective, particularistic nature of interpretation renders it difficult to model or present in a linear way. In interpretation the investigator does not engage a set of operations. Rather, interpretation occurs as a gestalt shift and represents a synthetic, holistic, and illuminating grasp of meaning, as in deciphering a code…We can describe our manipulation of data through the seven analytic operations, reporting how we arrived at inference and conclusions. We can access and use tropic insights to generate interpretations and represent them to our readers.”

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Qualitative research is a fundamental aspect of human-centered design. Qualitative data can inspire new ideas and concepts for design projects by providing real-world stories and experiences that designers can use as a foundation to ideate and create meaningful solutions. By understanding consumers on a deeper level, designers can develop products that align with their values and expectations. Spiggle offers a framework for thinking about the inferential processes that connect the end product of research, including that of design research, to its data.

How does your organisation think about how it reaches and communicates inferences made from qualitative data?