BIB_08: Volk, F., & Wang, H. (2005). Understanding users: Some qualitative and quantitative methods. In R. W. Proctor & K.-P. L. Vu (Eds.), Handbook of human factors in Web design (pp. 303-320). Mahwah, N.J.: L. Erlbaum Associates.

In this book chapter, Volk & Wang discuss four commonly used qualitative methods for what they call "requirements-gathering activities based on user characteristics, goals, and tasks" in technology design: focus groups, interviews, surveys, and contextual observations (p. 303), to provide a practical approach to user research in the early stage of the product development. The authors stress the importance of setting research goals, and categorize these goals according to the information of different aspects in the user's interaction with technology: tasks, users, environments, satisfaction, delights, and artifacts (TUESDAy). The authors then offer detailed discussions on important issues entailed in research using each of the four methods, including what research goals can these methods help to achieve, types of each method, their design, execution and data analysis, and finally, deliverables. The author conclude the chapter iterating the importance of user research in UCD.

This chapter is published in a human factor handbook, but the methods it discuss can be applied to technical communication research. In fact, these qualitative methods are very widely used in our field, and this is a practical guide to using these methods specifically to understand users. Since qualitative methods are especially useful to collect contextual data, these methods are particularly useful for projects that look at the cultural factors and usability.