Data Analysis, Interpretation and Presentation

www.id-book.com 1
 Aims
Discuss the difference between qualitative and quantitative data and
analysis.

Questionnaires.
Enable you to analyze data gathered Interviews.
from: Observation studies.

Make you aware of software packages that are available to help your
analysis.

Identify common pitfalls in data analysis, interpretation, and

presentation.

Enable you to interpret and present your findings in appropriate ways.

www.id-book.com 2
 Quantitative data – expressed as
Quantitative and numbers
qualitative
Qualitative data – difficult to measure
sensibly as numbers, e.g. count number
of words to measure dissatisfaction

Quantitative analysis – numerical

methods to ascertain size, magnitude,
amount

Qualitative analysis – expresses the

nature of elements and is represented
as themes, patterns, stories

Be careful how you manipulate data and

numbers!

www.id-book.com 3
 Simple quantitative analysis
• Averages
– Mean: add up values and divide by number of data points
– Median: middle value of data when ranked
– Mode: figure that appears most often in the data
• Percentages
• Be careful not to mislead with numbers!
• Graphical representations give overview of data
Number of errors made Internet use Number of errors made

10
Number of errors made

4.5

Number of errors made

< once a day 4
8
3.5
6 once a day 3
2.5
4 2
once a week 1.5
2 1
0
2 or 3 times a week 0.5
0
0 5 10 15 20
once a month 1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17
User
User

www.id-book.com 4
 Visualizing log data
Interaction profiles of players in online game

www.id-book.com 5
Visualizing log data
Log of web page activity

www.id-book.com 6
Web analytics

www.id-book.com 7
 Simple qualitative analysis
• Recurring patterns or themes
– Emergent from data, dependent on observation framework if used
• Categorizing data
– Categorization scheme may be emergent or pre-specified
• Looking for critical incidents
– Helps to focus in on key events

www.id-book.com 8
 Tools to support data analysis
• Spreadsheet – simple to use, basic graphs

• Statistical packages, e.g. SPSS

• Qualitative data analysis tools

– Categorization and theme-based analysis
– Quantitative analysis of text-based data

• Nvivo and Atlas.ti support qualitative data analysis

• CAQDAS Networking Project, based at the University of
Surrey (http://caqdas.soc.surrey.ac.uk/)

www.id-book.com 9
 Theoretical frameworks for
qualitative analysis
• Basing data analysis around theoretical frameworks
provides further insight

• Three such frameworks are:

– Grounded Theory

– Distributed Cognition

– Activity Theory

www.id-book.com 10
 Grounded Theory
• Aims to derive theory from systematic analysis of data

• Based on categorization approach (called here ‘coding’)

• Three levels of ‘coding’

– Open: identify categories

– Axial: flesh out and link to subcategories

– Selective: form theoretical scheme

• Researchers are encouraged to draw on own theoretical

backgrounds to inform analysis

www.id-book.com 11
Code book used in grounded theory analysis

www.id-book.com 12
Excerpt showing axial coding

www.id-book.com 13
 Distributed Cognition
• The people, environment & artefacts
are regarded as one cognitive system
• Used for analyzing collaborative work
• Focuses on information propagation
& transformation

www.id-book.com 14
 Activity Theory
• Explains human behaviour in terms of our practical
activity in the world

• Provides a framework that focuses analysis around

the concept of an ‘activity’ and helps to identify
tensions between the different elements of the
system

• Two key models: one outlines what constitutes an

‘activity’; one models the mediating role of artifacts

www.id-book.com 15
Individual model

www.id-book.com 16
Engeström’s (1999) activity
system model

17
www.id-book.com
 Presenting the findings
• Only make claims that your data can support
• The best way to present your findings depends on the
audience, the purpose, and the data gathering and
analysis undertaken
• Graphical representations (as discussed above) may
be appropriate for presentation
• Other techniques are:
– Rigorous notations, e.g. UML
– Using stories, e.g. to create scenarios
– Summarizing the findings

www.id-book.com 18
 Summary
• The data analysis that can be done depends on the
data gathering that was done
• Qualitative and quantitative data may be gathered from
any of the three main data gathering approaches
• Percentages and averages are commonly used in
Interaction Design
• Mean, median and mode are different kinds of
‘average’ and can have very different answers for the
same set of data
• Grounded Theory, Distributed Cognition and Activity
Theory are theoretical frameworks to support data
analysis
• Presentation of the findings should not overstate the
evidence
19
www.id-book.com