Qualitative HCI Research. Ann Blandford

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      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.