Research methods, sources and data: R093 revision

Research replaces guesses with evidence. Before a producer designs anything, it helps to know who the audience really is and what it wants, what competitors have already made, and whether an idea works before money is spent on it. Good research lowers the risk of making a product that misses its audience, gives the producer evidence to show the client, and often throws up ideas nobody had thought of.

OCR lists four primary methods. For each, know how it is carried out and its main advantages and disadvantages.

• Focus groups: a small group from the target audience discusses an idea, a draft or a prototype, led by a researcher. You get detailed reactions and can watch people use the product. But it takes time to organise, the group is small, and one or two loud voices can sway the rest.
• Interviews: one-to-one questions, in person, by phone or on video. The interviewer can ask follow-up questions and get deep, personal answers. But interviews are slow, reach few people, and answers are harder to compare.
• Online surveys: questions shared through a link. They reach many people quickly and cheaply, and the software adds up the results. But people may rush or not answer honestly, response rates can be low, only people online are reached, and there is no chance to ask 'why?'.
• Questionnaires: a fixed set of questions, on paper or on screen, given to everyone in the same form, so the answers are easy to compare and count. Badly worded questions produce useless data, and paper questionnaires are often never returned.

OCR lists four secondary sources:

• Books and journals: detailed and usually checked before publication, so reliable, but may be out of date and some cost money.
• Internet sites and research: fast, free and vast, but quality varies, so check who wrote it, when, and whether it is biased.
• Magazines and newspapers: good for current trends, industry news and reviews of competitors' products, but articles can be opinion rather than fact, and many are behind paywalls.
• Television: documentaries, news and competitors' adverts show what is already being made and how audiences are addressed, but it is hard to search and may not be about your exact audience.

In general, secondary research is quicker and cheaper and is a good starting point. Primary research is slower and costs more, but it is up to date and about your exact product and audience. Most projects use both.

Quantitative data is numbers: things that can be counted or measured, such as '62% of visitors are under 25' or ratings out of five. It comes mostly from closed questions with fixed answers. It is quick to analyse and turn into charts, and easy to compare, but it does not tell you why people think what they think.

Qualitative data is words: opinions, feelings and reasons, such as 'the logo feels old-fashioned'. It comes from open questions, interviews and focus groups. It explains the reasons behind behaviour and gives rich detail, but it takes longer to analyse and cannot simply be averaged.

Many methods give both. A survey with closed questions (quantitative) and an open comment box (qualitative) is a common mix, and an interview can record how often someone does something as well as how they feel about it.

Exam questions rarely ask for a definition alone; they ask which method suits the client. Match the method to what the client needs to find out. A museum planning a family app might observe families using the current displays, then run a focus group with parents and children trying a prototype, because watching real users shows problems a questionnaire would miss. A café wanting a quick sense of which new opening hours students would use might run a short online survey, because it is cheap, fast and gives numbers it can act on.

Whatever you choose, give the reason and link it to the client: the method, why it suits this audience or question, and what the findings would change in the product.

Research was worth between 1 and 9 marks on each of the four papers we analysed. Expect questions on the advantages and disadvantages of a named method or source, on the difference between qualitative and quantitative data, and on which method a client should use and why.

For how the long answers and pre-production documents are marked, see how R093 is marked.