COMPARATIVE TABLE

COMPARATIVE TABLE FOR RESEARCH METHODS

The advantages and disadvantages of three key research methods and recommendations for when to do each one.

INDIVIDUAL INTERVIEWS

FOCUS GROUPS

SURVEYS

Focus groups promote open communication, deeper thinking, and can reduce the power imbalance between participant and researcher.

When using surveys, research questions will work towards proving or mitigating their hypothesis with their own generated questions .

Interviews create complex, detailed responses from participants and allow in-depth questions to be asked.

ADVANTAGES

Focus groups have a limited scope — they provide information only about the experiences of participants that they can share in a group setting.

Interviews can seem intrusive to participants and also require a large time commitment for detailed questions.

Surveys present some limitations including non-responses, wording misunderstandings, and formatting confusion.

DISADVANTAGES

Focus groups are useful for learning a lot of specific information about what members of a community think and how their experiences compare.

Surveys are useful when conducting research of a large group to understand a topic more generally. Interviews and focus groups are beneficial to obtain more details.

Individual interviews are useful with a small group of people and the goal is to obtain detailed, personal, and complex information.

WHEN TO USE