Qualitative Research
Qualitative research is a type of research conducted to establish the audience's beliefs, feelings, motivations and triggers. Results are often rich in insights.
I'm going to do this by looking at the reviews of the Igloo Hotel, and other hotels in Lapland to see who the audience is and why they liked or disliked the hotel, and then I can incorporate these into my design content.
Quantitive Research
Quantitive research is a type of research that provides valid data. It's all about the numbers. Insights can be difficult at times, as quantitive research requires analysis to identify trends.
For this I can note the similarities of the hotel websites I find, such as the links they include in the navigation bar, the type of images used and how the booking system works. This will be useful information to me because I can then analyse what is important in a hotel website, and what I should include on my own.
Primary Research
Primary research is new, not old, information.
My primary research will include me creating designs and asking people to test them and see if they find them easy to use, and if they could find all the information that they are looking for.
Secondary Research
Secondary research is research performed on old data. E.g. new analysis on data gathered last year.
To do secondary research I need to look at existing websites, ones in Finland, and for hotels, to see how functional they are. I want to look at how easy it is to find holidays, and to alter them if certain search results don't appear. I also want to see how they make their hotel more appealing than others, and how they reach out to specific audiences. I also want to see if Finnish websites have a particular style to them which I can keep to respect the culture, and will still appeal to international customers.
Segmentation
You hear a lot about 'market segmentation'. It means the market of the product, or service, is segmented into groups. Those groups, or segments, represent a part of the customer group or audience. They are usually grouped by demographics such as sex, age, ethnicity, income, occupation etc.
To find out the audience for the hotel, I can create a survey asking people who are different ages and occupations if they would visit the hotel and what activities they would do while they're there.
Focus Group
Focus groups are moderated group discussions whose participants are selected accurately represent the audience or customer.
For this I can create a survey asking people their age, occupation, marital status and whether or not they would go to the Hotel Kakslauettnan. Once I've gotten the demographic results I can then design my website targeting the right audience.
Visual Research
Visual research is the gathering of visual information, stuff that a designer will find useful in solving a problem. Visual research is generally the domain of the designer, or the project team, rarely the client.
For this I will find examples of different hotel websites and take screenshots to document this on my blog. This will be useful to me because I can see what other websites include, and can inform my own content.
I will also find images I can use for my website, which will include the hotel, interior and resort itself. I also want to look at images from Lapland as this could help inform the style of my website to keep it cultural.
I will also be looking at websites in general and seeing how they function, and what I like, as I need to know what can be done technically so I know my limitations and advancements when designing.
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