I learned a lot about the process of designing a sound research study this semester in Research Methods in Technical Writing and Digital Rhetoric. Most importantly, I learned to keep it simple so I can keep it solid. I tend to overcomplicate my work. I discovered, pretty late in the game, that I really needed to simplify my research design. More importantly, to commit to a methodology. I wanted to do a UX focused project, but when my professor took a look at my outline, she made it pretty clear to me that my project fits more cleanly into usability studies. Once I decided to commit to usability studies' methodology, I could begin to bring the clarity and focus my project design needed. While there is a lot of overlap between UX and usability studies, the purpose of my study is not make sense of the crossover. Essentially, I can sidestep the controversy by focusing on one methodology for my project.
Additionally, the weeks we covered quantitative research methods expanded my thinking about research. The standards of rigor are impressive in quantitative research. It had been way too long since I took statistics, so I benefitted greatly from the refresher course. While, I am impressed by quantitative research methods, the lessons about qualitative research methods were also inspiring. What is cool is not doing a big expensive quat study necessarily, what is cool is knowing enough about research methods to be able to choose a research design that is most ideal for answering a study's research questions and achieving the study's purpose.
Gratitude to the class for all of the support, feedback, and guidance that has helped me to refine my process. I have a clear picture now of where I am heading with my study.
