Quantitative Research- 04 Methods and what you can derive from them.

Quantitative research derives its findings through the use of mathematical, statistical, and computational tools. This framework lends a degree of conclusiveness to the aims being examined by quantifying difficulties in order to determine their prevalence. This technique results in a projectable output that is applicable to a bigger general population.

In contrast to qualitative research, which provides a subjective picture, quantitative research establishes organised cause-and-effect linkages. Once the problem is discovered by those doing the study, the variables contributing to the problem can be identified as well.

Experiments and surveys are the key methods used in this kind of research to generate precise conclusions, even when independent or interdependent variables exist.

Let’s look into 04 techniques that are more commonly employed for quantitative research.

1. Technical Analysis

If you’re an SEO professional, you’re probably most familiar with a site’s technical analysis. The majority of this data is stored in Google Analytics.

Technical analysis’s objective is to detect behind-the-scenes site issues that affect the user experience negatively. You’ll get hard figures for each component of technical analysis — pages with load times more than 10 seconds, devices with higher-than-average bounce rates, browsers with lower-than-average conversion rates, and so on.

2. Digital Analytics

Digital analytics, the second component of quantitative research, is likewise conducted (mostly) via Google Analytics. There are two objectives:

● Identify the site’s most vital components.

● Ignore irrelevant metrics

Before you go into the data, double-check that your tracking is configured correctly.

● Is the tracking code present on all pages?

● Is there more than one tracking code?

● Is Goal Tracking correctly recording conversions?

Analyzing erroneous data is inefficient.

What is the most critical activity that a visitor can perform on your site? For B2B businesses, this may entail completing a lead form. It’s virtually probably finalising a transaction for e-commerce businesses. Analyzing your analytics might help you determine which sites are useful and which ‘leak’ money.

3. Mouse Tracking

Mouse tracking is used to monitor a user’s movements on a website. Often, motions and interactions are overlaid on top of one another to form a heat map — red areas indicate high activity, while blue areas indicate areas that are overlooked (by the mouse, at least).

Two common takeaways from this type of investigation are the following:

● Recognize items that visitors believe are links but are not clickable. This is typically a straightforward problem to resolve — simply enlarge or add a clickable area.

● Observing how far people navigate ‘below the fold,’ assuming they do so at all. Many websites do not allow users to scroll below the fold. Understanding whether or not they scroll (and how far) can assist you in determining where to place critical content. You do not want to leave essential information in an area that is inaccessible to others.

4. User Testing

User testing enables real people to interact with and provide comments on your website, allowing you to collect quantitative and qualitative data. Typically, you’ll assign a job to the user and then record their screen motions and narration as they finish it.

Typically, quantitative feedback is the length of time required for a user to accomplish a task. For instance, if you’re redesigning your checkout process, you can track how long people spend on the old and new sites. If the new version significantly cuts checkout time by 30%, you’ve made progress.

If it takes longer than the prior version, it’s possible that the ‘intuitive’ design modifications were not so intuitive after all. The good thing is that you still have time to address those issues before launching the new site: you don’t want to discover your error after revenue starts to fall.