Quantitative and qualitative research applied to a UX case

In this article, I explain the process used to carry out research during the construction of the case “Seu Destino App”.

Organization of the research

Having defined the proto personas and their proto journeys, we move on to building a Matrix in which we list our Certainties, Assumptions and Doubts.

As for the traveler’s persona:

Regarding the TRAVELER persona and considering the researched scenario and the list of issues listed, we started the creation of the quantitative survey to be carried out with the travelers, having as prioritized questions, the following:

• Are people having to travel during the pandemic?
• Are people available to travel?
• What kind of trip would you take at that time?
• Would people buy travel packages during the pandemic?

In relation to assumptions and certainties, we sought to validate the following sentences:

• Some people are afraid to travel in the current situation.
• Some people want to travel even in the pandemic
• Travelers believe that it is possible to travel safely for tourism
• Many travelers are still making plans to travel even though vaccination has not started
• Travelers have opted for airbnb or major chain hotels

Now for the travel agent’s persona:

Regarding the TRAVEL AGENT persona, given the difficulty of recruiting for qualitative research during the period of its completion, we chose to carry out only the quantitative research.
In this case, the certainties, assumptions and doubts that we sought to validate were as follows:

• The pandemic negatively affected the business of travel agents
• Travel agents lost many customers during this first year of the pandemic
• Travel agents have used social networks to sell packages
• Do travel agents have knowledge of the safety tourism seal?
• the service providers/suppliers they work with are following security protocols

First validation step: Quantitative research plan

Methodology: The research will be based on quantitative approaches for statistical verification and qualitative data collection. Data will be collected through survey research. Due to the social isolation regime, the interview will be done remotely, using the google form tool

Participant Profile: Travelers

Recruitment: contact on social networks such as facebook, instagram, whatsapp

Questionnaire: elaborated from 2 different tracks defined according to the answer to the first question; will be mostly closed type questions, eventually with an open option, if the given options are not enough

Track 1
1st Question: Didyou travel during the pandemic?
Answer: Yes

2nd Question: Did you travel for work purpose, leisure or for any other reason?
a) Work
b) Tour
c) Another reason. Which one? ____________

3rd Question: How did you plan your trip?
a) I used Travel web sites (Booking, Trivago, etc)
b) Travel Agent
c) I did not need agents or travel web sites

4th Question: Where did you stay?
a) Large chain hotel
b) Seasonal rental. ex. Airbnb
c) Inn
d) Home of family or friends
e) Another option. Which one? _________

5th Question: Did you feel safe during the trip?
a) yes
b) No

Track 2

1st Question: Have you ever traveled during the pandemic?
Answer: No

2nd Question: What was the main reason you didn’t travel?
a) Fear of contagion of the COVID19 virus
b) Lack of money
c) Did not need to travel
d) Another reason. Which one? ______

3rd Question: If safety protocols were adopted against covid-19, would you travel at this moment?
a) yes
b) No
c) maybe

4th Question: What safety measures do you consider important for traveling at this time? (Choose the options you agree with)
a) Alcohol gel and mask
b) Social distance
c) Reduction of occupancy capacity (transport, accommodation, public places, among others)
d) Another measure. Which one? ________

Results:

The quantitative research was carried out with 89 people and was made available through Google Forms.
From the data obtained, we considered the following results as relevant:

Track 01 Results

Track 02 Results

Analysis of the results

The research showed that contrary to what we thought, many people continued to travel even during the pandemic. In addition, these trips were mostly tourism and not business trips, contrary to our personal expectations.

Plus, when analysing the answers from people who did not travel, there’s also a relevant number of travelers who would still travel if safety protocols against covid were adopted.

Second validation step: Qualitative Research Plan

Methodology: The research will be based on qualitative and attitudinal approaches (based on what people say). Data will be collected through a semi-structured interview, with open-ended questions to guide the discussion, keeping ample possibilities for answers open.
Due to the social isolation regime, the interview will be done remotely, using whatsapp or google meet tools.

Participant profile:
Profile A: travel agents
Profile B: people who traveled during the pandemic

Recruitment:
The survey will be carried out with at least 5 users from each profile, who will be recruited from the information collected in the Quantitative Research stage of this same project. Once framed in the desired profile, a contact will be made via the informed phone/whatsapp, according to the approach below.

Interview Script: Profile A

Rapport/Icebreaker
“Hello, thank you so much for taking part in this survey. Our intention is to learn a little more about how the pandemic has affected travel agents’ businesses.”

Warm-up question: “Tell me a little more about your profession, how do you act?”

Main questions:
How was the impact among your customers?
How is the sector’s recovery going?
What is the biggest difficulty in this recovery?
What solutions have you taken to overcome this difficulty?
And how are you feeling in your business?
What were the biggest concerns (doubts) of customers who sought you out during this period?
And the ones that had a trip booked?
Post pandemic customers, is there already a sale of packages for mid 2021 and 2022?

Interview Script: Profile B

Rapport/Icebreaker
“Hello, thank you so much for taking part in this survey. Our intention is to learn a little more about how the pandemic has changed the habits of people who travel with a certain frequency”

Warm-up question: “Tell me a little about your travels, do you travel more for business than pleasure? Where do you like to travel?”

Main questions:
Have you traveled alone or with children?
What made you sure of choosing your destination?
What was most difficult to plan before your trip?
How did you travel? Why did you choose this modality?
Detail the form of hiring, accommodation and means of transport used
What was the biggest difficulty you had in keeping yourself safe during your trip?

Results:

The main insights generated with qualitative research are as follows:

Profile A: the travelers

• Are concerned with contamination rates at the destination of the trip;
• They seek accommodation options that comply with anti-Covid health protocols19
• Respondents who travelled have opted for places further away from urban centers

Some of their own words we chose to highlight:

“We chose a resort-style hotel, large and guaranteed to be in the highest level of sanitation and complying with the rules, and I really was, I don’t regret it. We took our own car to have more safety. No way to fly at this time." (Cláudia)

“I didn’t travel for leisure because of the pandemic, I would travel to a place with everyone following safety protocols” (Gabriela)

“We did a survey before to see if the hotels were complying with security protocols and in fact they were not fully booked, they respected the 50% occupancy. We chose a “farm hotel”, so for my daughter it was the best option.
After that, we travelled again and stayed in hotel in early October. We spent a weekend there, they were even stricter than the farm hotel”. (Luciano)

Profile B: the travel agents

• Consider exploring national tourism as an exclusive source of income while international travel is prohibited;
• Restrictive measures is limiting travel package sales.

We highlighted the following:

“I fired some travel agents and took out a loan at the bank with very low interest. I only start paying in July 2021. By then I think I’m back to normal.”

“I’ve already thought about publishing more about internal travel on social networks, but it’s a bit different from my company’s profile, which is family travel to Europe and Disney. But if in January/February there is no reopening for Brazilians, I will have to rethink my model of business”

“I have some clients who are already speculating international travel for July 2021 and 2022, but only one closed.”

“I think in general people are unsure about traveling and the government suddenly shuts everything down again.”

Conclusion

The analysis of the results directed the construction of a more adherent solution connecting the objectives to be achieved with the root cause of the problems being faced. We were able to build the personas, their journeys and start a new moment at the ideation phase regarding possible solutions. The evolution of the complete case can be seen here.

If you want to contact me, here is my Linkedin Profile

Also, check out my portfolio!