Although qualitative research methods are based on meanings expressed through words there is room for quantitative information to be gained. The frequency of mentions can be looked at to grasp ‘first-pass’ insight on the weighted importance of particular factors. This approach can be shown using a table or visualised with an infographic ‘word cloud’ to obtain a quick and easy interpretation the interview. Frequencies of mention may serve as a good introduction to the data but one must be careful to draw conclusions from these tables as there is only shallow analysis involved in this approach.
By using this method the eight interview transcripts void of the interviewer’s question text a word cloud clearly visualises the frequencies of mention of the top 50 individual words. Each individual word’s frequency of mention is counted as the traditional method of frequency of mention but instead of merely recording this data in a table the size and prominence of the text on an infographic is increased on the word cloud.
The infographic provides a quick and easy communication tool. A parameter used when counting words was the exclusion of prepositions and articles, “a”, (“the”, “to” and “of”). Tables in appendix 2 show the exact number of mentions.
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