designing the research plan

How to write a research plan: Step-by-step guide

Last updated

30 January 2024

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Today’s businesses and institutions rely on data and analytics to inform their product and service decisions. These metrics influence how organizations stay competitive and inspire innovation. However, gathering data and insights requires carefully constructed research, and every research project needs a roadmap. This is where a research plan comes into play.

There’s general research planning; then there’s an official, well-executed research plan. Whatever data-driven research project you’re gearing up for, the research plan will be your framework for execution. The plan should also be detailed and thorough, with a diligent set of criteria to formulate your research efforts. Not including these key elements in your plan can be just as harmful as having no plan at all.

Read this step-by-step guide for writing a detailed research plan that can apply to any project, whether it’s scientific, educational, or business-related.

• What is a research plan?

A research plan is a documented overview of a project in its entirety, from end to end. It details the research efforts, participants, and methods needed, along with any anticipated results. It also outlines the project’s goals and mission, creating layers of steps to achieve those goals within a specified timeline.

Without a research plan, you and your team are flying blind, potentially wasting time and resources to pursue research without structured guidance.

The principal investigator, or PI, is responsible for facilitating the research oversight. They will create the research plan and inform team members and stakeholders of every detail relating to the project. The PI will also use the research plan to inform decision-making throughout the project.

• Why do you need a research plan?

Create a research plan before starting any official research to maximize every effort in pursuing and collecting the research data. Crucially, the plan will model the activities needed at each phase of the research project.

Like any roadmap, a research plan serves as a valuable tool providing direction for those involved in the project—both internally and externally. It will keep you and your immediate team organized and task-focused while also providing necessary definitions and timelines so you can execute your project initiatives with full understanding and transparency.

External stakeholders appreciate a working research plan because it’s a great communication tool, documenting progress and changing dynamics as they arise. Any participants of your planned research sessions will be informed about the purpose of your study, while the exercises will be based on the key messaging outlined in the official plan.

Here are some of the benefits of creating a research plan document for every project:

Project organization and structure

Well-informed participants

All stakeholders and teams align in support of the project

Clearly defined project definitions and purposes

Distractions are eliminated, prioritizing task focus

Timely management of individual task schedules and roles

Costly reworks are avoided

• What should a research plan include?

The different aspects of your research plan will depend on the nature of the project. However, most official research plan documents will include the core elements below. Each aims to define the problem statement, devising an official plan for seeking a solution.

Specific project goals and individual objectives

Ideal strategies or methods for reaching those goals

Required resources

Descriptions of the target audience, sample sizes, demographics, and scopes

Key performance indicators (KPIs)

Project background

Research and testing support

Preliminary studies and progress reporting mechanisms

Cost estimates and change order processes

Depending on the research project’s size and scope, your research plan could be brief—perhaps only a few pages of documented plans. Alternatively, it could be a fully comprehensive report. Either way, it’s an essential first step in dictating your project’s facilitation in the most efficient and effective way.

• How to write a research plan for your project

When you start writing your research plan, aim to be detailed about each step, requirement, and idea. The more time you spend curating your research plan, the more precise your research execution efforts will be.

Account for every potential scenario, and be sure to address each and every aspect of the research.

Consider following this flow to develop a great research plan for your project:

Define your project’s purpose

Start by defining your project’s purpose. Identify what your project aims to accomplish and what you are researching. Remember to use clear language.

Thinking about the project’s purpose will help you set realistic goals and inform how you divide tasks and assign responsibilities. These individual tasks will be your stepping stones to reach your overarching goal.

Additionally, you’ll want to identify the specific problem, the usability metrics needed, and the intended solutions.

Know the following three things about your project’s purpose before you outline anything else:

What you’re doing

Why you’re doing it

What you expect from it

Identify individual objectives

With your overarching project objectives in place, you can identify any individual goals or steps needed to reach those objectives. Break them down into phases or steps. You can work backward from the project goal and identify every process required to facilitate it.

Be mindful to identify each unique task so that you can assign responsibilities to various team members. At this point in your research plan development, you’ll also want to assign priority to those smaller, more manageable steps and phases that require more immediate or dedicated attention.

Select research methods

Research methods might include any of the following:

User interviews: this is a qualitative research method where researchers engage with participants in one-on-one or group conversations. The aim is to gather insights into their experiences, preferences, and opinions to uncover patterns, trends, and data.

Field studies: this approach allows for a contextual understanding of behaviors, interactions, and processes in real-world settings. It involves the researcher immersing themselves in the field, conducting observations, interviews, or experiments to gather in-depth insights.

Card sorting: participants categorize information by sorting content cards into groups based on their perceived similarities. You might use this process to gain insights into participants’ mental models and preferences when navigating or organizing information on websites, apps, or other systems.

Focus groups: use organized discussions among select groups of participants to provide relevant views and experiences about a particular topic.

Diary studies: ask participants to record their experiences, thoughts, and activities in a diary over a specified period. This method provides a deeper understanding of user experiences, uncovers patterns, and identifies areas for improvement.

Five-second testing: participants are shown a design, such as a web page or interface, for just five seconds. They then answer questions about their initial impressions and recall, allowing you to evaluate the design’s effectiveness.

Surveys: get feedback from participant groups with structured surveys. You can use online forms, telephone interviews, or paper questionnaires to reveal trends, patterns, and correlations.

Tree testing: tree testing involves researching web assets through the lens of findability and navigability. Participants are given a textual representation of the site’s hierarchy (the “tree”) and asked to locate specific information or complete tasks by selecting paths.

Usability testing: ask participants to interact with a product, website, or application to evaluate its ease of use. This method enables you to uncover areas for improvement in digital key feature functionality by observing participants using the product.

Live website testing: research and collect analytics that outlines the design, usability, and performance efficiencies of a website in real time.

There are no limits to the number of research methods you could use within your project. Just make sure your research methods help you determine the following:

What do you plan to do with the research findings?

What decisions will this research inform? How can your stakeholders leverage the research data and results?

Recruit participants and allocate tasks

Next, identify the participants needed to complete the research and the resources required to complete the tasks. Different people will be proficient at different tasks, and having a task allocation plan will allow everything to run smoothly.

Prepare a thorough project summary

Every well-designed research plan will feature a project summary. This official summary will guide your research alongside its communications or messaging. You’ll use the summary while recruiting participants and during stakeholder meetings. It can also be useful when conducting field studies.

Ensure this summary includes all the elements of your research project. Separate the steps into an easily explainable piece of text that includes the following:

An introduction: the message you’ll deliver to participants about the interview, pre-planned questioning, and testing tasks.

Interview questions: prepare questions you intend to ask participants as part of your research study, guiding the sessions from start to finish.

An exit message: draft messaging your teams will use to conclude testing or survey sessions. These should include the next steps and express gratitude for the participant’s time.

Create a realistic timeline

While your project might already have a deadline or a results timeline in place, you’ll need to consider the time needed to execute it effectively.

Realistically outline the time needed to properly execute each supporting phase of research and implementation. And, as you evaluate the necessary schedules, be sure to include additional time for achieving each milestone in case any changes or unexpected delays arise.

For this part of your research plan, you might find it helpful to create visuals to ensure your research team and stakeholders fully understand the information.

Determine how to present your results

A research plan must also describe how you intend to present your results. Depending on the nature of your project and its goals, you might dedicate one team member (the PI) or assume responsibility for communicating the findings yourself.

In this part of the research plan, you’ll articulate how you’ll share the results. Detail any materials you’ll use, such as:

Presentations and slides

A project report booklet

A project findings pamphlet

Documents with key takeaways and statistics

Graphic visuals to support your findings

• Format your research plan

As you create your research plan, you can enjoy a little creative freedom. A plan can assume many forms, so format it how you see fit. Determine the best layout based on your specific project, intended communications, and the preferences of your teams and stakeholders.

Find format inspiration among the following layouts:

Written outlines

Narrative storytelling

Visual mapping

Graphic timelines

Remember, the research plan format you choose will be subject to change and adaptation as your research and findings unfold. However, your final format should ideally outline questions, problems, opportunities, and expectations.

• Research plan example

Imagine you’ve been tasked with finding out how to get more customers to order takeout from an online food delivery platform. The goal is to improve satisfaction and retain existing customers. You set out to discover why more people aren’t ordering and what it is they do want to order or experience. 

You identify the need for a research project that helps you understand what drives customer loyalty. But before you jump in and start calling past customers, you need to develop a research plan—the roadmap that provides focus, clarity, and realistic details to the project.

Here’s an example outline of a research plan you might put together:

Project title

Project members involved in the research plan

Purpose of the project (provide a summary of the research plan’s intent)

Objective 1 (provide a short description for each objective)

Objective 2

Objective 3

Proposed timeline

Audience (detail the group you want to research, such as customers or non-customers)

Budget (how much you think it might cost to do the research)

Risk factors/contingencies (any potential risk factors that may impact the project’s success)

Remember, your research plan doesn’t have to reinvent the wheel—it just needs to fit your project’s unique needs and aims.

Customizing a research plan template

Some companies offer research plan templates to help get you started. However, it may make more sense to develop your own customized plan template. Be sure to include the core elements of a great research plan with your template layout, including the following:

Introductions to participants and stakeholders

Background problems and needs statement

Significance, ethics, and purpose

Research methods, questions, and designs

Preliminary beliefs and expectations

Implications and intended outcomes

Realistic timelines for each phase

Conclusion and presentations

How many pages should a research plan be?

Generally, a research plan can vary in length between 500 to 1,500 words. This is roughly three pages of content. More substantial projects will be 2,000 to 3,500 words, taking up four to seven pages of planning documents.

What is the difference between a research plan and a research proposal?

A research plan is a roadmap to success for research teams. A research proposal, on the other hand, is a dissertation aimed at convincing or earning the support of others. Both are relevant in creating a guide to follow to complete a project goal.

What are the seven steps to developing a research plan?

While each research project is different, it’s best to follow these seven general steps to create your research plan:

Defining the problem

Identifying goals

Choosing research methods

Recruiting participants

Preparing the brief or summary

Establishing task timelines

Defining how you will present the findings

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• Methodology

Research Design | Step-by-Step Guide with Examples

Published on 5 May 2022 by Shona McCombes . Revised on 20 March 2023.

A research design is a strategy for answering your research question  using empirical data. Creating a research design means making decisions about:

• Your overall aims and approach
• The type of research design you’ll use
• Your sampling methods or criteria for selecting subjects
• Your data collection methods
• The procedures you’ll follow to collect data
• Your data analysis methods

A well-planned research design helps ensure that your methods match your research aims and that you use the right kind of analysis for your data.

Table of contents

Step 1: consider your aims and approach, step 2: choose a type of research design, step 3: identify your population and sampling method, step 4: choose your data collection methods, step 5: plan your data collection procedures, step 6: decide on your data analysis strategies, frequently asked questions.

• Introduction

Before you can start designing your research, you should already have a clear idea of the research question you want to investigate.

There are many different ways you could go about answering this question. Your research design choices should be driven by your aims and priorities – start by thinking carefully about what you want to achieve.

The first choice you need to make is whether you’ll take a qualitative or quantitative approach.

Qualitative research designs tend to be more flexible and inductive , allowing you to adjust your approach based on what you find throughout the research process.

Quantitative research designs tend to be more fixed and deductive , with variables and hypotheses clearly defined in advance of data collection.

It’s also possible to use a mixed methods design that integrates aspects of both approaches. By combining qualitative and quantitative insights, you can gain a more complete picture of the problem you’re studying and strengthen the credibility of your conclusions.

Practical and ethical considerations when designing research

As well as scientific considerations, you need to think practically when designing your research. If your research involves people or animals, you also need to consider research ethics .

• How much time do you have to collect data and write up the research?
• Will you be able to gain access to the data you need (e.g., by travelling to a specific location or contacting specific people)?
• Do you have the necessary research skills (e.g., statistical analysis or interview techniques)?
• Will you need ethical approval ?

At each stage of the research design process, make sure that your choices are practically feasible.

Prevent plagiarism, run a free check.

Within both qualitative and quantitative approaches, there are several types of research design to choose from. Each type provides a framework for the overall shape of your research.

Types of quantitative research designs

Quantitative designs can be split into four main types. Experimental and   quasi-experimental designs allow you to test cause-and-effect relationships, while descriptive and correlational designs allow you to measure variables and describe relationships between them.

With descriptive and correlational designs, you can get a clear picture of characteristics, trends, and relationships as they exist in the real world. However, you can’t draw conclusions about cause and effect (because correlation doesn’t imply causation ).

Experiments are the strongest way to test cause-and-effect relationships without the risk of other variables influencing the results. However, their controlled conditions may not always reflect how things work in the real world. They’re often also more difficult and expensive to implement.

Types of qualitative research designs

Qualitative designs are less strictly defined. This approach is about gaining a rich, detailed understanding of a specific context or phenomenon, and you can often be more creative and flexible in designing your research.

The table below shows some common types of qualitative design. They often have similar approaches in terms of data collection, but focus on different aspects when analysing the data.

Your research design should clearly define who or what your research will focus on, and how you’ll go about choosing your participants or subjects.

In research, a population is the entire group that you want to draw conclusions about, while a sample is the smaller group of individuals you’ll actually collect data from.

Defining the population

A population can be made up of anything you want to study – plants, animals, organisations, texts, countries, etc. In the social sciences, it most often refers to a group of people.

For example, will you focus on people from a specific demographic, region, or background? Are you interested in people with a certain job or medical condition, or users of a particular product?

The more precisely you define your population, the easier it will be to gather a representative sample.

Sampling methods

Even with a narrowly defined population, it’s rarely possible to collect data from every individual. Instead, you’ll collect data from a sample.

To select a sample, there are two main approaches: probability sampling and non-probability sampling . The sampling method you use affects how confidently you can generalise your results to the population as a whole.

Probability sampling is the most statistically valid option, but it’s often difficult to achieve unless you’re dealing with a very small and accessible population.

For practical reasons, many studies use non-probability sampling, but it’s important to be aware of the limitations and carefully consider potential biases. You should always make an effort to gather a sample that’s as representative as possible of the population.

Case selection in qualitative research

In some types of qualitative designs, sampling may not be relevant.

For example, in an ethnography or a case study, your aim is to deeply understand a specific context, not to generalise to a population. Instead of sampling, you may simply aim to collect as much data as possible about the context you are studying.

In these types of design, you still have to carefully consider your choice of case or community. You should have a clear rationale for why this particular case is suitable for answering your research question.

For example, you might choose a case study that reveals an unusual or neglected aspect of your research problem, or you might choose several very similar or very different cases in order to compare them.

Data collection methods are ways of directly measuring variables and gathering information. They allow you to gain first-hand knowledge and original insights into your research problem.

You can choose just one data collection method, or use several methods in the same study.

Survey methods

Surveys allow you to collect data about opinions, behaviours, experiences, and characteristics by asking people directly. There are two main survey methods to choose from: questionnaires and interviews.

Observation methods

Observations allow you to collect data unobtrusively, observing characteristics, behaviours, or social interactions without relying on self-reporting.

Observations may be conducted in real time, taking notes as you observe, or you might make audiovisual recordings for later analysis. They can be qualitative or quantitative.

Other methods of data collection

There are many other ways you might collect data depending on your field and topic.

If you’re not sure which methods will work best for your research design, try reading some papers in your field to see what data collection methods they used.

Secondary data

If you don’t have the time or resources to collect data from the population you’re interested in, you can also choose to use secondary data that other researchers already collected – for example, datasets from government surveys or previous studies on your topic.

With this raw data, you can do your own analysis to answer new research questions that weren’t addressed by the original study.

Using secondary data can expand the scope of your research, as you may be able to access much larger and more varied samples than you could collect yourself.

However, it also means you don’t have any control over which variables to measure or how to measure them, so the conclusions you can draw may be limited.

As well as deciding on your methods, you need to plan exactly how you’ll use these methods to collect data that’s consistent, accurate, and unbiased.

Planning systematic procedures is especially important in quantitative research, where you need to precisely define your variables and ensure your measurements are reliable and valid.

Operationalisation

Some variables, like height or age, are easily measured. But often you’ll be dealing with more abstract concepts, like satisfaction, anxiety, or competence. Operationalisation means turning these fuzzy ideas into measurable indicators.

If you’re using observations , which events or actions will you count?

If you’re using surveys , which questions will you ask and what range of responses will be offered?

You may also choose to use or adapt existing materials designed to measure the concept you’re interested in – for example, questionnaires or inventories whose reliability and validity has already been established.

Reliability and validity

Reliability means your results can be consistently reproduced , while validity means that you’re actually measuring the concept you’re interested in.

For valid and reliable results, your measurement materials should be thoroughly researched and carefully designed. Plan your procedures to make sure you carry out the same steps in the same way for each participant.

If you’re developing a new questionnaire or other instrument to measure a specific concept, running a pilot study allows you to check its validity and reliability in advance.

Sampling procedures

As well as choosing an appropriate sampling method, you need a concrete plan for how you’ll actually contact and recruit your selected sample.

That means making decisions about things like:

• How many participants do you need for an adequate sample size?
• What inclusion and exclusion criteria will you use to identify eligible participants?
• How will you contact your sample – by mail, online, by phone, or in person?

If you’re using a probability sampling method, it’s important that everyone who is randomly selected actually participates in the study. How will you ensure a high response rate?

If you’re using a non-probability method, how will you avoid bias and ensure a representative sample?

Data management

It’s also important to create a data management plan for organising and storing your data.

Will you need to transcribe interviews or perform data entry for observations? You should anonymise and safeguard any sensitive data, and make sure it’s backed up regularly.

Keeping your data well organised will save time when it comes to analysing them. It can also help other researchers validate and add to your findings.

On their own, raw data can’t answer your research question. The last step of designing your research is planning how you’ll analyse the data.

Quantitative data analysis

In quantitative research, you’ll most likely use some form of statistical analysis . With statistics, you can summarise your sample data, make estimates, and test hypotheses.

Using descriptive statistics , you can summarise your sample data in terms of:

• The distribution of the data (e.g., the frequency of each score on a test)
• The central tendency of the data (e.g., the mean to describe the average score)
• The variability of the data (e.g., the standard deviation to describe how spread out the scores are)

The specific calculations you can do depend on the level of measurement of your variables.

Using inferential statistics , you can:

• Make estimates about the population based on your sample data.
• Test hypotheses about a relationship between variables.

Regression and correlation tests look for associations between two or more variables, while comparison tests (such as t tests and ANOVAs ) look for differences in the outcomes of different groups.

Your choice of statistical test depends on various aspects of your research design, including the types of variables you’re dealing with and the distribution of your data.

Qualitative data analysis

In qualitative research, your data will usually be very dense with information and ideas. Instead of summing it up in numbers, you’ll need to comb through the data in detail, interpret its meanings, identify patterns, and extract the parts that are most relevant to your research question.

Two of the most common approaches to doing this are thematic analysis and discourse analysis .

There are many other ways of analysing qualitative data depending on the aims of your research. To get a sense of potential approaches, try reading some qualitative research papers in your field.

A sample is a subset of individuals from a larger population. Sampling means selecting the group that you will actually collect data from in your research.

For example, if you are researching the opinions of students in your university, you could survey a sample of 100 students.

Statistical sampling allows you to test a hypothesis about the characteristics of a population. There are various sampling methods you can use to ensure that your sample is representative of the population as a whole.

Operationalisation means turning abstract conceptual ideas into measurable observations.

For example, the concept of social anxiety isn’t directly observable, but it can be operationally defined in terms of self-rating scores, behavioural avoidance of crowded places, or physical anxiety symptoms in social situations.

Before collecting data , it’s important to consider how you will operationalise the variables that you want to measure.

The research methods you use depend on the type of data you need to answer your research question .

• If you want to measure something or test a hypothesis , use quantitative methods . If you want to explore ideas, thoughts, and meanings, use qualitative methods .
• If you want to analyse a large amount of readily available data, use secondary data. If you want data specific to your purposes with control over how they are generated, collect primary data.
• If you want to establish cause-and-effect relationships between variables , use experimental methods. If you want to understand the characteristics of a research subject, use descriptive methods.

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Research Design 101

Everything You Need To Get Started (With Examples)

By: Derek Jansen (MBA) | Reviewers: Eunice Rautenbach (DTech) & Kerryn Warren (PhD) | April 2023

Navigating the world of research can be daunting, especially if you’re a first-time researcher. One concept you’re bound to run into fairly early in your research journey is that of “ research design ”. Here, we’ll guide you through the basics using practical examples , so that you can approach your research with confidence.

Overview: Research Design 101

What is research design.

• Research design types for quantitative studies
• Video explainer : quantitative research design
• Research design types for qualitative studies
• Video explainer : qualitative research design
• How to choose a research design
• Key takeaways

Research design refers to the overall plan, structure or strategy that guides a research project , from its conception to the final data analysis. A good research design serves as the blueprint for how you, as the researcher, will collect and analyse data while ensuring consistency, reliability and validity throughout your study.

Understanding different types of research designs is essential as helps ensure that your approach is suitable  given your research aims, objectives and questions , as well as the resources you have available to you. Without a clear big-picture view of how you’ll design your research, you run the risk of potentially making misaligned choices in terms of your methodology – especially your sampling , data collection and data analysis decisions.

The problem with defining research design…

One of the reasons students struggle with a clear definition of research design is because the term is used very loosely across the internet, and even within academia.

Some sources claim that the three research design types are qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods , which isn’t quite accurate (these just refer to the type of data that you’ll collect and analyse). Other sources state that research design refers to the sum of all your design choices, suggesting it’s more like a research methodology . Others run off on other less common tangents. No wonder there’s confusion!

In this article, we’ll clear up the confusion. We’ll explain the most common research design types for both qualitative and quantitative research projects, whether that is for a full dissertation or thesis, or a smaller research paper or article.

Research Design: Quantitative Studies

Quantitative research involves collecting and analysing data in a numerical form. Broadly speaking, there are four types of quantitative research designs: descriptive , correlational , experimental , and quasi-experimental . 

Descriptive Research Design

As the name suggests, descriptive research design focuses on describing existing conditions, behaviours, or characteristics by systematically gathering information without manipulating any variables. In other words, there is no intervention on the researcher’s part – only data collection.

For example, if you’re studying smartphone addiction among adolescents in your community, you could deploy a survey to a sample of teens asking them to rate their agreement with certain statements that relate to smartphone addiction. The collected data would then provide insight regarding how widespread the issue may be – in other words, it would describe the situation.

The key defining attribute of this type of research design is that it purely describes the situation . In other words, descriptive research design does not explore potential relationships between different variables or the causes that may underlie those relationships. Therefore, descriptive research is useful for generating insight into a research problem by describing its characteristics . By doing so, it can provide valuable insights and is often used as a precursor to other research design types.

Correlational Research Design

Correlational design is a popular choice for researchers aiming to identify and measure the relationship between two or more variables without manipulating them . In other words, this type of research design is useful when you want to know whether a change in one thing tends to be accompanied by a change in another thing.

For example, if you wanted to explore the relationship between exercise frequency and overall health, you could use a correlational design to help you achieve this. In this case, you might gather data on participants’ exercise habits, as well as records of their health indicators like blood pressure, heart rate, or body mass index. Thereafter, you’d use a statistical test to assess whether there’s a relationship between the two variables (exercise frequency and health).

As you can see, correlational research design is useful when you want to explore potential relationships between variables that cannot be manipulated or controlled for ethical, practical, or logistical reasons. It is particularly helpful in terms of developing predictions , and given that it doesn’t involve the manipulation of variables, it can be implemented at a large scale more easily than experimental designs (which will look at next).

That said, it’s important to keep in mind that correlational research design has limitations – most notably that it cannot be used to establish causality . In other words, correlation does not equal causation . To establish causality, you’ll need to move into the realm of experimental design, coming up next…

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Experimental Research Design

Experimental research design is used to determine if there is a causal relationship between two or more variables . With this type of research design, you, as the researcher, manipulate one variable (the independent variable) while controlling others (dependent variables). Doing so allows you to observe the effect of the former on the latter and draw conclusions about potential causality.

For example, if you wanted to measure if/how different types of fertiliser affect plant growth, you could set up several groups of plants, with each group receiving a different type of fertiliser, as well as one with no fertiliser at all. You could then measure how much each plant group grew (on average) over time and compare the results from the different groups to see which fertiliser was most effective.

Overall, experimental research design provides researchers with a powerful way to identify and measure causal relationships (and the direction of causality) between variables. However, developing a rigorous experimental design can be challenging as it’s not always easy to control all the variables in a study. This often results in smaller sample sizes , which can reduce the statistical power and generalisability of the results.

Moreover, experimental research design requires random assignment . This means that the researcher needs to assign participants to different groups or conditions in a way that each participant has an equal chance of being assigned to any group (note that this is not the same as random sampling ). Doing so helps reduce the potential for bias and confounding variables . This need for random assignment can lead to ethics-related issues . For example, withholding a potentially beneficial medical treatment from a control group may be considered unethical in certain situations.

Quasi-Experimental Research Design

Quasi-experimental research design is used when the research aims involve identifying causal relations , but one cannot (or doesn’t want to) randomly assign participants to different groups (for practical or ethical reasons). Instead, with a quasi-experimental research design, the researcher relies on existing groups or pre-existing conditions to form groups for comparison.

For example, if you were studying the effects of a new teaching method on student achievement in a particular school district, you may be unable to randomly assign students to either group and instead have to choose classes or schools that already use different teaching methods. This way, you still achieve separate groups, without having to assign participants to specific groups yourself.

Naturally, quasi-experimental research designs have limitations when compared to experimental designs. Given that participant assignment is not random, it’s more difficult to confidently establish causality between variables, and, as a researcher, you have less control over other variables that may impact findings.

All that said, quasi-experimental designs can still be valuable in research contexts where random assignment is not possible and can often be undertaken on a much larger scale than experimental research, thus increasing the statistical power of the results. What’s important is that you, as the researcher, understand the limitations of the design and conduct your quasi-experiment as rigorously as possible, paying careful attention to any potential confounding variables .

Research Design: Qualitative Studies

There are many different research design types when it comes to qualitative studies, but here we’ll narrow our focus to explore the “Big 4”. Specifically, we’ll look at phenomenological design, grounded theory design, ethnographic design, and case study design.

Phenomenological Research Design

Phenomenological design involves exploring the meaning of lived experiences and how they are perceived by individuals. This type of research design seeks to understand people’s perspectives , emotions, and behaviours in specific situations. Here, the aim for researchers is to uncover the essence of human experience without making any assumptions or imposing preconceived ideas on their subjects.

For example, you could adopt a phenomenological design to study why cancer survivors have such varied perceptions of their lives after overcoming their disease. This could be achieved by interviewing survivors and then analysing the data using a qualitative analysis method such as thematic analysis to identify commonalities and differences.

Phenomenological research design typically involves in-depth interviews or open-ended questionnaires to collect rich, detailed data about participants’ subjective experiences. This richness is one of the key strengths of phenomenological research design but, naturally, it also has limitations. These include potential biases in data collection and interpretation and the lack of generalisability of findings to broader populations.

Grounded Theory Research Design

Grounded theory (also referred to as “GT”) aims to develop theories by continuously and iteratively analysing and comparing data collected from a relatively large number of participants in a study. It takes an inductive (bottom-up) approach, with a focus on letting the data “speak for itself”, without being influenced by preexisting theories or the researcher’s preconceptions.

As an example, let’s assume your research aims involved understanding how people cope with chronic pain from a specific medical condition, with a view to developing a theory around this. In this case, grounded theory design would allow you to explore this concept thoroughly without preconceptions about what coping mechanisms might exist. You may find that some patients prefer cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) while others prefer to rely on herbal remedies. Based on multiple, iterative rounds of analysis, you could then develop a theory in this regard, derived directly from the data (as opposed to other preexisting theories and models).

Grounded theory typically involves collecting data through interviews or observations and then analysing it to identify patterns and themes that emerge from the data. These emerging ideas are then validated by collecting more data until a saturation point is reached (i.e., no new information can be squeezed from the data). From that base, a theory can then be developed .

As you can see, grounded theory is ideally suited to studies where the research aims involve theory generation , especially in under-researched areas. Keep in mind though that this type of research design can be quite time-intensive , given the need for multiple rounds of data collection and analysis.

Ethnographic Research Design

Ethnographic design involves observing and studying a culture-sharing group of people in their natural setting to gain insight into their behaviours, beliefs, and values. The focus here is on observing participants in their natural environment (as opposed to a controlled environment). This typically involves the researcher spending an extended period of time with the participants in their environment, carefully observing and taking field notes .

All of this is not to say that ethnographic research design relies purely on observation. On the contrary, this design typically also involves in-depth interviews to explore participants’ views, beliefs, etc. However, unobtrusive observation is a core component of the ethnographic approach.

As an example, an ethnographer may study how different communities celebrate traditional festivals or how individuals from different generations interact with technology differently. This may involve a lengthy period of observation, combined with in-depth interviews to further explore specific areas of interest that emerge as a result of the observations that the researcher has made.

As you can probably imagine, ethnographic research design has the ability to provide rich, contextually embedded insights into the socio-cultural dynamics of human behaviour within a natural, uncontrived setting. Naturally, however, it does come with its own set of challenges, including researcher bias (since the researcher can become quite immersed in the group), participant confidentiality and, predictably, ethical complexities . All of these need to be carefully managed if you choose to adopt this type of research design.

Case Study Design

With case study research design, you, as the researcher, investigate a single individual (or a single group of individuals) to gain an in-depth understanding of their experiences, behaviours or outcomes. Unlike other research designs that are aimed at larger sample sizes, case studies offer a deep dive into the specific circumstances surrounding a person, group of people, event or phenomenon, generally within a bounded setting or context .

As an example, a case study design could be used to explore the factors influencing the success of a specific small business. This would involve diving deeply into the organisation to explore and understand what makes it tick – from marketing to HR to finance. In terms of data collection, this could include interviews with staff and management, review of policy documents and financial statements, surveying customers, etc.

While the above example is focused squarely on one organisation, it’s worth noting that case study research designs can have different variation s, including single-case, multiple-case and longitudinal designs. As you can see in the example, a single-case design involves intensely examining a single entity to understand its unique characteristics and complexities. Conversely, in a multiple-case design , multiple cases are compared and contrasted to identify patterns and commonalities. Lastly, in a longitudinal case design , a single case or multiple cases are studied over an extended period of time to understand how factors develop over time.

As you can see, a case study research design is particularly useful where a deep and contextualised understanding of a specific phenomenon or issue is desired. However, this strength is also its weakness. In other words, you can’t generalise the findings from a case study to the broader population. So, keep this in mind if you’re considering going the case study route.

How To Choose A Research Design

Having worked through all of these potential research designs, you’d be forgiven for feeling a little overwhelmed and wondering, “ But how do I decide which research design to use? ”. While we could write an entire post covering that alone, here are a few factors to consider that will help you choose a suitable research design for your study.

Data type: The first determining factor is naturally the type of data you plan to be collecting – i.e., qualitative or quantitative. This may sound obvious, but we have to be clear about this – don’t try to use a quantitative research design on qualitative data (or vice versa)!

Research aim(s) and question(s): As with all methodological decisions, your research aim and research questions will heavily influence your research design. For example, if your research aims involve developing a theory from qualitative data, grounded theory would be a strong option. Similarly, if your research aims involve identifying and measuring relationships between variables, one of the experimental designs would likely be a better option.

Time: It’s essential that you consider any time constraints you have, as this will impact the type of research design you can choose. For example, if you’ve only got a month to complete your project, a lengthy design such as ethnography wouldn’t be a good fit.

Resources: Take into account the resources realistically available to you, as these need to factor into your research design choice. For example, if you require highly specialised lab equipment to execute an experimental design, you need to be sure that you’ll have access to that before you make a decision.

Keep in mind that when it comes to research, it’s important to manage your risks and play as conservatively as possible. If your entire project relies on you achieving a huge sample, having access to niche equipment or holding interviews with very difficult-to-reach participants, you’re creating risks that could kill your project. So, be sure to think through your choices carefully and make sure that you have backup plans for any existential risks. Remember that a relatively simple methodology executed well generally will typically earn better marks than a highly-complex methodology executed poorly.

Recap: Key Takeaways

We’ve covered a lot of ground here. Let’s recap by looking at the key takeaways:

• Research design refers to the overall plan, structure or strategy that guides a research project, from its conception to the final analysis of data.
• Research designs for quantitative studies include descriptive , correlational , experimental and quasi-experimenta l designs.
• Research designs for qualitative studies include phenomenological , grounded theory , ethnographic and case study designs.
• When choosing a research design, you need to consider a variety of factors, including the type of data you’ll be working with, your research aims and questions, your time and the resources available to you.

If you need a helping hand with your research design (or any other aspect of your research), check out our private coaching services .

Psst... there’s more!

This post was based on one of our popular Research Bootcamps . If you're working on a research project, you'll definitely want to check this out ...

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Is there any blog article explaining more on Case study research design? Is there a Case study write-up template? Thank you.

Thanks this was quite valuable to clarify such an important concept.

Thanks for this simplified explanations. it is quite very helpful.

This was really helpful. thanks

Thank you for your explanation. I think case study research design and the use of secondary data in researches needs to be talked about more in your videos and articles because there a lot of case studies research design tailored projects out there.

Please is there any template for a case study research design whose data type is a secondary data on your repository?

This post is very clear, comprehensive and has been very helpful to me. It has cleared the confusion I had in regard to research design and methodology.

This post is helpful, easy to understand, and deconstructs what a research design is. Thanks

how to cite this page

Thank you very much for the post. It is wonderful and has cleared many worries in my mind regarding research designs. I really appreciate .

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FLEET LIBRARY | Research Guides

Rhode island school of design, create a research plan: research plan.

• Research Plan
• Literature Review
• Ulrich's Global Serials Directory
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A research plan is a framework that shows how you intend to approach your topic. The plan can take many forms: a written outline, a narrative, a visual/concept map or timeline. It's a document that will change and develop as you conduct your research. Components of a research plan

1. Research conceptualization - introduces your research question

2. Research methodology - describes your approach to the research question

3. Literature review, critical evaluation and synthesis - systematic approach to locating,

    reviewing and evaluating the work (text, exhibitions, critiques, etc) relating to your topic

4. Communication - geared toward an intended audience, shows evidence of your inquiry

Research conceptualization refers to the ability to identify specific research questions, problems or opportunities that are worthy of inquiry. Research conceptualization also includes the skills and discipline that go beyond the initial moment of conception, and which enable the researcher to formulate and develop an idea into something researchable ( Newbury 373).

Research methodology refers to the knowledge and skills required to select and apply appropriate methods to carry through the research project ( Newbury 374) .

Method describes a single mode of proceeding; methodology describes the overall process.

Method - a way of doing anything especially according to a defined and regular plan; a mode of procedure in any activity

Methodology - the study of the direction and implications of empirical research, or the sustainability of techniques employed in it; a method or body of methods used in a particular field of study or activity *Browse a list of research methodology books  or this guide on Art & Design Research

Literature Review, critical evaluation & synthesis

A literature review is a systematic approach to locating, reviewing, and evaluating the published work and work in progress of scholars, researchers, and practitioners on a given topic.

Critical evaluation and synthesis is the ability to handle (or process) existing sources. It includes knowledge of the sources of literature and contextual research field within which the person is working ( Newbury 373).

Literature reviews are done for many reasons and situations. Here's a short list:

Sources to consult while conducting a literature review:

Online catalogs of local, regional, national, and special libraries

meta-catalogs such as worldcat , Art Discovery Group , europeana , world digital library or RIBA

subject-specific online article databases (such as the Avery Index, JSTOR, Project Muse)

digital institutional repositories such as Digital Commons @RISD ; see Registry of Open Access Repositories

Open Access Resources recommended by RISD Research LIbrarians

works cited in scholarly books and articles

print bibliographies

the internet-locate major nonprofit, research institutes, museum, university, and government websites

search google scholar to locate grey literature & referenced citations

trade and scholarly publishers

fellow scholars and peers

Communication                              

Communication refers to the ability to

• structure a coherent line of inquiry
• communicate your findings to your intended audience
• make skilled use of visual material to express ideas for presentations, writing, and the creation of exhibitions ( Newbury 374)

Research plan framework: Newbury, Darren. "Research Training in the Creative Arts and Design." The Routledge Companion to Research in the Arts . Ed. Michael Biggs and Henrik Karlsson. New York: Routledge, 2010. 368-87. Print.

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Except where otherwise noted, this guide is subject to a Creative Commons Attribution license

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How to Write a Research Design – Guide with Examples

Published by Alaxendra Bets at August 14th, 2021 , Revised On October 3, 2023

A research design is a structure that combines different components of research. It involves the use of different data collection and data analysis techniques logically to answer the  research questions .

It would be best to make some decisions about addressing the research questions adequately before starting the research process, which is achieved with the help of the research design.

Below are the key aspects of the decision-making process:

• Data type required for research
• Research resources
• Participants required for research
• Hypothesis based upon research question(s)
• Data analysis  methodologies
• Variables (Independent, dependent, and confounding)
• The location and timescale for conducting the data
• The time period required for research

The research design provides the strategy of investigation for your project. Furthermore, it defines the parameters and criteria to compile the data to evaluate results and conclude.

Your project’s validity depends on the data collection and  interpretation techniques.  A strong research design reflects a strong  dissertation , scientific paper, or research proposal .

Step 1: Establish Priorities for Research Design

Before conducting any research study, you must address an important question: “how to create a research design.”

The research design depends on the researcher’s priorities and choices because every research has different priorities. For a complex research study involving multiple methods, you may choose to have more than one research design.

Multimethodology or multimethod research includes using more than one data collection method or research in a research study or set of related studies.

If one research design is weak in one area, then another research design can cover that weakness. For instance, a  dissertation analyzing different situations or cases will have more than one research design.

For example:

• Experimental research involves experimental investigation and laboratory experience, but it does not accurately investigate the real world.
• Quantitative research is good for the  statistical part of the project, but it may not provide an in-depth understanding of the  topic .
• Also, correlational research will not provide experimental results because it is a technique that assesses the statistical relationship between two variables.

While scientific considerations are a fundamental aspect of the research design, It is equally important that the researcher think practically before deciding on its structure. Here are some questions that you should think of;

• Do you have enough time to gather data and complete the write-up?
• Will you be able to collect the necessary data by interviewing a specific person or visiting a specific location?
• Do you have in-depth knowledge about the  different statistical analysis and data collection techniques to address the research questions  or test the  hypothesis ?

If you think that the chosen research design cannot answer the research questions properly, you can refine your research questions to gain better insight.

Step 2: Data Type you Need for Research

Decide on the type of data you need for your research. The type of data you need to collect depends on your research questions or research hypothesis. Two types of research data can be used to answer the research questions:

Primary Data Vs. Secondary Data

Qualitative vs. quantitative data.

Also, see; Research methods, design, and analysis .

Need help with a thesis chapter?

• Hire an expert from ResearchProspect today!
• Statistical analysis, research methodology, discussion of the results or conclusion – our experts can help you no matter how complex the requirements are.

Step 3: Data Collection Techniques

Once you have selected the type of research to answer your research question, you need to decide where and how to collect the data.

It is time to determine your research method to address the  research problem . Research methods involve procedures, techniques, materials, and tools used for the study.

For instance, a dissertation research design includes the different resources and data collection techniques and helps establish your  dissertation’s structure .

The following table shows the characteristics of the most popularly employed research methods.

Research Methods

Step 4: Procedure of Data Analysis

Use of the  correct data and statistical analysis technique is necessary for the validity of your research. Therefore, you need to be certain about the data type that would best address the research problem. Choosing an appropriate analysis method is the final step for the research design. It can be split into two main categories;

Quantitative Data Analysis

The quantitative data analysis technique involves analyzing the numerical data with the help of different applications such as; SPSS, STATA, Excel, origin lab, etc.

This data analysis strategy tests different variables such as spectrum, frequencies, averages, and more. The research question and the hypothesis must be established to identify the variables for testing.

Qualitative Data Analysis

Qualitative data analysis of figures, themes, and words allows for flexibility and the researcher’s subjective opinions. This means that the researcher’s primary focus will be interpreting patterns, tendencies, and accounts and understanding the implications and social framework.

You should be clear about your research objectives before starting to analyze the data. For example, you should ask yourself whether you need to explain respondents’ experiences and insights or do you also need to evaluate their responses with reference to a certain social framework.

Step 5: Write your Research Proposal

The research design is an important component of a research proposal because it plans the project’s execution. You can share it with the supervisor, who would evaluate the feasibility and capacity of the results  and  conclusion .

Read our guidelines to write a research proposal  if you have already formulated your research design. The research proposal is written in the future tense because you are writing your proposal before conducting research.

The  research methodology  or research design, on the other hand, is generally written in the past tense.

How to Write a Research Design – Conclusion

A research design is the plan, structure, strategy of investigation conceived to answer the research question and test the hypothesis. The dissertation research design can be classified based on the type of data and the type of analysis.

Above mentioned five steps are the answer to how to write a research design. So, follow these steps to  formulate the perfect research design for your dissertation .

ResearchProspect writers have years of experience creating research designs that align with the dissertation’s aim and objectives. If you are struggling with your dissertation methodology chapter, you might want to look at our dissertation part-writing service.

Our dissertation writers can also help you with the full dissertation paper . No matter how urgent or complex your need may be, ResearchProspect can help. We also offer PhD level research paper writing services.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is research design.

Research design is a systematic plan that guides the research process, outlining the methodology and procedures for collecting and analysing data. It determines the structure of the study, ensuring the research question is answered effectively, reliably, and validly. It serves as the blueprint for the entire research project.

How to write a research design?

To write a research design, define your research question, identify the research method (qualitative, quantitative, or mixed), choose data collection techniques (e.g., surveys, interviews), determine the sample size and sampling method, outline data analysis procedures, and highlight potential limitations and ethical considerations for the study.

How to write the design section of a research paper?

In the design section of a research paper, describe the research methodology chosen and justify its selection. Outline the data collection methods, participants or samples, instruments used, and procedures followed. Detail any experimental controls, if applicable. Ensure clarity and precision to enable replication of the study by other researchers.

How to write a research design in methodology?

To write a research design in methodology, clearly outline the research strategy (e.g., experimental, survey, case study). Describe the sampling technique, participants, and data collection methods. Detail the procedures for data collection and analysis. Justify choices by linking them to research objectives, addressing reliability and validity.

You May Also Like

This article is a step-by-step guide to how to write statement of a problem in research. The research problem will be half-solved by defining it correctly.

Find how to write research questions with the mentioned steps required for a perfect research question. Choose an interesting topic and begin your research.

Make sure that your selected topic is intriguing, manageable, and relevant. Here are some guidelines to help understand how to find a good dissertation topic.

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What is UX Research: The Ultimate Guide for UX Researchers

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How to create a UX research plan (examples, tactics, and templates)

Conducting UX research without a plan is like moving to another country without knowing the language—confusing and exhausting.

To avoid wasting time and resources, it’s crucial to set achievable research goals and work on developing a research plan that’s clear, comprehensive, and aligned with your overarching business goals and research strategy.

A good UX research plan sets out the parameters for your research, and guides how you’ll gather insights to inform product development. In this chapter, we share a step-by-step guide to creating a research plan, including templates and tactics for you to try. You’ll also find expert tips from Paige Bennett, Senior User Research Manager at Affirm, and Sinéad Davis Cochrane, Research Manager at Workday.

What is a UX research plan?

A UX research plan—not to be confused with a UX research strategy —is a plan to guide individual user experience (UX) research projects.

It's a living document that includes a detailed explanation of tactics, methods, timeline, scope, and task owners. It should be co-created and shared with key stakeholders, so everyone is familiar with the project plan, and product teams can meet strategic goals.

While the UX research plan should be based on strategy, it’s not the same thing. A strategy is a high-level document that contains goals, budget, vision, and expectations. Meanwhile, a plan is a detailed document explaining how the team will achieve those strategic goals. In short, a strategy is a guide, but a plan is what drives action.

What are the benefits of using a UX research plan?

Conducting research without goals and parameters is aimless. A UX research plan is beneficial for your product, user, and business—by building a plan for conducting UX research, you can:

Streamline processes and add structure

Work toward specific, measurable goals, align and engage stakeholders, save time by avoiding rework.

The structure of a research plan allows you to set timelines, expectations, and task owners, so everyone on your team is aligned and empowered to make decisions. Since there’s no second guessing what to do next or which methods to use, you’ll find your process becomes simpler and more efficient. It’s also worth standardizing your process to turn your plan into a template that you can reuse for future projects.

When you set research goals based on strategy, you’ll find it easier to track your team’s progress and keep the project in scope, on time, and on budget. With a solid, strategy-based UX research plan you can also track metrics at different stages of the project and adjust future tactics to get better research findings.

“It’s important to make sure your stakeholders are on the same page with regards to scope, timeline, and goals before you start," explains Paige Bennett, Senior User Research Manager at Affirm. That's because, when stakeholders are aligned, they're much more likely to sign off on product changes that result from UX research.

A written plan is a collaborative way to involve stakeholders in your research and turn them into active participants rather than passive observers. As they get involved, they'll make useful contributions and get a better understanding of your goals.

A UX research plan helps you save time and money quite simply because it’s easier and less expensive to make design or prototype changes than it is to fix usability issues once the product is coded or fully launched. Additionally, having a plan gives your team direction, which means they won’t be conducting research and talking to users without motive, and you’ll be making better use of your resources. What’s more, when everyone is aligned on goals, they’re empowered to make informed decisions instead of waiting for their managers’ approval.

What should a UX research plan include?

In French cuisine, the concept of mise en place—putting in place—allows chefs to plan and set up their workspace with all the required ingredients before cooking. Think of your research plan like this—laying out the key steps you need to go through during research, to help you run a successful and more efficient study.

Here’s what you should include in a UX research plan:

• A brief reminder of the strategy and goals
• An outline of the research objectives
• The purpose of the plan and studies
• A short description of the target audience, sample size, scope, and demographics
• A detailed list of expectations including deliverables, timings, and type of results
• An overview of the test methods and a short explanation of why you chose them
• The test set up or guidelines to outline everything that needs to happen before the study: scenarios, screening questions, and duration of pilot tests
• Your test scripts, questions to ask, or samples to follow
• When and how you’ll present the results
• Cost estimations or requests to go over budget

Collect all UX research findings in one place

Use Maze to run quantitative and qualitative research, influence product design, and shape user-centered products.

How to create a UX research plan

Now we’ve talked through why you need a research plan, let’s get into the how. Here’s a short step-by-step guide on how to write a research plan that will drive results.

• Define the problem statement
• Get stakeholders’ buy-in
• Identify your objectives
• Choose the right research method
• Recruit participants
• Prepare the brief
• Establish the timeline
• Decide how you’ll present your findings

1. Define the problem statement

One of the most important purposes of a research plan is to identify what you’re trying to achieve with the research, and clarify the problem statement. For Paige Bennett , Senior User Research Manager at Affirm, this process begins by sitting together with stakeholders and looking at the problem space.

“We do an exercise called FOG, which stands for ‘Fact, Observation, Guess’, to identify large gaps in knowledge,” says Paige. “Evaluating what you know illuminates questions you still have, which then serves as the foundation of the UX research project.”

You can use different techniques to identify the problem statement, such as stakeholder interviews, team sessions, or analysis of customer feedback. The problem statement should explain what the project is about—helping to define the research scope with clear deliverables and objectives.

2. Identify your objectives

Research objectives need to align with the UX strategy and broader business goals, but you also need to define specific targets to achieve within the research itself—whether that’s understanding a specific problem, or measuring usability metrics . So, before you get into a room with your users and customers, “Think about the research objectives: what you’re doing, why you’re doing it, and what you expect from the UX research process ,” explains Sinéad Davis Cochrane , Research Manager at Workday.

Examples of research objectives might be:

• Learn at what times users interact with your product
• Understand why users return (or not) to your website/app
• Discover what competitor products your users are using
• Uncover any pain points or challenges users find when navigating with your product
• Gauge user interest in and prioritize potential new features

A valuable purpose of setting objectives is ensuring your project doesn't suffer from scope creep. This can happen when stakeholders see your research as an opportunity to ask any question. As a researcher , Sinéad believes your objectives can guide the type of research questions you ask and give your research more focus. Otherwise, anything and everything becomes a research question—which will confuse your findings and be overwhelming to manage.

Sinéad shares a list of questions you should ask yourself and the research team to help set objectives:

• What are you going to do with this information?
• What decisions is it going to inform?
• How are you going to leverage these insights?

Another useful exercise to help identify research objectives is by asking questions that help you get to the core of a problem. Ask these types of questions before starting the planning process:

• Who are the users you’re designing this for?
• What problems and needs do they have?
• What are the pain points of using the product?
• Why are they not using a product like yours?

3. Get stakeholders buy-in

It’s good practice to involve stakeholders at early stages of plan creation to get everyone on board. Sharing your UX research plan with relevant stakeholders means you can gather context, adjust based on comments, and gauge what’s truly important to them. When you present the research plan to key stakeholders, remember to align on the scope of research, and how and when you’ll get back to them with results.

Stakeholders usually have a unique vision of the product, and it’s crucial that you’re able to capture it early on—this doesn’t mean saying yes to everything, but listening to their ideas and having a conversation. Seeing the UX research plan as a living document makes it much easier to edit based on team comments. Plus, the more you listen to other ideas, the easier it will be to evangelize research and get stakeholders to see the value behind it.

I expect my stakeholders to be participants, and I outline how I expect that to happen. That includes observing interviews, participating in synthesis exercises, or co-presenting research recommendations.

Paige Bennett , Senior User Research Manager at Affirm

4. Choose the right research method

Choose between the different UX research methods to capture different insights from users.

To define the research methods you’ll use, circle back to your research objectives, what stage of the product development process you’re in, and the constraints, resources, and timeline of the project. It’s good research practice to use a mix of different methods to get a more complete perspective of users’ struggles.

For example, if you’re at the start of the design process, a generative research method such as user interviews or field studies will help you generate new insights about the target audience. Or, if you need to evaluate how a new design performs with users, you can run usability tests to get actionable feedback.

It’s also good practice to mix methods that drive quantitative and qualitative results so you can understand context, and catch the user sentiment behind a metric. For instance, if during a remote usability test, you hear a user go ‘Ugh! Where’s the sign up button?’ you’ll get a broader perspective than if you were just reviewing the number of clicks on the same test task.

Examples of UX research methods to consider include:

• Five-second testing
• User interviews
• Field studies
• Card sorting
• Tree testing
• Focus groups
• Usability testing
• Diary studies
• Live website testing

Check out our top UX research templates . Use them as a shortcut to get started on your research.

5. Determine how to recruit participants

Every research plan should include information about the participants you need for your study, and how you’ll recruit them. To identify your perfect candidate, revisit your goals and the questions that need answering, then build a target user persona including key demographics and use cases. Consider the resources you have available already, by asking yourself:

• Do you have a user base you can tap into to collect data?
• Do you need to hire external participants?
• What’s your budget to recruit users?
• How many users do you need to interact with?

When selecting participants, make sure they represent all your target personas. If different types of people will be using a certain product, you need to make sure that the people you research represent these personas. This means not just being inclusive in your recruitment, but considering secondary personas—the people who may not be your target user base, but interact with your product incidentally.

You should also consider recruiting research participants to test the product on different devices. Paige explains: “If prior research has shown that behavior differs greatly between those who use a product on their phone versus their tablet, I need to better understand those differences—so I’m going to make sure my participants include people who have used a product on both devices.”

During this step, make sure to include information about the required number of participants, how you’ll get them to participate, and how much time you need per user. The main ways to recruit testers are:

• Using an online participant recruitment tool like Maze’s panel
• Putting out physical or digital adverts in spaces that are relevant to your product and user
• Reaching out to existing users
• Using participants from previous research
• Recruiting directly from your website or app with a tool like In-Product Prompts

5.1. Determine how you’ll pay them

You should always reward your test participants for their time and insights. Not only because it’s the right thing to do, but also because if they have an incentive they’re more likely to give you complete and insightful answers. If you’re hosting the studies in person, you’ll also need to cover your participants' travel expenses and secure a research space. Running remote moderated or unmoderated research is often considered to be less expensive and faster to complete.

If you’re testing an international audience, remember to check your proposed payment system works worldwide—this might be an Amazon gift card or prepaid Visa cards.

6. Prepare the brief

The next component of a research plan is to create a brief or guide for your research sessions. The kind of brief you need will vary depending on your research method, but for moderated methods like user interviews, field studies, or focus groups, you’ll need a detailed guide and script. The brief is there to remind you which questions to ask and keep the sessions on track.

Your script should cover:

• Introduction: A short message you’ll say to participants before the session begins. This works as a starting point for conversations and helps set the tone for the meeting. If you’re testing without a moderator, you should also include an introductory message to explain what the research is about and the type of answers they should give (in terms of length and specificity).
• Interview questions: Include your list of questions you’ll ask participants during the sessions. These could be examples to help guide the interviews, specific pre-planned questions, or test tasks you’ll ask participants to perform during unmoderated sessions.
• Outro message: Outline what you'll say at the end of the session, including the next steps, asking participants if they are open to future research, and thanking them for their time. This can be a form you share at the end of asynchronous sessions.

It’s crucial you remember to ask participants for their consent. You should do this at the beginning of the test by asking if they’re okay with you recording the session. Use this space to lay out any compensation agreements as well. Then, ask again at the end of the session if they agree with you keeping the results and using the data for research purposes. If possible, explain exactly what you’ll do with their data. Double check and get your legal team’s sign-off on these forms.

7. Establish the timeline

Next in your plan, estimate how long the research project will take and when you should expect to review the findings. Even if not exact, determining an approximate timeline (e.g., two-three weeks) will enable you to manage stakeholders’ expectations of the process and results.

Many people believe UX research is a lengthy process, so they skip it. When you set up a timeline and get stakeholders aligned with it, you can debunk assumptions and put stakeholders’ minds at ease. Plus, if you’re using a product discovery tool like Maze, you can get answers to your tests within days.

8. Decide how you’ll present your findings

When it comes to sharing your findings with your team, presentation matters. You need to make a clear presentation and demonstrate how user insights will influence design and development. If you’ve conducted UX research in the past, share data that proves how implementing user insights has improved product adoption.

Examples of ways you can present your results include:

• A physical or digital PDF report with key statistics and takeaways
• An interactive online report of the individual research questions and their results
• A presentation explaining the results and your findings
• A digital whiteboard, like Miro, to display the results

In your plan, mention how you’ll share insights with the product team. For example, if you’re using Maze, you can start by emailing everyone the ready-to-share report and setting up a meeting with the team to identify how to bring those insights to life. This is key, because your research should be the guiding light for new products or updates, if you want to keep development user-centric. Taking care over how you present your findings will impact whether they’re taken seriously and implemented by other stakeholders.

Templates for UX research

Whether you’re creating the plan yourself or are delegating this responsibility to your team, here are six research templates to get started:

• UX research plan template : This editable Miro research project plan example helps you brainstorm user and business-facing problems, objectives, and questions
• UX research brief : You need a clear brief before you conduct UX research—Milanote shares a template that will help you simplify the writing process
• User testing synthesis : Trello put together a sample board to organize user testing notes—you can use this as a guide, but change the titles to fit your UX research purposes
• Usability testing templates : At Maze, we’ve created multiple templates for conducting specific UX research methods—this list will help you create different remote usability tests
• Information architecture (IA) tests template : The way you organize the information in your website or app can improve or damage the user experience—use this template to run IA tests easily
• Feedback survey templates : Ask users anything through a survey, and use these templates to get creative and simplify creation

Everything you need to know about UX research plans

We all know that a robust plan is essential for conducting successful UX research. But, in case you want a quick refresher on what we’ve covered:

• Using a UX research strategy as a starting point will make your plan more likely to succeed
• Determine your research objectives before anything else
• Use a mix of qualitative and quantitative research methods
• Come up with clear personas so you can recruit and test a group of individuals that’s representative of your real end users
• Involve stakeholders from the beginning to get buy-in
• Be vocal about timelines, budget, and expected research findings
• Use the insights to power your product decisions and wow your users; building the solution they genuinely want and need

UX research can happen at any stage of the development lifecycle. When you build products with and for users, you need to include them continuously at various stages of the process.

It’s helpful to explore the need for continuous discovery in your UX research plan and look for a tool like Maze that simplifies the process for you. We’ll cover more about the different research methods and UX research tools in the upcoming chapters—ready to go?

Elevate your UX research workflow

Discover how Maze can streamline and operationalize your research plans to drive real product innovation while saving on costs.

Frequently asked questions

What’s the difference between a UX research plan and a UX research strategy?

The difference between a UX research plan and a UX research strategy is that they cover different levels of scope and detail. A UX research plan is a document that guides individual user experience (UX) research projects. UX research plans are shared documents that everyone on the product team can and should be familiar with. The UX research strategy, on the other hand, outlines the high-level goals, expectations, and demographics of the discovery.

What should you include in a user research plan?

Here’s what to include in a user research plan:

• Problem statement
• Research objectives
• Research methods
• Participants' demographics
• Recruitment plan
• User research brief
• Expected timeline
• How to present findings

How do you write a research plan for UX design?

Creating a research plan for user experience (UX) requires a clear problem statement and objectives, choosing the right research method, recruiting participants and briefing them, and establishing a timeline for your project. You'll also need to plan how you'll analyze and present your findings.

Generative Research: Definition, Methods, and Examples

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The Essential Guide to Doing Your Research Project

Student resources, chapter 7: designing a research plan.

A.    Checklist for Assessing Practicality

By running through the following questions, you can quickly assess the practicality of your methodological plan:

1.    Do you have/can you develop necessary expertise?

Interviewing, observing, theorizing, surveying, statistical analysis – various methods of data collection and analysis will require certain skills. And while you can develop new skills, time / interest can be an issue. Remember - competence is not a luxury. Your skills or lack thereof, will affect the quality of the data you collect and the credibility of the findings you generate.

2.    Is your method ethical? Is it likely to get required ethics approval?

A clear criterion of any research design is that it is ethical; and ethicality is likely to be audited by an ethics committee. If a study calls for interaction with people, it will often require formal workplace and/ or university ethics committee approval. Ethical studies take responsibility for integrity in the production of knowledge and ensures that the mental, emotional, and physical welfare of respondents is protected.

3.    Do you have required access to data?

A major challenge for researchers is gaining access to data. Whether you plan to explore documents, conduct interviews or surveys, or engage in observation, the best-laid plans are worthless if you can’t find a way to access people, places and/ or records.

4.    Is your time frame realistic?

If you have not given yourself long enough to do what your design demands, you are likely to: miss deadlines; compromise your study by changing your methods mid-stream; do a shoddy job with your original methods; compromise time that should be dedicated to other aspects of your job/ life; or finally, not completing your study at all.

5.    Do you have required financial/organizational support?

Whether you need to cover the cost of materials, postage, transcription etc., or the cost of bringing in a professional researcher to help with data collection or analysis, you will need finances. It is important to develop a realistic budget for your study. Research into any problem, no matter how worthy, will not be practical, or in fact, possible if you can’t cover costs. Also make sure that, if appropriate, you have organizational support for time to be dedicated to your project. Not being able to find time can be as debilitating to your study as not being able to find money.

B.    Checklist for Fundamental Methods Questions

-  Who do you want to be able to speak about?

-  Who do you plan to speak to/observe?

-  What is the physical domain of your sample?

-  Are settings relevant to the credibility of your methods?

-  How do your methods fit into your time frame?

-  Is timing relevant to the credibility of your methods?

-  How will I collect my data?

-  How will I implement my methods?

-  What will you look for/what will you ask?

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Research Design: What it is, Elements & Types

Can you imagine doing research without a plan? Probably not. When we discuss a strategy to collect, study, and evaluate data, we talk about research design. This design addresses problems and creates a consistent and logical model for data analysis. Let’s learn more about it.

What is Research Design?

Research design is the framework of research methods and techniques chosen by a researcher to conduct a study. The design allows researchers to sharpen the research methods suitable for the subject matter and set up their studies for success.

Creating a research topic explains the type of research (experimental,  survey research ,  correlational , semi-experimental, review) and its sub-type (experimental design, research problem , descriptive case-study). 

There are three main types of designs for research:

• Data collection
• Measurement
• Data Analysis

The research problem an organization faces will determine the design, not vice-versa. The design phase of a study determines which tools to use and how they are used.

The Process of Research Design

The research design process is a systematic and structured approach to conducting research. The process is essential to ensure that the study is valid, reliable, and produces meaningful results.

• Consider your aims and approaches: Determine the research questions and objectives, and identify the theoretical framework and methodology for the study.
• Choose a type of Research Design: Select the appropriate research design, such as experimental, correlational, survey, case study, or ethnographic, based on the research questions and objectives.
• Identify your population and sampling method: Determine the target population and sample size, and choose the sampling method, such as random , stratified random sampling , or convenience sampling.
• Choose your data collection methods: Decide on the data collection methods , such as surveys, interviews, observations, or experiments, and select the appropriate instruments or tools for collecting data.
• Plan your data collection procedures: Develop a plan for data collection, including the timeframe, location, and personnel involved, and ensure ethical considerations.
• Decide on your data analysis strategies: Select the appropriate data analysis techniques, such as statistical analysis , content analysis, or discourse analysis, and plan how to interpret the results.

The process of research design is a critical step in conducting research. By following the steps of research design, researchers can ensure that their study is well-planned, ethical, and rigorous.

Research Design Elements

Impactful research usually creates a minimum bias in data and increases trust in the accuracy of collected data. A design that produces the slightest margin of error in experimental research is generally considered the desired outcome. The essential elements are:

• Accurate purpose statement
• Techniques to be implemented for collecting and analyzing research
• The method applied for analyzing collected details
• Type of research methodology
• Probable objections to research
• Settings for the research study
• Measurement of analysis

Characteristics of Research Design

A proper design sets your study up for success. Successful research studies provide insights that are accurate and unbiased. You’ll need to create a survey that meets all of the main characteristics of a design. There are four key characteristics:

• Neutrality: When you set up your study, you may have to make assumptions about the data you expect to collect. The results projected in the research should be free from research bias and neutral. Understand opinions about the final evaluated scores and conclusions from multiple individuals and consider those who agree with the results.
• Reliability: With regularly conducted research, the researcher expects similar results every time. You’ll only be able to reach the desired results if your design is reliable. Your plan should indicate how to form research questions to ensure the standard of results.
• Validity: There are multiple measuring tools available. However, the only correct measuring tools are those which help a researcher in gauging results according to the objective of the research. The  questionnaire  developed from this design will then be valid.
• Generalization:  The outcome of your design should apply to a population and not just a restricted sample . A generalized method implies that your survey can be conducted on any part of a population with similar accuracy.

The above factors affect how respondents answer the research questions, so they should balance all the above characteristics in a good design. If you want, you can also learn about Selection Bias through our blog.

Research Design Types

A researcher must clearly understand the various types to select which model to implement for a study. Like the research itself, the design of your analysis can be broadly classified into quantitative and qualitative.

Qualitative research

Qualitative research determines relationships between collected data and observations based on mathematical calculations. Statistical methods can prove or disprove theories related to a naturally existing phenomenon. Researchers rely on qualitative observation research methods that conclude “why” a particular theory exists and “what” respondents have to say about it.

Quantitative research

Quantitative research is for cases where statistical conclusions to collect actionable insights are essential. Numbers provide a better perspective for making critical business decisions. Quantitative research methods are necessary for the growth of any organization. Insights drawn from complex numerical data and analysis prove to be highly effective when making decisions about the business’s future.

Qualitative Research vs Quantitative Research

Here is a chart that highlights the major differences between qualitative and quantitative research:

In summary or analysis , the step of qualitative research is more exploratory and focuses on understanding the subjective experiences of individuals, while quantitative research is more focused on objective data and statistical analysis.

You can further break down the types of research design into five categories:

1. Descriptive: In a descriptive composition, a researcher is solely interested in describing the situation or case under their research study. It is a theory-based design method created by gathering, analyzing, and presenting collected data. This allows a researcher to provide insights into the why and how of research. Descriptive design helps others better understand the need for the research. If the problem statement is not clear, you can conduct exploratory research. 

2. Experimental: Experimental research establishes a relationship between the cause and effect of a situation. It is a causal research design where one observes the impact caused by the independent variable on the dependent variable. For example, one monitors the influence of an independent variable such as a price on a dependent variable such as customer satisfaction or brand loyalty. It is an efficient research method as it contributes to solving a problem.

The independent variables are manipulated to monitor the change it has on the dependent variable. Social sciences often use it to observe human behavior by analyzing two groups. Researchers can have participants change their actions and study how the people around them react to understand social psychology better.

3. Correlational research: Correlational research  is a non-experimental research technique. It helps researchers establish a relationship between two closely connected variables. There is no assumption while evaluating a relationship between two other variables, and statistical analysis techniques calculate the relationship between them. This type of research requires two different groups.

A correlation coefficient determines the correlation between two variables whose values range between -1 and +1. If the correlation coefficient is towards +1, it indicates a positive relationship between the variables, and -1 means a negative relationship between the two variables. 

4. Diagnostic research: In diagnostic design, the researcher is looking to evaluate the underlying cause of a specific topic or phenomenon. This method helps one learn more about the factors that create troublesome situations. 

This design has three parts of the research:

• Inception of the issue
• Diagnosis of the issue
• Solution for the issue

5. Explanatory research : Explanatory design uses a researcher’s ideas and thoughts on a subject to further explore their theories. The study explains unexplored aspects of a subject and details the research questions’ what, how, and why.

Benefits of Research Design

There are several benefits of having a well-designed research plan. Including:

• Clarity of research objectives: Research design provides a clear understanding of the research objectives and the desired outcomes.
• Increased validity and reliability: To ensure the validity and reliability of results, research design help to minimize the risk of bias and helps to control extraneous variables.
• Improved data collection: Research design helps to ensure that the proper data is collected and data is collected systematically and consistently.
• Better data analysis: Research design helps ensure that the collected data can be analyzed effectively, providing meaningful insights and conclusions.
• Improved communication: A well-designed research helps ensure the results are clean and influential within the research team and external stakeholders.
• Efficient use of resources: reducing the risk of waste and maximizing the impact of the research, research design helps to ensure that resources are used efficiently.

A well-designed research plan is essential for successful research, providing clear and meaningful insights and ensuring that resources are practical.

QuestionPro offers a comprehensive solution for researchers looking to conduct research. With its user-friendly interface, robust data collection and analysis tools, and the ability to integrate results from multiple sources, QuestionPro provides a versatile platform for designing and executing research projects.

Our robust suite of research tools provides you with all you need to derive research results. Our online survey platform includes custom point-and-click logic and advanced question types. Uncover the insights that matter the most.

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Developing a Research Plan

• First Online: 20 September 2022

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Planning Research

Once working from a research paradigm it becomes possible to start making concrete choices about method(s). Depending on the project, this will involve choices about things like:

• Who will be involved? How will they be selected/contacted?
• How data will be collected
• How data will be managed and stored securely
• Designing, producing and piloting research instruments
• Determining the basis of rigour in the study and the “trustworthiness”(credibility, transferability, dependability, and confirmability) of the data(Guba, 1981; Shento, 2004)
• Ensuring ethical good practice is built into the project (see below)
• Setting a plan for data analysis

The data collection phase can begin once these decisions are made. It can be very tempting to start collecting data as soon as possible in the research process as this gives a sense of progress. However, it is usually worth getting things exactly right before collecting data as an error found in your approach further down the line can be harder to correct or recalibrate around. From here, things become a bit less generic as the specifics of data collection and analysis are going to be determined by the research methods being used. There are additional aspects which it is worth considering in detail at the research design stage.

Research Methods Handbook Copyright © 2020 by Rob Farrow; Francisco Iniesto; Martin Weller; and Rebecca Pitt is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Study designs: Part 1 – An overview and classification

Priya ranganathan.

Department of Anaesthesiology, Tata Memorial Centre, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

Rakesh Aggarwal

1 Department of Gastroenterology, Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India

There are several types of research study designs, each with its inherent strengths and flaws. The study design used to answer a particular research question depends on the nature of the question and the availability of resources. In this article, which is the first part of a series on “study designs,” we provide an overview of research study designs and their classification. The subsequent articles will focus on individual designs.

INTRODUCTION

Research study design is a framework, or the set of methods and procedures used to collect and analyze data on variables specified in a particular research problem.

Research study designs are of many types, each with its advantages and limitations. The type of study design used to answer a particular research question is determined by the nature of question, the goal of research, and the availability of resources. Since the design of a study can affect the validity of its results, it is important to understand the different types of study designs and their strengths and limitations.

There are some terms that are used frequently while classifying study designs which are described in the following sections.

A variable represents a measurable attribute that varies across study units, for example, individual participants in a study, or at times even when measured in an individual person over time. Some examples of variables include age, sex, weight, height, health status, alive/dead, diseased/healthy, annual income, smoking yes/no, and treated/untreated.

Exposure (or intervention) and outcome variables

A large proportion of research studies assess the relationship between two variables. Here, the question is whether one variable is associated with or responsible for change in the value of the other variable. Exposure (or intervention) refers to the risk factor whose effect is being studied. It is also referred to as the independent or the predictor variable. The outcome (or predicted or dependent) variable develops as a consequence of the exposure (or intervention). Typically, the term “exposure” is used when the “causative” variable is naturally determined (as in observational studies – examples include age, sex, smoking, and educational status), and the term “intervention” is preferred where the researcher assigns some or all participants to receive a particular treatment for the purpose of the study (experimental studies – e.g., administration of a drug). If a drug had been started in some individuals but not in the others, before the study started, this counts as exposure, and not as intervention – since the drug was not started specifically for the study.

Observational versus interventional (or experimental) studies

Observational studies are those where the researcher is documenting a naturally occurring relationship between the exposure and the outcome that he/she is studying. The researcher does not do any active intervention in any individual, and the exposure has already been decided naturally or by some other factor. For example, looking at the incidence of lung cancer in smokers versus nonsmokers, or comparing the antenatal dietary habits of mothers with normal and low-birth babies. In these studies, the investigator did not play any role in determining the smoking or dietary habit in individuals.

For an exposure to determine the outcome, it must precede the latter. Any variable that occurs simultaneously with or following the outcome cannot be causative, and hence is not considered as an “exposure.”

Observational studies can be either descriptive (nonanalytical) or analytical (inferential) – this is discussed later in this article.

Interventional studies are experiments where the researcher actively performs an intervention in some or all members of a group of participants. This intervention could take many forms – for example, administration of a drug or vaccine, performance of a diagnostic or therapeutic procedure, and introduction of an educational tool. For example, a study could randomly assign persons to receive aspirin or placebo for a specific duration and assess the effect on the risk of developing cerebrovascular events.

Descriptive versus analytical studies

Descriptive (or nonanalytical) studies, as the name suggests, merely try to describe the data on one or more characteristics of a group of individuals. These do not try to answer questions or establish relationships between variables. Examples of descriptive studies include case reports, case series, and cross-sectional surveys (please note that cross-sectional surveys may be analytical studies as well – this will be discussed in the next article in this series). Examples of descriptive studies include a survey of dietary habits among pregnant women or a case series of patients with an unusual reaction to a drug.

Analytical studies attempt to test a hypothesis and establish causal relationships between variables. In these studies, the researcher assesses the effect of an exposure (or intervention) on an outcome. As described earlier, analytical studies can be observational (if the exposure is naturally determined) or interventional (if the researcher actively administers the intervention).

Directionality of study designs

Based on the direction of inquiry, study designs may be classified as forward-direction or backward-direction. In forward-direction studies, the researcher starts with determining the exposure to a risk factor and then assesses whether the outcome occurs at a future time point. This design is known as a cohort study. For example, a researcher can follow a group of smokers and a group of nonsmokers to determine the incidence of lung cancer in each. In backward-direction studies, the researcher begins by determining whether the outcome is present (cases vs. noncases [also called controls]) and then traces the presence of prior exposure to a risk factor. These are known as case–control studies. For example, a researcher identifies a group of normal-weight babies and a group of low-birth weight babies and then asks the mothers about their dietary habits during the index pregnancy.

Prospective versus retrospective study designs

The terms “prospective” and “retrospective” refer to the timing of the research in relation to the development of the outcome. In retrospective studies, the outcome of interest has already occurred (or not occurred – e.g., in controls) in each individual by the time s/he is enrolled, and the data are collected either from records or by asking participants to recall exposures. There is no follow-up of participants. By contrast, in prospective studies, the outcome (and sometimes even the exposure or intervention) has not occurred when the study starts and participants are followed up over a period of time to determine the occurrence of outcomes. Typically, most cohort studies are prospective studies (though there may be retrospective cohorts), whereas case–control studies are retrospective studies. An interventional study has to be, by definition, a prospective study since the investigator determines the exposure for each study participant and then follows them to observe outcomes.

The terms “prospective” versus “retrospective” studies can be confusing. Let us think of an investigator who starts a case–control study. To him/her, the process of enrolling cases and controls over a period of several months appears prospective. Hence, the use of these terms is best avoided. Or, at the very least, one must be clear that the terms relate to work flow for each individual study participant, and not to the study as a whole.

Classification of study designs

Figure 1 depicts a simple classification of research study designs. The Centre for Evidence-based Medicine has put forward a useful three-point algorithm which can help determine the design of a research study from its methods section:[ 1 ]

Classification of research study designs

• Does the study describe the characteristics of a sample or does it attempt to analyze (or draw inferences about) the relationship between two variables? – If no, then it is a descriptive study, and if yes, it is an analytical (inferential) study
• If analytical, did the investigator determine the exposure? – If no, it is an observational study, and if yes, it is an experimental study
• If observational, when was the outcome determined? – at the start of the study (case–control study), at the end of a period of follow-up (cohort study), or simultaneously (cross sectional).

In the next few pieces in the series, we will discuss various study designs in greater detail.

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Research Plan

Define how to conduct a research activity by writing the protocol before starting., applied for.

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Research Protocol

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Hypothesis Generation

Interview Guide

Diary Study

The research plan is a document that clarifies how to approach the research, touching upon research goals, selected methodologies, types of participants and tools used, timeline and locations. This planning activity needs to be done upfront, before starting the actual research, and help maximizing the effort and modeling the activities in the best way possible, according to the specific research purpose. The plan becomes even more important when the research requires to travel in the field, or coordinate different teams in various locations.

Design the research and explain the approach to other team members or stakeholders.

remember to

Include debriefing sessions in the schedule in order to make the work effective and avoid team burnout.

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6.3 Steps in a Successful Marketing Research Plan

Learning outcomes.

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

• 1 Identify and describe the steps in a marketing research plan.
• 2 Discuss the different types of data research.
• 3 Explain how data is analyzed.
• 4 Discuss the importance of effective research reports.

Define the Problem

There are seven steps to a successful marketing research project (see Figure 6.3 ). Each step will be explained as we investigate how a marketing research project is conducted.

The first step, defining the problem, is often a realization that more information is needed in order to make a data-driven decision. Problem definition is the realization that there is an issue that needs to be addressed. An entrepreneur may be interested in opening a small business but must first define the problem that is to be investigated. A marketing research problem in this example is to discover the needs of the community and also to identify a potentially successful business venture.

Many times, researchers define a research question or objectives in this first step. Objectives of this research study could include: identify a new business that would be successful in the community in question, determine the size and composition of a target market for the business venture, and collect any relevant primary and secondary data that would support such a venture. At this point, the definition of the problem may be “Why are cat owners not buying our new cat toy subscription service?”

Additionally, during this first step we would want to investigate our target population for research. This is similar to a target market, as it is the group that comprises the population of interest for the study. In order to have a successful research outcome, the researcher should start with an understanding of the problem in the current situational environment.

Develop the Research Plan

Step two is to develop the research plan. What type of research is necessary to meet the established objectives of the first step? How will this data be collected? Additionally, what is the time frame of the research and budget to consider? If you must have information in the next week, a different plan would be implemented than in a situation where several months were allowed. These are issues that a researcher should address in order to meet the needs identified.

Research is often classified as coming from one of two types of data: primary and secondary. Primary data is unique information that is collected by the specific researcher with the current project in mind. This type of research doesn’t currently exist until it is pulled together for the project. Examples of primary data collection include survey, observation, experiment, or focus group data that is gathered for the current project.

Secondary data is any research that was completed for another purpose but can be used to help inform the research process. Secondary data comes in many forms and includes census data, journal articles, previously collected survey or focus group data of related topics, and compiled company data. Secondary data may be internal, such as the company’s sales records for a previous quarter, or external, such as an industry report of all related product sales. Syndicated data , a type of external secondary data, is available through subscription services and is utilized by many marketers. As you can see in Table 6.1 , primary and secondary data features are often opposite—the positive aspects of primary data are the negative side of secondary data.

There are four research types that can be used: exploratory, descriptive, experimental, and ethnographic research designs (see Figure 6.4 ). Each type has specific formats of data that can be collected. Qualitative research can be shared through words, descriptions, and open-ended comments. Qualitative data gives context but cannot be reduced to a statistic. Qualitative data examples are categorical and include case studies, diary accounts, interviews, focus groups, and open-ended surveys. By comparison, quantitative data is data that can be reduced to number of responses. The number of responses to each answer on a multiple-choice question is quantitative data. Quantitative data is numerical and includes things like age, income, group size, and height.

Exploratory research is usually used when additional general information in desired about a topic. When in the initial steps of a new project, understanding the landscape is essential, so exploratory research helps the researcher to learn more about the general nature of the industry. Exploratory research can be collected through focus groups, interviews, and review of secondary data. When examining an exploratory research design, the best use is when your company hopes to collect data that is generally qualitative in nature. 7

For instance, if a company is considering a new service for registered users but is not quite sure how well the new service will be received or wants to gain clarity of exactly how customers may use a future service, the company can host a focus group. Focus groups and interviews will be examined later in the chapter. The insights collected during the focus group can assist the company when designing the service, help to inform promotional campaign options, and verify that the service is going to be a viable option for the company.

Descriptive research design takes a bigger step into collection of data through primary research complemented by secondary data. Descriptive research helps explain the market situation and define an “opinion, attitude, or behavior” of a group of consumers, employees, or other interested groups. 8 The most common method of deploying a descriptive research design is through the use of a survey. Several types of surveys will be defined later in this chapter. Descriptive data is quantitative in nature, meaning the data can be distilled into a statistic, such as in a table or chart.

Again, descriptive data is helpful in explaining the current situation. In the opening example of LEGO , the company wanted to describe the situation regarding children’s use of its product. In order to gather a large group of opinions, a survey was created. The data that was collected through this survey allowed the company to measure the existing perceptions of parents so that alterations could be made to future plans for the company.

Experimental research , also known as causal research , helps to define a cause-and-effect relationship between two or more factors. This type of research goes beyond a correlation to determine which feature caused the reaction. Researchers generally use some type of experimental design to determine a causal relationship. An example is A/B testing, a situation where one group of research participants, group A, is exposed to one treatment and then compared to the group B participants, who experience a different situation. An example might be showing two different television commercials to a panel of consumers and then measuring the difference in perception of the product. Another example would be to have two separate packaging options available in different markets. This research would answer the question “Does one design sell better than the other?” Comparing that to the sales in each market would be part of a causal research study. 9

The final method of collecting data is through an ethnographic design. Ethnographic research is conducted in the field by watching people interact in their natural environment. For marketing research, ethnographic designs help to identify how a product is used, what actions are included in a selection, or how the consumer interacts with the product. 10

Examples of ethnographic research would be to observe how a consumer uses a particular product, such as baking soda. Although many people buy baking soda, its uses are vast. So are they using it as a refrigerator deodorizer, a toothpaste, to polish a belt buckle, or to use in baking a cake?

Select the Data Collection Method

Data collection is the systematic gathering of information that addresses the identified problem. What is the best method to do that? Picking the right method of collecting data requires that the researcher understand the target population and the design picked in the previous step. There is no perfect method; each method has both advantages and disadvantages, so it’s essential that the researcher understand the target population of the research and the research objectives in order to pick the best option.

Sometimes the data desired is best collected by watching the actions of consumers. For instance, how many cars pass a specific billboard in a day? What website led a potential customer to the company’s website? When are consumers most likely to use the snack vending machines at work? What time of day has the highest traffic on a social media post? What is the most streamed television program this week? Observational research is the collecting of data based on actions taken by those observed. Many data observations do not require the researched individuals to participate in the data collection effort to be highly valuable. Some observation requires an individual to watch and record the activities of the target population through personal observations .

Unobtrusive observation happens when those being observed aren’t aware that they are being watched. An example of an unobtrusive observation would be to watch how shoppers interact with a new stuffed animal display by using a one-way mirror. Marketers can identify which products were handled more often while also determining which were ignored.

Other methods can use technology to collect the data instead. Instances of mechanical observation include the use of vehicle recorders, which count the number of vehicles that pass a specific location. Computers can also assess the number of shoppers who enter a store, the most popular entry point for train station commuters, or the peak time for cars to park in a parking garage.

When you want to get a more in-depth response from research participants, one method is to complete a one-on-one interview . One-on-one interviews allow the researcher to ask specific questions that match the respondent’s unique perspective as well as follow-up questions that piggyback on responses already completed. An interview allows the researcher to have a deeper understanding of the needs of the respondent, which is another strength of this type of data collection. The downside of personal interviews it that a discussion can be very time-consuming and results in only one respondent’s answers. Therefore, in order to get a large sample of respondents, the interview method may not be the most efficient method.

Taking the benefits of an interview and applying them to a small group of people is the design of a focus group . A focus group is a small number of people, usually 8 to 12, who meet the sample requirements. These individuals together are asked a series of questions where they are encouraged to build upon each other’s responses, either by agreeing or disagreeing with the other group members. Focus groups are similar to interviews in that they allow the researcher, through a moderator, to get more detailed information from a small group of potential customers (see Figure 6.5 ).

Link to Learning

Focus groups.

Focus groups are a common method for gathering insights into consumer thinking and habits. Companies will use this information to develop or shift their initiatives. The best way to understand a focus group is to watch a few examples or explanations. TED-Ed has this video that explains how focus groups work.

You might be asking when it is best to use a focus group or a survey. Learn the differences, the pros and cons of each, and the specific types of questions you ask in both situations in this article .

Preparing for a focus group is critical to success. It requires knowing the material and questions while also managing the group of people. Watch this video to learn more about how to prepare for a focus group and the types of things to be aware of.

One of the benefits of a focus group over individual interviews is that synergy can be generated when a participant builds on another’s ideas. Additionally, for the same amount of time, a researcher can hear from multiple respondents instead of just one. 11 Of course, as with every method of data collection, there are downsides to a focus group as well. Focus groups have the potential to be overwhelmed by one or two aggressive personalities, and the format can discourage more reserved individuals from speaking up. Finally, like interviews, the responses in a focus group are qualitative in nature and are difficult to distill into an easy statistic or two.

Combining a variety of questions on one instrument is called a survey or questionnaire . Collecting primary data is commonly done through surveys due to their versatility. A survey allows the researcher to ask the same set of questions of a large group of respondents. Response rates of surveys are calculated by dividing the number of surveys completed by the total number attempted. Surveys are flexible and can collect a variety of quantitative and qualitative data. Questions can include simplified yes or no questions, select all that apply, questions that are on a scale, or a variety of open-ended types of questions. There are four types of surveys (see Table 6.2 ) we will cover, each with strengths and weaknesses defined.

Let’s start off with mailed surveys —surveys that are sent to potential respondents through a mail service. Mailed surveys used to be more commonly used due to the ability to reach every household. In some instances, a mailed survey is still the best way to collect data. For example, every 10 years the United States conducts a census of its population (see Figure 6.6 ). The first step in that data collection is to send every household a survey through the US Postal Service (USPS). The benefit is that respondents can complete and return the survey at their convenience. The downside of mailed surveys are expense and timeliness of responses. A mailed survey requires postage, both when it is sent to the recipient and when it is returned. That, along with the cost of printing, paper, and both sending and return envelopes, adds up quickly. Additionally, physically mailing surveys takes time. One method of reducing cost is to send with bulk-rate postage, but that slows down the delivery of the survey. Also, because of the convenience to the respondent, completed surveys may be returned several weeks after being sent. Finally, some mailed survey data must be manually entered into the analysis software, which can cause delays or issues due to entry errors.

Phone surveys are completed during a phone conversation with the respondent. Although the traditional phone survey requires a data collector to talk with the participant, current technology allows for computer-assisted voice surveys or surveys to be completed by asking the respondent to push a specific button for each potential answer. Phone surveys are time intensive but allow the respondent to ask questions and the surveyor to request additional information or clarification on a question if warranted. Phone surveys require the respondent to complete the survey simultaneously with the collector, which is a limitation as there are restrictions for when phone calls are allowed. According to Telephone Consumer Protection Act , approved by Congress in 1991, no calls can be made prior to 8:00 a.m. or after 9:00 p.m. in the recipient’s time zone. 12 Many restrictions are outlined in this original legislation and have been added to since due to ever-changing technology.

In-person surveys are when the respondent and data collector are physically in the same location. In-person surveys allow the respondent to share specific information, ask questions of the surveyor, and follow up on previous answers. Surveys collected through this method can take place in a variety of ways: through door-to-door collection, in a public location, or at a person’s workplace. Although in-person surveys are time intensive and require more labor to collect data than some other methods, in some cases it’s the best way to collect the required data. In-person surveys conducted through a door-to-door method is the follow-up used for the census if respondents do not complete the mailed survey. One of the downsides of in-person surveys is the reluctance of potential respondents to stop their current activity and answer questions. Furthermore, people may not feel comfortable sharing private or personal information during a face-to-face conversation.

Electronic surveys are sent or collected through digital means and is an opportunity that can be added to any of the above methods as well as some new delivery options. Surveys can be sent through email, and respondents can either reply to the email or open a hyperlink to an online survey (see Figure 6.7 ). Additionally, a letter can be mailed that asks members of the survey sample to log in to a website rather than to return a mailed response. Many marketers now use links, QR codes, or electronic devices to easily connect to a survey. Digitally collected data has the benefit of being less time intensive and is often a more economical way to gather and input responses than more manual methods. A survey that could take months to collect through the mail can be completed within a week through digital means.

Design the Sample

Although you might want to include every possible person who matches your target market in your research, it’s often not a feasible option, nor is it of value. If you did decide to include everyone, you would be completing a census of the population. Getting everyone to participate would be time-consuming and highly expensive, so instead marketers use a sample , whereby a portion of the whole is included in the research. It’s similar to the samples you might receive at the grocery store or ice cream shop; it isn’t a full serving, but it does give you a good taste of what the whole would be like.

So how do you know who should be included in the sample? Researchers identify parameters for their studies, called sample frames . A sample frame for one study may be college students who live on campus; for another study, it may be retired people in Dallas, Texas, or small-business owners who have fewer than 10 employees. The individual entities within the sampling frame would be considered a sampling unit . A sampling unit is each individual respondent that would be considered as matching the sample frame established by the research. If a researcher wants businesses to participate in a study, then businesses would be the sampling unit in that case.

The number of sampling units included in the research is the sample size . Many calculations can be conducted to indicate what the correct size of the sample should be. Issues to consider are the size of the population, the confidence level that the data represents the entire population, the ease of accessing the units in the frame, and the budget allocated for the research.

There are two main categories of samples: probability and nonprobability (see Figure 6.8 ). Probability samples are those in which every member of the sample has an identified likelihood of being selected. Several probability sample methods can be utilized. One probability sampling technique is called a simple random sample , where not only does every person have an identified likelihood of being selected to be in the sample, but every person also has an equal chance of exclusion. An example of a simple random sample would be to put the names of all members of a group into a hat and simply draw out a specific number to be included. You could say a raffle would be a good example of a simple random sample.

Another probability sample type is a stratified random sample , where the population is divided into groups by category and then a random sample of each category is selected to participate. For instance, if you were conducting a study of college students from your school and wanted to make sure you had all grade levels included, you might take the names of all students and split them into different groups by grade level—freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior. Then, from those categories, you would draw names out of each of the pools, or strata.

A nonprobability sample is a situation in which each potential member of the sample has an unknown likelihood of being selected in the sample. Research findings that are from a nonprobability sample cannot be applied beyond the sample. Several examples of nonprobability sampling are available to researchers and include two that we will look at more closely: convenience sampling and judgment sampling.

The first nonprobability sampling technique is a convenience sample . Just like it sounds, a convenience sample is when the researcher finds a group through a nonscientific method by picking potential research participants in a convenient manner. An example might be to ask other students in a class you are taking to complete a survey that you are doing for a class assignment or passing out surveys at a basketball game or theater performance.

A judgment sample is a type of nonprobability sample that allows the researcher to determine if they believe the individual meets the criteria set for the sample frame to complete the research. For instance, you may be interested in researching mothers, so you sit outside a toy store and ask an individual who is carrying a baby to participate.

Collect the Data

Now that all the plans have been established, the instrument has been created, and the group of participants has been identified, it is time to start collecting data. As explained earlier in this chapter, data collection is the process of gathering information from a variety of sources that will satisfy the research objectives defined in step one. Data collection can be as simple as sending out an email with a survey link enclosed or as complex as an experiment with hundreds of consumers. The method of collection directly influences the length of this process. Conducting personal interviews or completing an experiment, as previously mentioned, can add weeks or months to the research process, whereas sending out an electronic survey may allow a researcher to collect the necessary data in a few days. 13

Analyze and Interpret the Data

Once the data has been collected, the process of analyzing it may begin. Data analysis is the distillation of the information into a more understandable and actionable format. The analysis itself can take many forms, from the use of basic statistics to a more comprehensive data visualization process. First, let’s discuss some basic statistics that can be used to represent data.

The first is the mean of quantitative data. A mean is often defined as the arithmetic average of values. The formula is:

A common use of the mean calculation is with exam scores. Say, for example, you have earned the following scores on your marketing exams: 72, 85, 68, and 77. To find the mean, you would add up the four scores for a total of 302. Then, in order to generate a mean, that number needs to be divided by the number of exam scores included, which is 4. The mean would be 302 divided by 4, for a mean test score of 75.5. Understanding the mean can help to determine, with one number, the weight of a particular value.

Another commonly used statistic is median. The median is often referred to as the middle number. To generate a median, all the numeric answers are placed in order, and the middle number is the median. Median is a common statistic when identifying the income level of a specific geographic region. 14 For instance, the median household income for Albuquerque, New Mexico, between 2015 and 2019 was $52,911. 15 In this case, there are just as many people with an income above the amount as there are below.

Mode is another statistic that is used to represent data of all types, as it can be used with quantitative or qualitative data and represents the most frequent answer. Eye color, hair color, and vehicle color can all be presented with a mode statistic. Additionally, some researchers expand on the concept of mode and present the frequency of all responses, not just identifying the most common response. Data such as this can easily be presented in a frequency graph, 16 such as the one in Figure 6.9 .

Additionally, researchers use other analyses to represent the data rather than to present the entirety of each response. For example, maybe the relationship between two values is important to understand. In this case, the researcher may share the data as a cross tabulation (see Figure 6.10 ). Below is the same data as above regarding social media use cross tabulated with gender—as you can see, the data is more descriptive when you can distinguish between the gender identifiers and how much time is spent per day on social media.

Not all data can be presented in a graphical format due to the nature of the information. Sometimes with qualitative methods of data collection, the responses cannot be distilled into a simple statistic or graph. In that case, the use of quotations, otherwise known as verbatims , can be used. These are direct statements presented by the respondents. Often you will see a verbatim statement when reading a movie or book review. The critic’s statements are used in part or in whole to represent their feelings about the newly released item.

Infographics

As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. For this reason, research results are often shown in a graphical format in which data can be taken in quickly, called an infographic .

Check out this infographic on what components make for a good infographic. As you can see, a good infographic needs four components: data, design, a story, and the ability to share it with others. Without all four pieces, it is not as valuable a resource as it could be. The ultimate infographic is represented as the intersection of all four.

Infographics are particularly advantageous online. Refer to this infographic on why they are beneficial to use online .

Prepare the Research Report

The marketing research process concludes by sharing the generated data and makes recommendations for future actions. What starts as simple data must be interpreted into an analysis. All information gathered should be conveyed in order to make decisions for future marketing actions. One item that is often part of the final step is to discuss areas that may have been missed with the current project or any area of further study identified while completing it. Without the final step of the marketing research project, the first six steps are without value. It is only after the information is shared, through a formal presentation or report, that those recommendations can be implemented and improvements made. The first six steps are used to generate information, while the last is to initiate action. During this last step is also when an evaluation of the process is conducted. If this research were to be completed again, how would we do it differently? Did the right questions get answered with the survey questions posed to the respondents? Follow-up on some of these key questions can lead to additional research, a different study, or further analysis of data collected.

Methods of Quantifying Marketing Research

One of the ways of sharing information gained through marketing research is to quantify the research . Quantifying the research means to take a variety of data and compile into a quantity that is more easily understood. This is a simple process if you want to know how many people attended a basketball game, but if you want to quantify the number of students who made a positive comment on a questionnaire, it can be a little more complicated. Researchers have a variety of methods to collect and then share these different scores. Below are some of the most common types used in business.

Is a customer aware of a product, brand, or company? What is meant by awareness? Awareness in the context of marketing research is when a consumer is familiar with the product, brand, or company. It does not assume that the consumer has tried the product or has purchased it. Consumers are just aware. That is a measure that many businesses find valuable. There are several ways to measure awareness. For instance, the first type of awareness is unaided awareness . This type of awareness is when no prompts for a product, brand, or company are given. If you were collecting information on fast-food restaurants, you might ask a respondent to list all the fast-food restaurants that serve a chicken sandwich. Aided awareness would be providing a list of products, brands, or companies and the respondent selects from the list. For instance, if you give a respondent a list of fast-food restaurants and ask them to mark all the locations with a chicken sandwich, you are collecting data through an aided method. Collecting these answers helps a company determine how the business location compares to those of its competitors. 17

Customer Satisfaction (CSAT)

Have you ever been asked to complete a survey at the end of a purchase? Many businesses complete research on buying, returning, or other customer service processes. A customer satisfaction score , also known as CSAT, is a measure of how satisfied customers are with the product, brand, or service. A CSAT score is usually on a scale of 0 to 100 percent. 18 But what constitutes a “good” CSAT score? Although what is identified as good can vary by industry, normally anything in the range from 75 to 85 would be considered good. Of course, a number higher than 85 would be considered exceptional. 19

Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) and Customer Effort Score (CES)

Other metrics often used are a customer acquisition cost (CAC) and customer effort score (CES). How much does it cost a company to gain customers? That’s the purpose of calculating the customer acquisition cost. To calculate the customer acquisition cost , a company would need to total all expenses that were accrued to gain new customers. This would include any advertising, public relations, social media postings, etc. When a total cost is determined, it is divided by the number of new customers gained through this campaign.

The final score to discuss is the customer effort score , also known as a CES. The CES is a “survey used to measure the ease of service experience with an organization.” 20 Companies that are easy to work with have a better CES than a company that is notorious for being difficult. An example would be to ask a consumer about the ease of making a purchase online by incorporating a one-question survey after a purchase is confirmed. If a number of responses come back negative or slightly negative, the company will realize that it needs to investigate and develop a more user-friendly process.

Knowledge Check

It’s time to check your knowledge on the concepts presented in this section. Refer to the Answer Key at the end of the book for feedback.

• Defining the problem
• Developing the research plan
• Selecting a data collection method
• Designing the sample
• you are able to send it to all households in an area
• it is inexpensive
• responses are automatically loaded into the software
• the data comes in quickly
• Primary data
• Secondary data
• Secondary and primary data
• Professional data
• It shows how respondents answered two variables in relation to each other and can help determine patterns by different groups of respondents.
• By presenting the data in the form of a picture, the information is easier for the reader to understand.
• It is an easy way to see how often one answer is selected by the respondents.
• This analysis can used to present interview or focus group data.

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Home » How To Write A Research Proposal – Step-by-Step [Template]

How To Write A Research Proposal – Step-by-Step [Template]

Table of Contents

How To Write a Research Proposal

Writing a Research proposal involves several steps to ensure a well-structured and comprehensive document. Here is an explanation of each step:

1. Title and Abstract

• Choose a concise and descriptive title that reflects the essence of your research.
• Write an abstract summarizing your research question, objectives, methodology, and expected outcomes. It should provide a brief overview of your proposal.

2. Introduction:

• Provide an introduction to your research topic, highlighting its significance and relevance.
• Clearly state the research problem or question you aim to address.
• Discuss the background and context of the study, including previous research in the field.

3. Research Objectives

• Outline the specific objectives or aims of your research. These objectives should be clear, achievable, and aligned with the research problem.

4. Literature Review:

• Conduct a comprehensive review of relevant literature and studies related to your research topic.
• Summarize key findings, identify gaps, and highlight how your research will contribute to the existing knowledge.

5. Methodology:

• Describe the research design and methodology you plan to employ to address your research objectives.
• Explain the data collection methods, instruments, and analysis techniques you will use.
• Justify why the chosen methods are appropriate and suitable for your research.

6. Timeline:

• Create a timeline or schedule that outlines the major milestones and activities of your research project.
• Break down the research process into smaller tasks and estimate the time required for each task.

7. Resources:

• Identify the resources needed for your research, such as access to specific databases, equipment, or funding.
• Explain how you will acquire or utilize these resources to carry out your research effectively.

8. Ethical Considerations:

• Discuss any ethical issues that may arise during your research and explain how you plan to address them.
• If your research involves human subjects, explain how you will ensure their informed consent and privacy.

9. Expected Outcomes and Significance:

• Clearly state the expected outcomes or results of your research.
• Highlight the potential impact and significance of your research in advancing knowledge or addressing practical issues.

10. References:

• Provide a list of all the references cited in your proposal, following a consistent citation style (e.g., APA, MLA).

11. Appendices:

• Include any additional supporting materials, such as survey questionnaires, interview guides, or data analysis plans.

Research Proposal Format

The format of a research proposal may vary depending on the specific requirements of the institution or funding agency. However, the following is a commonly used format for a research proposal:

1. Title Page:

• Include the title of your research proposal, your name, your affiliation or institution, and the date.

2. Abstract:

• Provide a brief summary of your research proposal, highlighting the research problem, objectives, methodology, and expected outcomes.

3. Introduction:

• Introduce the research topic and provide background information.
• State the research problem or question you aim to address.
• Explain the significance and relevance of the research.
• Review relevant literature and studies related to your research topic.
• Summarize key findings and identify gaps in the existing knowledge.
• Explain how your research will contribute to filling those gaps.

5. Research Objectives:

• Clearly state the specific objectives or aims of your research.
• Ensure that the objectives are clear, focused, and aligned with the research problem.

6. Methodology:

• Describe the research design and methodology you plan to use.
• Explain the data collection methods, instruments, and analysis techniques.
• Justify why the chosen methods are appropriate for your research.

7. Timeline:

8. Resources:

• Explain how you will acquire or utilize these resources effectively.

9. Ethical Considerations:

• If applicable, explain how you will ensure informed consent and protect the privacy of research participants.

10. Expected Outcomes and Significance:

11. References:

12. Appendices:

Research Proposal Template

Here’s a template for a research proposal:

1. Introduction:

2. Literature Review:

3. Research Objectives:

4. Methodology:

5. Timeline:

6. Resources:

7. Ethical Considerations:

8. Expected Outcomes and Significance:

9. References:

10. Appendices:

Research Proposal Sample

Title: The Impact of Online Education on Student Learning Outcomes: A Comparative Study

1. Introduction

Online education has gained significant prominence in recent years, especially due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This research proposal aims to investigate the impact of online education on student learning outcomes by comparing them with traditional face-to-face instruction. The study will explore various aspects of online education, such as instructional methods, student engagement, and academic performance, to provide insights into the effectiveness of online learning.

2. Objectives

The main objectives of this research are as follows:

• To compare student learning outcomes between online and traditional face-to-face education.
• To examine the factors influencing student engagement in online learning environments.
• To assess the effectiveness of different instructional methods employed in online education.
• To identify challenges and opportunities associated with online education and suggest recommendations for improvement.

3. Methodology

3.1 Study Design

This research will utilize a mixed-methods approach to gather both quantitative and qualitative data. The study will include the following components:

3.2 Participants

The research will involve undergraduate students from two universities, one offering online education and the other providing face-to-face instruction. A total of 500 students (250 from each university) will be selected randomly to participate in the study.

3.3 Data Collection

The research will employ the following data collection methods:

• Quantitative: Pre- and post-assessments will be conducted to measure students’ learning outcomes. Data on student demographics and academic performance will also be collected from university records.
• Qualitative: Focus group discussions and individual interviews will be conducted with students to gather their perceptions and experiences regarding online education.

3.4 Data Analysis

Quantitative data will be analyzed using statistical software, employing descriptive statistics, t-tests, and regression analysis. Qualitative data will be transcribed, coded, and analyzed thematically to identify recurring patterns and themes.

4. Ethical Considerations

The study will adhere to ethical guidelines, ensuring the privacy and confidentiality of participants. Informed consent will be obtained, and participants will have the right to withdraw from the study at any time.

5. Significance and Expected Outcomes

This research will contribute to the existing literature by providing empirical evidence on the impact of online education on student learning outcomes. The findings will help educational institutions and policymakers make informed decisions about incorporating online learning methods and improving the quality of online education. Moreover, the study will identify potential challenges and opportunities related to online education and offer recommendations for enhancing student engagement and overall learning outcomes.

6. Timeline

The proposed research will be conducted over a period of 12 months, including data collection, analysis, and report writing.

The estimated budget for this research includes expenses related to data collection, software licenses, participant compensation, and research assistance. A detailed budget breakdown will be provided in the final research plan.

8. Conclusion

This research proposal aims to investigate the impact of online education on student learning outcomes through a comparative study with traditional face-to-face instruction. By exploring various dimensions of online education, this research will provide valuable insights into the effectiveness and challenges associated with online learning. The findings will contribute to the ongoing discourse on educational practices and help shape future strategies for maximizing student learning outcomes in online education settings.

About the author

Muhammad Hassan

Researcher, Academic Writer, Web developer

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• Published: 22 April 2024

The design and evaluation of gamified online role-play as a telehealth training strategy in dental education: an explanatory sequential mixed-methods study

• Chayanid Teerawongpairoj 1 ,
• Chanita Tantipoj 1 &
• Kawin Sipiyaruk 2  

Scientific Reports volume  14 , Article number:  9216 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

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To evaluate user perceptions and educational impact of gamified online role-play in teledentistry as well as to construct a conceptual framework highlighting how to design this interactive learning strategy, this research employed an explanatory sequential mixed-methods design. Participants were requested to complete self-perceived assessments toward confidence and awareness in teledentistry before and after participating in a gamified online role-play. They were also asked to complete a satisfaction questionnaire and participate in an in-depth interview to investigate their learning experience. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, paired sample t-test, one-way analysis of variance, and framework analysis. There were 18 participants who completed self-perceived assessments and satisfaction questionnaire, in which 12 of them participated in a semi-structured interview. There were statistically significant increases in self-perceived confidence and awareness after participating in the gamified online role-play ( P  < 0.001). In addition, the participants were likely to be satisfied with this learning strategy, where usefulness was perceived as the most positive aspect with a score of 4.44 out of 5, followed by ease of use (4.40) and enjoyment (4.03). The conceptual framework constructed from the qualitative findings has revealed five key elements in designing a gamified online role-play, including learner profile, learning settings, pedagogical components, interactive functions, and educational impact. The gamified online role-play has demonstrated its potential in improving self-perceived confidence and awareness in teledentistry. The conceptual framework developed in this research could be considered to design and implement a gamified online role-play in dental education. This research provides valuable evidence on the educational impact of gamified online role-play in teledentistry and how it could be designed and implemented in dental education. This information would be supportive for dental instructors or educators who are considering to implement teledentistry training in their practice.

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Introduction.

Telehealth has gained significant attention from various organization due to its potential to improve healthcare quality and accessibility 1 . It can be supportive in several aspects in healthcare, including medical and nursing services, to enhance continuous monitoring and follow-up 2 . Its adoption has increased substantially during the COVID-19 pandemic, aiming to provide convenient healthcare services 3 . Even though the COVID-19 outbreak has passed, many patients still perceive telehealth as an effective tool in reducing a number of visits and enhancing access to health care services 4 , 5 . This supports the use of telehealth in the post-COVID-19 era.

Teledentistry, a form of telehealth specific to dentistry, has been employed to improve access to dental services 6 . This system offers benefits ranging from online history taking, oral diagnosis, treatment monitoring, and interdisciplinary communication among dental professionals, enabling comprehensive and holistic treatment planning for patients 7 . Teledentistry can also reduce travel time and costs associated with dental appointments 8 , 9 , 10 . There is evidence that teledentistry serves as a valuable tool to enhance access to dental care for patients 11 . Additionally, in the context of long-term management in patients, telehealth has contributed to patient-centered care, by enhancing their surrounding environments 12 . Therefore, teledentistry should be emphasized as one of digital dentistry to enhance treatment quality.

Albeit the benefits of teledentistry, available evidence demonstrates challenges and concerns in the implementation of telehealth. Lack of awareness and knowledge in the use of telehealth can hinder the adoption of telehealth 13 . Legal issues and privacy concerns also emerge as significant challenges in telehealth use 14 . Moreover, online communication skills and technology literacy, including competency in using technological tools and applications, have been frequently reported as challenges in teledentistry 15 , 16 . Concerns regarding limitations stemming from the lack of physical examination are also significant 17 . These challenges and complexities may impact the accuracy of diagnosis and the security and confidentiality of patient information. Therefore, telehealth training for dental professionals emerges as essential prerequisites to effectively navigate the use of teledentistry, fostering confidence and competence in remote oral healthcare delivery.

The feasibility and practicality of telehealth in dental education present ongoing challenges and concerns. Given the limitations of teledentistry compared to face-to-face appointments, areas of training should encompass the telehealth system, online communication, technical issues, confidentiality concerns, and legal compliance 18 . However, there is currently no educational strategy that effectively demonstrates the importance and application of teledentistry 19 . A role-play can be considered as a teaching strategy where learners play a role that closely resembles real-life scenarios. A well-organized storytelling allows learner to manage problematic situations, leading to the development of problem-solving skill 20 , 21 . When compared to traditional lecture-based learning, learners can also enhance their communication skills through conversations with simulated patients 22 , 23 . In addition, they could express their thoughts and emotions during a role-play through experiential learning 20 , 24 , 25 . Role-play through video teleconference would be considered as a distance learning tool for training dental professionals to effectively use teledentistry.

While there have been studies supporting online role-play as an effective learning tool due to its impact of flexibility, engagement, and anonymity 26 , 27 , no evidence has been yet reported whether or not this learning strategy could have potential for training teledentistry. Given the complicated issues in telehealth, role-play for training teledentistry should incorporate different learning aspects compared to face-to-face communication with patients. In addition, game components have proved to be supportive in dental education 28 , 29 . Consequently, this research aimed to evaluate user perceptions and educational impact of gamified online role-play to enhance learner competence and awareness in using teledentistry as well as to construct a conceptual framework highlighting how to design and implement this interactive learning strategy. This research would introduce and promote the design and implementation of gamified online role-play as a learning tool for training teledentistry. To achieve the aim, specific objectives were established as follows:

1. To design a gamified online role-play for teledentistry training.

2. To investigate learner perceptions regarding their confidence and awareness in the use of teledentistry after completing the gamified online role-play.

3. To explore user satisfactions toward the use of gamified online role-play.

4. To develop a conceptual framework for designing and implementing a gamified online role-play for teledentistry training.

Materials and methods

Research design.

This research employed an explanatory sequential mixed-methods design, where a quantitative phase was firstly performed followed by a qualitative phase 30 , 31 . The quantitative phase was conducted based on pre-experimental research using one-group pretest–posttest design. Participants were requested to complete self-perceived assessments toward confidence and awareness in the use of teledentistry before and after participating in a gamified online role-play. They were also asked to complete a satisfaction questionnaire in using a gamified online role-play for training teledentistry. The qualitative phase was afterwards conducted to explore in-depth information through semi-structured interviews, in order to enhance an understanding of the quantitative phase, and to develop a conceptual framework for designing and implementing an online role-play for training teledentistry.

A gamified online role-play for training teledentistry

A gamified online role-play was designed and developed by the author team. To ensure its educational impact was significant, the expected learning outcomes were formulated based on insights gathered from a survey with experienced instructors from the Department of Advanced General Dentistry, Faculty of Dentistry, Mahidol University. These learning outcomes covered areas of online communication skill, technical issues, technology literacy of patients, limitations of physical examination, and privacy concerns of personal information. Learning scenario and instructional content were subsequently designed to support learners in achieving the expected learning outcomes, with their alignments validated by three experts in dental education. A professional actress underwent training to role-play a patient with a dental problem, requesting a virtual consultation or teledentistry. Before conducting data collection, the simulated patient was required to undergo a training and adjusting process with a pilot group under supervision of two experts in advanced general dentistry and dental education who had experience with teledentistry to ensure realism and completeness of learning content.

According to the role-play scenario, an actress was assigned to portray a 34-year-old female with chief complaints of pain around both ears, accompanied by difficulties in chewing food due to tooth loss. She was instructed to express her anxiety and nervousness about addressing these issues. Additionally, it was specified that she could not take a day off from work during this period. Despite this constraint, she required a dental consultation to receive advice for initial self-care, as her symptoms significantly impacted her daily life. Furthermore, she was designated to encounter difficulties with the technological use of the teledentistry platform.

The game components were implemented into the online role-play to enhance motivation and engagement. As challenge and randomness appear to be game elements 32 , 33 , five challenge cards were designed and embedded into the online role-play, where a participant was asked to randomly select one of them before interacting with the simulated patient. The challenging situations were potential technical concerns which could occur frequently during video conferencing, including network problems (e.g., internet disconnection and poor connection) and audiovisual quality issues. The participants were blinded to the selected card, while it was revealed to only the simulated patient. The challenging conditions were mimicked by the organizers and simulated patient, allowing learners to deal with difficulties. Therefore, both challenges and randomness were implemented into this learning intervention not only to create learning situations but also to enhance engagement.

A feedback system was carefully considered and implemented into the gamified online role-play. Immediate feedback appears to be a key feature of interactive learning environments 29 . Formative feedback was instantly delivered to learners through verbal and non-verbal communication, including words (content), tone of voice, facial expressions, and gestures of the simulated patient. This type of feedback allowed participants to reflect on whether or not their inputs were appropriate, enabling them to learn from their mistakes, or so-called the role of failure 34 . Summative feedback was also provided at the end of the role-play through a reflection from a simulated patient and suggestions from an instructor.

Learners were able to interact with the simulated patient using an online meeting room by Cisco WebEx. According to the research setting (Fig.  1 ), a learner was asked to participate in the role-play activity using a computer laptop in a soundproof room, while a simulated patient was arranged in a prepared location showing her residential environment. The researcher and instructor also joined the online meeting room and observed the interaction between the simulated patient and learners during the role-play activity whether or not all necessary information was accurately obtained. The role-play activity took around 30 minutes.

A diagram demonstrating the setting of gamified online role-play.

Research participants

Quantitative phase.

The participants in this research were postgraduate students from the Residency Training Program in Advanced General Dentistry at Mahidol University Faculty of Dentistry in academic year 2022, using a volunteer sampling. This program was selected because its objective was to develop graduates capable of integrating competencies from various dental disciplines to provide comprehensive dental care for both normal patients and those with special needs. Therefore, teledentistry should be a supportive component of their service. The recruitment procedure involved posting a recruiting text in the group chat of the residents. Those interested in participating in the research were informed to directly contact us to request more information, and they were subsequently allowed to decide whether they would like to participate. This approach ensured that participation was voluntary. Although there could be a non-response bias within this non-probability sampling technique 35 , it was considered as appropriate for this study, as participants were willing to have contribution in the learning activity, and therefore accurate and reliable research findings with no dropout could be achieved 36 .

The inclusion and exclusion criteria were established to determine the eligibility of prospective participants for this research. This study included postgraduate students from Years 1 to 3 in the Residency Training Program in Advanced General Dentistry at Mahidol University Faculty of Dentistry, enrolled during the academic year 2022. They were also required to at least complete the first semester to be eligible for this research to ensure familiarity with comprehensive dental care. However, they were excluded if they had previous involvement in the pilot testing of the gamified online role-play or if they were not fluent in the Thai language. The sample size was determined using a formula for two dependent samples (comparing means) 37 . To detect a difference in self-perceived confidence and awareness between pre- and post-assessments at a power of 90% and a level of statistical significance of 1%, five participants were required. With an assumed dropout rate of 20%, the number of residents per year (Year 1–3) was set to be 6. Therefore, 18 residents were required for this research.

Qualitative phase

The participants from the quantitative phase were selected for semi-structured interviews using a purposive sampling. This sampling method involved the selection of information-rich participants based on specific criteria deemed relevant to the research objective and to ensure a diverse representation of perspectives and experiences within the sample group 38 . In this research, the information considered for the purposive sampling included demographic data (e.g., sex and year of study), along with self-perceived assessment scores. By incorporating perceptions from a variety of participants, a broad spectrum of insights from different experiences in comprehensive dental practice and diverse improvement levels in self-perceived confidence and awareness could inform the design and implementation of the training program effectively. The sample size for this phase was determined based on data saturation, wherein interviews continued until no new information or emerging themes were retrieved. This method ensured thorough exploration of the research topic and maximized the richness of the qualitative data obtained.

Outcome assessments

To evaluate the gamified online role-play, a triangular design approach was employed, enabling the researchers to compare the research outcomes from different assessment methods. In this research, self-perceived assessments (confidence and awareness) in teledentistry, satisfactions toward gamified online role-play, and learner experience were assessed to assure the quality and feasibility of the gamified online role-play.

Self-perceived confidence and awareness toward teledentistry

All participants were requested to rate their perceptions of teledentistry before and after participating in the gamified online role-play (Supplementary material 1 ). The self-perceived assessment was developed based on previous literature 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 . The assessment scores would inform whether or not the participants could improve their self-perceived confidence and awareness through a learning activity. The assessment consisted of two parts, which were (1) self-perceived confidence and (2) self-perceived awareness. Each part contained six items, which were similar between the pre- and post-assessments. All items were designed using a 5-point Likert scale, where 1 being ‘strongly disagree’ and 5 being ‘strongly agree’.

Satisfactions toward the gamified online role-play

All participants were asked to complete the satisfaction questionnaire after participating in the gamified online role-play, to investigate whether or not they felt satisfied with their learning (Supplementary material 2 ). The questionnaire was developed based on previous literature regarding gamification and role-play 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 . Most of the items were designed using a 5-point Likert scale, where 1 being ‘very dissatisfied’ and 5 being ‘very satisfied’. They were grouped into three aspects, which were (1) Perceived usefulness, (2) Perceived ease of use, and (3) Perceived enjoyment.

Learner experiences within the gamified online role-play

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with the purposively selected participants to gather in-depth information regarding their learning experiences within the gamified online role-play. This technique allowed researchers to ask additional interesting topics raised from the responses of participants. A topic guide for interviews were constructed based on the findings of previous literature 45 , 46 , 47 . The interview was conducted in a private room by a researcher who was trained in conducting qualitative research including interviews. The interview sessions took approximately 45–60 minutes, where all responses from participants were recorded using a digital audio recorder with their permission. The recorded audios were transcribed using a verbatim technique by a transcription service under a confidential agreement.

Validity and reliability of data collection tools

To enhance the quality of self-perceived assessment and satisfaction questionnaire, they were piloted and revised to assure their validity and reliability. According to the content validity, three experts in advanced general dentistry were asked to evaluate the questionnaire, where problematic items were iteratively revised until they achieved the index of item-objective congruence (IOC) higher than 0.5. To perform a test–retest reliability, the validated versions of both self-perceived assessment and satisfaction questionnaire were afterwards piloted in residents from other programs, and the data were analyzed using an intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC), where the values of all items were 0.7 or greater. The data from the first pilot completion of both data collection tools were analyzed using Cronbach’s alpha to ensure the internal consistency of all constructs. The problematic items were deleted to achieve the coefficient alpha of 0.7 or greater for all constructs, which was considered as acceptable internal consistency.

Data analysis

The quantitative data retrieved from self-perceived assessment and satisfaction questionnaire were analyzed with the Statistical Package for Social Sciences software (SPSS, version 29, IBM Corp.). Descriptive statistics were performed to present an overview of the data. The scores from pre- and post-assessments were analyzed using a paired sample t-test to evaluate whether or not the participants would better self-perceive their confidence and awareness in teledentistry after participating in the gamified online role-play. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was conducted to compare whether or not there were statistically significant differences in self-perceived assessment and satisfaction scores among the three academic years.

The qualitative data retrieved from semi-structured interviews were analyzed using a framework analysis, where its procedure involved transcription, familiarization with the interview data, coding, developing an analytical framework, indexing, charting, and data interpreting qualitative findings 48 . In this research, the initial codes had been pre-defined from previous literature and subsequently adjusted following the analysis of each transcript to develop an analytical framework (themes and subthemes), requiring several iterations until no additional codes emerged. Subsequently, the established categories and codes were applied consistently across all transcripts (indexing). The data from each transcript were then charted to develop a matrix, facilitating the management and summarization of qualitative findings. This method enabled the researchers to compare and contrast differences within the data and to identify connections between categories, thereby exploring their relationships and informing data interpretation.

The procedure of framework analysis necessitated a transparent process for data management and interpretation of emerging themes to ensure the robustness of research 49 . The transparency of this analytic approach enabled two researchers (C.Te. and K.S.) to independently analyze the qualitative data, and the emerging themes afterwards were discussed to obtain consensus among the researchers. This technique can be considered as a triangular approach to assure the intercoder reliability and internal validity of this research. The transparent process also allowed an external expert in dental education to verify the accuracy of the analysis. All emerging themes and the decision on data saturation were based on a discussion of all researchers until an agreement was made. NVivo (version 14, QSR International) was used to performed the qualitative data analysis. Subsequently, a conceptual framework was constructed to demonstrate emerging themes and subthemes together with their relationships.

Ethical consideration

The ethical approval for the study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of Faculty of Dentistry and Faculty of Pharmacy, Mahidol University on 29 th September 2022, the ethical approval number: MU-DT/PY-IRB 2022/049.2909. All methods were performed in accordance with the relevant guidelines and regulations. Although the data were not anonymous in nature as they contained identifiable data, they were coded prior to the analysis to assure confidentiality of participants.

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all participants.

There were 18 residents from Year 1 to 3 of the Residency Training Program in Advanced General Dentistry who participated in this research (six from each year). Of these, there were 14 females and 4 males. There was no participant dropout, as all of them completed all required tasks, including the pre- and post-perceived assessments, gamified online role-play, and satisfaction questionnaire. According to the purposive sampling, the participants from the quantitative phase were selected for semi-structured interviews by considering sex, year of study, and self-perceived assessment scores. Twelve students (ten females and two males) participated in semi-structured interviews, where their characteristics are presented in Table 1 .

Internal consistency of all constructs

The data collected from the research participants, in addition to the pilot samples, were analyzed with Cronbach’s alpha to confirm the internal consistency. The coefficient alpha of all constructs demonstrated high internal consistency, as demonstrated in Table 2 .

Self-perceived assessments toward confidence and awareness of teledentistry

There were statistically significant increases in the assessment scores of self-perceived confidence and awareness after participating in the gamified online role-play ( P  < 0.001). According to Table 3 , there was an increase in self-perceived confidence from 3.38 (SD = 0.68) for the pre-assessment to 4.22 (SD = 0.59) for the post-assessment ( P  < 0.001). The findings of self-perceived awareness also showed score improvement from 4.16 (SD = 0.48) to 4.55 (SD = 0.38) after interacting with the simulated patient ( P  < 0.001).

According to Fig.  2 , participants demonstrated a higher level of self-perceived assessments for both self-confidence and awareness in all aspects after participating in the gamified online role-play for teledentistry training.

Self-perceived assessments toward confidence and awareness of teledentistry.

When comparing the self-perceived assessment scores toward confidence and awareness in the use of teledentistry among the three years of study (Year 1–3), there were no statistically significant differences in the pre-assessment, post-assessment score, and score difference (Table 4 ).

Satisfactions toward the use of gamified online role-play

According to Fig.  3 , participants exhibited high levels of satisfaction with the use of gamified online role-play across all three aspects. The aspect of usefulness received the highest satisfaction rating with a score of 4.44 (SD = 0.23) out of 5, followed by ease of use and enjoyment, scoring 4.40 (SD = 0.23) and 4.03 (SD = 0.21), respectively. Particularly, participants expressed the highest satisfaction levels regarding the usefulness of gamified online role-play for identifying their role (Mean = 4.72, SD = 0.46) and developing problem-solving skills associated with teledentistry (Mean = 4.61, SD = 0.50). Additionally, they reported satisfaction with the learning sequence presented in the gamified online role-play (Mean = 4.61, SD = 0.50). However, participants did not strongly perceive that the format of the gamified online role-play could engage them with the learning task for an extended period (Mean = 3.72, SD = 0.83).

Satisfactions toward the use of gamified online role-play.

When comparing the satisfaction levels perceived by participants from different academic years (Table 5 ), no statistically significant differences were observed among the three groups for all three aspects ( P  > 0.05).

Following the framework analysis of qualitative data, there were five emerging themes, including: (1) learner profile, (2) learning settings of the gamified online role-play, (3) pedagogical components, (4) interactive functions, and (5) educational impact.

Theme 1: Learner profile

Learner experience and preferences appeared to have impact on how the participants perceived the use of gamified online role-play for teledentistry training. When learners preferred role-play or realized benefits of teledentistry, they were likely to support this learning intervention. In addition, they could have seen an overall picture of the assigned tasks before participating in this research.

“I had experience with a role-play activity when I was dental undergraduates, and I like this kind of learning where someone role-plays a patient with specific personalities in various contexts. This could be a reason why I felt interested to participate in this task (the gamified online role-play). I also believed that it would be supportive for my clinical practice.” Participant 12, Year 1, Female “Actually, I' have seen in several videos (about teledentistry), where dentists were teaching patients to perform self-examinations, such as checking their own mouth and taking pictures for consultations. Therefore, I could have thought about what I would experience during the activity (within the gamified online role-play).” Participant 8, Year 2, Female

Theme 2: Learning settings of the gamified online role-play

Subtheme 2.1: location.

Participants had agreed that the location for conducting a gamified online role-play should be in a private room without any disturbances, enabling learners to focus on the simulated patient. This could allow them to effectively communicate and understand of the needs of patient, leading to a better grasp of lesson content. In addition, the environments of both learners and simulated patient should be authentic to the learning quality.

“The room should be a private space without any disturbances. This will make us feel confident and engage in conversations with the simulated patient.” Participant 10, Year 1, Female “… simulating a realistic environment can engage me to interact with the simulated patient more effectively ...” Participant 8, Year 2, Female

Subtheme 2.2: Time allocated for the gamified online role-play

The time allocated for the gamified online role-play in this research was considered as appropriate, as participants believed that a 30-minutes period should be suitable to take information and afterwards give some advice to their patient. In addition, a 10-minutes discussion on how they interact with the patient could be supportive for participants to enhance their competencies in the use of teledentistry.

“… it would probably take about 20 minutes because we would need to gather a lot of information … it might need some time to request and gather various information … maybe another 10-15 minutes to provide some advice.” Participant 7, Year 1, Female “I think during the class … we could allocate around 30 minutes for role-play, … we may have discussion of learner performance for 10-15 minutes ... I think it should not be longer than 45 minutes in total.” Participant 6, Year 2, Female

Subtheme 2.3: Learning consequence within a postgraduate curriculum

Most participants suggested that the gamified online role-play in teledentistry should be arranged in the first year of their postgraduate program. This could maximize the effectiveness of online role-play, as they would be able to implement teledentistry for their clinical practice since the beginning of their training. However, some participants suggested that this learning approach could be rearranged in either second or third year of the program. As they already had experience in clinical practice, the gamified online role-play would reinforce their competence in teledentistry.

"Actually, it would be great if this session could be scheduled in the first year … I would feel more comfortable when dealing with my patients through an online platform." Participant 11, Year 2, Male "I believe this approach should be implemented in the first year because it allows students to be trained in teledentistry before being exposed to real patients. However, if this approach is implemented in either the second or third year when they have already had experience in patient care, they would be able to better learn from conversations with simulated patients." Participant 4, Year 3, Male

Theme 3: Pedagogical components

Subtheme 3.1: learning content.

Learning content appeared to be an important component of pedagogical aspect, as it would inform what participants should learn from the gamified online role-play. Based on the interview data, participants reported they could learn how to use a video teleconference platform for teledentistry. The conditions of simulated patient embedded in an online role-play also allowed them to realize the advantages of teledentistry. In addition, dental problems assigned to the simulated patient could reveal the limitations of teledentistry for participants.

“The learning tasks (within the gamified online role-play) let me know how to manage patients through the teleconference.” Participant 5, Year 2, Female “… there seemed to be limitations (of teledentistry) … there could be a risk of misdiagnosis … the poor quality of video may lead to diagnostic errors … it is difficult for patients to capture their oral lesions.” Participant 3, Year 2, Female

Subtheme 3.2: Feedback

During the use of online role-play, the simulated patient can provide formative feedback to participants through facial expressions and tones of voice, enabling participants to observe and learn to adjust their inquiries more accurately. In addition, at the completion of the gamified online role-play, summative feedback provided by instructors could summarize the performance of participants leading to further improvements in the implementation of teledentistry.

“I knew (whether or not I interacted correctly) from the gestures and emotions of the simulated patient between the conversation. I could have learnt from feedback provided during the role-play, especially from the facial expressions of the patient.” Participant 11, Year 2, Male “The feedback provided at the end let me know how well I performed within the learning tasks.” Participant 2, Year 1, Female

Theme 4: Interactive functions

Subtheme 4.1: the authenticity of the simulated patient.

Most participants believed that a simulated patient with high acting performance could enhance the flow of role-play, allowing learners to experience real consequences. The appropriate level of authenticity could engage learners with the learning activity, as they would have less awareness of time passing in the state of flow. Therefore, they could learn better from the gamified online role-play.

"It was so realistic. ... This allowed me to talk with the simulated patient naturally ... At first, when we were talking, I was not sure how I should perform … but afterwards I no longer had any doubts and felt like I wanted to explain things to her even more." Participant 3, Year 2, Female "At first, I believed that if there was a factor that could influence learning, it would probably be a simulated patient. I was impressed by how this simulated patient could perform very well. It made the conversation flow smoothly and gradually." Participant 9, Year 3, Female

Subtheme 4.2: Entertaining features

Participants were likely to be satisfied with the entertaining features embedded in the gamified online role-play. They felt excited when they were being exposed to the unrevealed challenge which they had randomly selected. In addition, participants suggested to have more learning scenarios or simulated patients where they could randomly select to enhance randomness and excitement.

“It was a playful experience while communicating with the simulated patient. There are elements of surprise from the challenge cards that make the conversation more engaging, and I did not feel bored during the role-play.” Participant 4, Year 3, Male “I like the challenge card we randomly selected, as we had no idea what we would encounter … more scenarios like eight choices and we can randomly choose to be more excited. I think we do not need additional challenge cards, as some of them have already been embedded in patient conditions.” Participant 5, Year 2, Female

Subtheme 4.3: Level of difficulty

Participants suggested the gamified online role-play to have various levels of difficulty, so learners could have a chance to select a suitable level for their competence. The difficulties could be represented through patient conditions (e.g., systemic diseases or socioeconomic status), personal health literacy, and emotional tendencies. They also recommended to design the gamified online role-play to have different levels where learners could select an option that is suitable for them.

“The patient had hidden their information, and I needed to bring them out from the conversation.” Participant 12, Year 1, Female “Patients' emotions could be more sensitive to increase level of challenges. This can provide us with more opportunities to enhance our management skills in handling patient emotions.” Participant 11, Year 2, Male “… we can gradually increase the difficult level, similar to playing a game. These challenges could be related to the simulated patient, such as limited knowledge or difficulties in communication, which is likely to occur in our profession.” Participant 6, Year 2, Female

Theme 5: Educational impact

Subtheme 5.1: self-perceived confidence in teledentistry, communication skills.

Participants were likely to perceive that they could learn from the gamified online role-play and felt more confident in the use of teledentistry. This educational impact was mostly achieved from the online conversation within the role-play activity, where the participants could improve their communication skills through a video teleconference platform.

“I feel like the online role-play was a unique form of learning. I believe that I gained confidence from the online communication the simulated patient. I could develop skills to communicate effectively with real patients.” Participant 11, Year 2, Male “I believe it support us to train communication skills ... It allowed us to practice both listening and speaking skills more comprehensively.” Participant 4, Year 3, Male

Critical thinking and problem-solving skills

In addition to communication skills, participants reported that challenges embedded in the role-play allowed them to enhance critical thinking and problem-solving skills, which were a set of skills required to deal with potential problems in the use of teledentistry.

"It was a way of training before experiencing real situations … It allowed us to think critically whether or not what we performed with the simulated patients was appropriate." Participant 7, Year 1, Female “It allowed us to learn how to effectively solve the arranged problems in simulated situation. We needed to solve problems in order to gather required information from the patient and think about how to deliver dental advice through teledentistry.” Participant 11, Year 2, Male

Subtheme 5.2: Self perceived awareness in teledentistry

Participants believed that they could realize the necessity of teledentistry from the gamified online role-play. The storytelling or patient conditions allowed learners to understand how teledentistry could have both physical and psychological support for dental patients.

“From the activity, I would consider teledentistry as a convenient tool for communicating with patients, especially if a patient cannot go to a dental office”. Participant 5, Year 2, Female “I learned about the benefits of teledentistry, particularly in terms of follow-up. The video conference platform could support information sharing, such as drawing images or presenting treatment plans, to patients.” Participant 8, Year 2, Female

A conceptual framework of learning experience within a gamified online role-play

Based on the qualitative findings, a conceptual framework was developed in which a gamified online role-play was conceptualized as a learning strategy in supporting learners to be able to implement teledentistry in their clinical practice (Fig.  4 ).

The conceptual framework of key elements in designing a gamified online role-play.

The conceptual framework has revealed key elements to be considered in designing a gamified online role-play. Learner profile, learning settings, pedagogical components, and interactive functions are considered as influential factors toward user experience within the gamified online role-play. The well-designed learning activity will support learners to achieve expected learning outcomes, considered as educational impact of the gamified online role-play. The contributions of these five key elements to the design of gamified online role-play were interpreted, as follows:

Learner profile: This element tailors the design of gamified online role-plays for teledentistry training involves considering the background knowledge, skills, and experiences of target learners to ensure relevance and engagement.

Learning settings: The element focuses the planning for gamified online role-plays in teledentistry training involves selecting appropriate contexts, such as location and timing, to enhance accessibility and achieve learning outcomes effectively.

Pedagogical components: This element emphasizes the alignment between learning components and learning outcomes within gamified online role-plays, to ensure that the content together with effective feedback design can support learners in improving their competencies from their mistakes.

Interactive functions: This element highlights interactivity features integrated into gamified online role-plays, such as the authenticity and entertaining components to enhance immersion and engagement, together with game difficulty for optimal flow. All these features should engage learners with the learning activities until the achievement of learner outcomes.

Educational impact: This element represents the expected learning outcomes, which will inform the design of learning content and activities within gamified online role-plays. In addition, this element could be considered to evaluate the efficacy of gamified online role-plays, reflecting how well learning designs align with the learning outcomes.

A gamified online role-play can be considered as a learning strategy for teledentistry according to its educational impact. This pedagogical approach could mimic real-life practice, where dental learners could gain experience in the use of teledentistry in simulated situations before interacting with actual patients. Role-play could provide learners opportunities to develop their required competencies, especially communication and real-time decision-making skills, in a predictable and safe learning environment 20 , 23 , 46 . Potential obstacles could also be arranged for learners to deal with, leading to the enhancement of problem-solving skill 50 . In addition, the recognition of teledentistry benefits can enhance awareness and encourage its adoption and implementation, which could be explained by the technology acceptance model 51 . Therefore, a gamified online role-play with a robust design and implementation appeared to have potential in enhancing self-perceived confidence and awareness in the use of teledentistry.

The pedagogical components comprised learning content, which was complemented by assessment and feedback. Learners could develop their competence with engagement through the learning content, gamified by storytelling of the online role-play 52 , 53 . Immediate feedback provided through facial expression and voice tone of simulated patients allowed participants to learn from their failure, considered as a key feature of game-based learning 29 , 45 . The discussion of summative feedback provided from an instructor at the end of role-play activity could support a debriefing process enabling participants to reflect their learning experience, considered as important of simulation-based game 54 . These key considerations should be initially considered in the design of gamified online role-play.

The interactive functions can be considered as another key component for designing and evaluating the gamified online role-play 45 . Several participants enjoyed with a learning process within the gamified online role-play and suggested it to have more learning scenarios. In other words, this tool could engage learners with an instructional process, leading to the achievement of learning outcomes 29 , 45 . As challenge and randomness appear to be game elements 32 , 33 , this learning intervention assigned a set of cards with obstacle tasks for learners to randomly pick up before interacting with simulated patients, which was perceived by participants as a feature to make the role-play more challenging and engaging. This is consistent with previous research, where challenging content for simulated patients could make learners more engaged with a learning process 55 . However, the balance between task challenges and learner competencies is certainly required for the design of learning activities 56 , 57 . The authenticity of simulated patient and immediate feedback could also affect the game flow, leading to the enhancement of learner engagement 45 . These elements could engage participants with a learning process, leading to the enhancement of educational impact.

The educational settings for implementing gamified online role-play into dental curriculum should be another concern. This aspect has been recognized as significant in existing evidence 45 . As this research found no significant differences in all aspects among the three groups of learners, this learning intervention demonstrated the potential for its implementation at any time of postgraduate dental curriculum. This argument can be supported by previous evidence where a role-play could be adaptable for learning at any time, as it requires a short learning period but provides learners with valuable experience prior to being exposed in real-life scenarios 58 . This strategy also provides opportunities for learners who have any question or concern to seek advice or guidance from their instructors 59 . Although the gamified online role-play can be arranged in the program at any time, the first academic year should be considered, as dental learners would be confidence in implementing teledentistry for their clinical practice.

While a gamified online role-play demonstrated its strengths as an interactive learning strategy specifically for teledentistry, there are a couple of potential drawbacks that need to be addressed. The requirement for synchronous participation could limit the flexibility of access time for learners (synchronous interactivity limitation). With only one learner able to engage with a simulated patient at a time (limited participants), more simulated patients would be required if there are a number of learners, otherwise they would need to wait for their turn. Time and resources are significantly required for preparing simulated patients 60 . Despite the use of trained and calibrated professional actors/actresses, inauthenticity may be perceived during role-plays, requiring a significant amount of effort to achieve both interactional and clinical authenticities 46 . Future research could investigate asynchronous learning approaches utilizing non-player character (NPC) controlled by an artificial intelligence system as a simulated patient. This setup would enable multiple learners to have the flexibility to engage with the material at their own pace and at times convenient to them 29 . While there are potential concerns about using gamified online role-plays, this interactive learning intervention offers opportunities for dental professionals to enhance their teledentistry competency in a safe and engaging environment.

Albeit the robust design and data collection tools to assure reliability and validity as well as transparency of this study, a few limitations were raised leading to a potential of further research. While this research recruited only postgraduate students to evaluate the feasibility of gamified online role-play in teledentistry training, further research should include not only experienced dental practitioners but also undergraduate students to confirm its potential use in participants with different learner profiles. More learning scenarios in other dental specialties should also be included to validate its effectiveness, as different specialties could have different limitations and variations. Additional learning scenarios from various dental disciplines should be considered to validate the effectiveness of gamified online role-plays, as different specialties may present unique limitations and variations. A randomized controlled trial with robust design should be required to compare the effectiveness of gamified online role-play with different approaches in training the use of teledentistry.

Conclusions

This research supports the design and implementation of a gamified online role-play in dental education, as dental learners could develop self-perceived confidence and awareness with satisfaction. A well-designed gamified online role-play is necessary to support learners to achieve expected learning outcomes, and the conceptual framework developed in this research can serve as a guidance to design and implement this interactive learning strategy in dental education. However, further research with robust design should be required to validate and ensure the educational impact of gamified online role-play in dental education. Additionally, efforts should be made to develop gamified online role-play in asynchronous learning approaches to enhance the flexibility of learning activities.

Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, up-on reasonable request. The data are not publicly available due to information that could compromise the privacy of research participants.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to express our sincere gratitude to participants for their contributions in this research. We would also like to thank the experts who provided their helpful suggestions in the validation process of the data collection tools.

This research project was funded by the Faculty of Dentistry, Mahidol University. The APC was funded by Mahidol University.

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Conceptualization, C.Te., C.Ta., and K.S.; methodology, C.Te., C.Ta., and K.S.; validation, C.Te., C.Ta., and K.S.; investigation, C.Te. and K.S.; formal analysis, C.Te., C.Ta., and K.S.; resources, C.Te., C.Ta., and K.S.; data curation, C.Ta. and K.S.; writing-original draft preparation, C.Te., C.Ta., and K.S.; writing-review and editing, C.Te., C.Ta., and K.S. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

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Teerawongpairoj, C., Tantipoj, C. & Sipiyaruk, K. The design and evaluation of gamified online role-play as a telehealth training strategy in dental education: an explanatory sequential mixed-methods study. Sci Rep 14 , 9216 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-58425-9

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Lauren Hosni

April 24, 2024

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Hessam Ghamari began his education at the Iran University of Science and Technology in Tehran, Iran, where he received his bachelor's and master's degrees in architecture. From there, Ghamari came to Texas Tech, where he received his second master's degree in interior design and his doctorate in interior and environmental design.

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Schnitzer School of Art + Art History + Design

2024 PSU Research Award Winners Announced

Annual Awards acknowledge exceptional research, scholarship, creativity, and commitment to student success

by Molly Baer Kramer April 22nd 2024 Share

Today, Portland State University announced its 2024 awards for excellence in research, mentoring, and research administration . PSU’s Research Awards acknowledge faculty who exhibit exceptional research, scholarship, creativity, and commitment to the success of PSU students, and recognize one research administrator who makes an outstanding contribution to the production of research at the university. 

Six of the 15 research awards are university-wide; individual colleges and schools award the remaining nine. 

"I am thrilled to celebrate this year's award recipients at Portland State University,” said Rick Tankersley, Vice-President for Research & Graduate Studies, whose office manages the awards process. “These awards showcase the diverse and impactful contributions of our faculty and staff across various disciplines. Each winner enhances our mission through outstanding research and mentorship, enriching both PSU and our student community. It's especially exciting to introduce the 'Undergraduate Research Mentor of the Year' award for the first time this year, highlighting our commitment to excellence and innovation in undergraduate education."

This year’s awardees will be celebrated at a special reception on Friday, May 10, to conclude the university's  Research Week .

The university research award winners are:

• Presidential Career Research Award:  Birol Yeşilada , Professor in Political Science and International Studies and Director, Center for Turkish Studies and the Mark O. Hatfield Cybersecurity & Cyber Defense Policy Center
• Early Career Research Award:  Fang Song , Associate Professor in Computer Science
• Research Faculty Award:  Papireddy Kancharla , Research Assistant Professor in Chemistry
• Graduate Mentoring Excellence Award:  Karen Haley , Professor in the Postsecondary, Adult, and Continuing Education (PACE) program
• Undergraduate Research Mentor of the Year:  Bill Griesar , Teaching Assistant Professor in Psychology
• Research Administrator of the Year:  Becca Lockwood , Sponsored Projects Officer

The college/school research award winners are:

• College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Researcher of the Year:  Alida Cantor , Associate Professor, Geography
• College of Education Researcher of the Year:  Rana Yaghmaian , Associate Professor and Department Chair of Counselor Education
• College of the Arts Researcher of the Year: Alison Heryer , Costume Designer, School of Art + Design
• College of Urban and Public Affairs Researcher of the Year: Lindsay Benstead , Professor, Department of Politics and Global Affairs
• Maseeh College of Engineering and Computer Science Researcher of the Year: Raúl Bayoán Cal , Professor, Mechanical & Materials Engineering
• OHSU-PSU School of Public Health Researcher of the Year:  Neal Wallace , Professor, Health Management & Policy, Health Systems & Policy
• School of Business Researcher of the Year:  Marta Stelmaszak Rosa , Assistant Professor of Information Systems
• School of Social Work Researcher of the Year:  Matthew Town , Assistant Professor, Social Work
• University Honors College Researcher of the Year:  Amy Borden , Associate Professor, Humanities and Film Studies

Recipients of the awards are faculty and staff members at PSU who have shown extraordinary dedication to their work, going above and beyond to make progress in their fields and inspire the next generation. They are nominated by their colleagues and then selected by a jury of their peers, based on the significance and quality of their academic or creative work and their strong commitment to creating an environment that supports student success and research excellence. "This year, we are particularly proud of the contributions of our research administrators, whose efforts are crucial in facilitating our pioneering research endeavors," Tankersley stated.

"I am delighted to honor the remarkable achievements of our award winners, whose work spans multiple disciplines at Portland State University,” said Tankersley. “These accolades reflect our faculty and staff's significant impact on our academic community and their fields. Their dedication to research excellence and student success not only advances PSU's mission but also inspires within and beyond the university."

Related Links:

• View bios of the 2024 Research Award recipients here

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The Artist Tania Candiani Accepts the ‘Invitation to Listen Closely’

She does deep research to create her videos, sound installations and other works that draw attention to the things that go unnoticed.

By Ray Mark Rinaldi

Reporting from Mexico City

Tania Candiani never planned on being an artist. Growing up in Mexico City, she dreamed of working as a writer and that is what led her to leave home, at 20, and move to Tijuana. A cousin, who ran a magazine there, offered her a job.

Among her first assignments: writing a story about a group of artists who were finishing a large, public mural. She got caught up in the moment.

“They were like, ‘well, you are here, why don’t you help us,’” she said. Candiani picked up a paintbrush and joined the crew.

“And then they invited me to do something else with them,” the artist said, explaining how her career in journalism came to a quick close. Scores of art projects followed, solo work and collaborations with local painters, musicians, writers, dancers, weavers and, perhaps most influentially, filmmakers.

That was all the art school Candiani ever had and, she said, all that she ever needed, and it led to the unusually varied career she has today, which brings all those disciplines together into multimedia projects that rely heavily on collaboration with other artists. She is known primarily for her videos, but she makes sound installations, sculpture, textiles and performative works.

At 50, she is in demand internationally. In the past year, there have been exhibitions of her work in New York, Houston , Madrid, Toronto and São Paulo, Brazil.

This month, she has concurrent shows in Mexico City and in Bogotá and Medellín, Colombia, and beginning on Thursday, she will debut a series of works at Frieze New York, via her Colombia-based gallery and fair exhibitor, Instituto de Visión .

It will not stop there. She is in the thick of work on projects for an expo in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, and a group show opening soon in Ogden, Utah . Earlier this month, she traveled to Southern California to put together a proposal for next year’s Desert X, an art biennial that features large, site-specific works in outdoor settings, including the Coachella Valley.

What ties it all together? Deep research into each topic she takes on, she said, and a commitment to letting her learning shape the final product. The Utah piece, for example, will be a multimedia exploration into the history of trains in the United States. For the show now on view in Medellín, she made a video, but also designed a giant harp in the shape of a river she was researching; she will invite local musicians to play during the show.

“I’m a storyteller,” she said. “It does not matter what kind of media I’m using.”

Candiani lives in Mexico City and maintains a studio in a former warehouse, located along a set of railroad tracks in the Miguel Hidalgo neighborhood. It is a vast, clean space with high ceilings and plenty of room for her staff of three , who help with tasks including scheduling, video editing and maquette making. But the place is nearly empty, with just a few tables and computer monitors set up in the main room.

Her real work, she said, is commission based and happens on location. She goes to unfamiliar places, often at the invitation of museums or artist residencies, and finds stories that are relevant to the region. She then weaves them into what she describes as “poetic documentaries.” For each she tries to come up with a unique method of telling the tale, often at the intersection of art, science and technology, and usually with a dose of environmental, labor or feminist politics edited in.

A good example is “For the Animals,” a video commissioned by Arizona State University Art Museum in 2020. Candiani researched the animals that live in the southwestern United States and Northern Mexico and how sound influences their behavior. Recognizing that each species has a unique ability to hear higher or lower frequencies than humans, she collaborated with electronic musicians to create musical scores that could be calming to wolves, coyotes, jaguars and other desert creatures.

The idea was incorporated into a 10-minute video displayed across three screens, which also explains how sound waves work in the ear. Candiani explained in her artist’s statement that she also intended the work to “bring awareness to the plight of these animals should a border wall be built to prevent their ancient migration patterns in their native region.”

For her project in São Paulo last year, in which she highlighted the women’s rights movement in Brazil, her language was sewing and embroidery. She made a quilt, 50 feet tall and 30 feet wide, decorated with text spelling out slogans from recent streets protests, and used it to cover the facade of Vermelho Gallery .

To construct the piece, she worked with a cooperative of immigrant women known for their ancestral knowledge of textile techniques and their struggle for worker rights. It was her way of documenting the struggle for gender equality while also bringing attention to the treatment of foreign laborers.

“She’s tapping into a lot of issues that are very much a part of the zeitgeist when you look at our global environment,” said Jan Fjeld, who runs the gallery. “She deals with things that are being forgotten.”

Or as Candiani puts it, she accepts the “invitation to listen closely” to the stories that each place and its people tell about their own histories, then creates works that emphasize the parts that “get no attention because they are tiny.”

Her pieces, she said, are translations. She hears things and then interprets them into whatever language fits the moment. For a piece in Ireland, she wanted to explain how the tides in local rivers impact the patterns of social behavior and the way locals interact with their environment, so she created a synchronized swimming routine for a group of women who meet daily to exercise at high tide. The result is the video, “Tidal Choreography,” which captures the aquatic routine above and below the water’s surface as music plays. “Patterns are created, gravity shifts and ecological worlds revealed,” she wrote in her artist’s statement of the piece.

In that way, she delivers frank messages about social issues wrapped in graceful creative expression, using music, textiles and movement. Topical politics are a driver of the work, but so is natural beauty and, frequently, joy.

The works that Instituto de Visión will show at Frieze are part of a series that Candiani has been making about dance. She recently came across “Las Danzas Folklóricas de México,” a 1976 book by a researcher named Zacarías Segura Salinas , documenting traditional choreography practiced across Mexico. He created his own system of symbols and lines that come together into diagrams that capture specific foot movements.

For Candiani, the diagrams appeared as a code, a separate language of sorts for those who might want to recreate the dances. She learned to decipher it and adapted it into works of art, recreating the marks using yellow and silver thread sewn into panels of black fabric mounted on sewing rings. Employing that particular media brings two Mexican traditions together, dance and embroidery, and elevates the popular arts into the stuff of museums and international art fairs.

“To Tania, that is very important,” said Beatriz López, one of the three female directors who together run Instituto de Visión. “To show all of this work, this economy that is very strong, very important, and historically related to women, but has been invisible.”

Arts and Culture Across Europe

Our theater critics and a reporter discuss the big winne r —  Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Sunset Boulevard” — and the rest of the honorees at this year’s Olivier Awards .

New productions of “Macbeth” and “Hamlet” in Paris follow a French tradition of adapting familiar works . The results are innovative, and sometimes cryptic.

The internet latched on to 16-year-old Felicia Dawkins’ performance as The Unknown at a shambolic Willy Wonka-inspired event . Now she’s heading to a bigger and scarier stage in London.

When activists urged Tate Britain in London to take an offensive artwork off its walls, the institution commissioned Keith Piper  to create a response instead. The result recently went on display.

The new National Holocaust Museum in Amsterdam has been in the works for almost 20 years. It is the first institution to tell the full story  of the persecution of Dutch Jews during World War II.

At a retrospective of John Singer Sargent’s portraits in London, where the American expatriate fled after creating a scandal in Paris, clothes offer both armor and self-expression .