We’ve distilled all of our knowledge and recommendations into these short guides, starting with a ‘benefits highlight’ and then detailing the value of these technologies or practices can have to your organisation and your members.

The benefits to undertaking qualitative & quantitative website testing

It's simple - understanding your digital performance to enhance audience engagement and optimisation. The key objectives of a website research project for a NFP organisation should be to gather robust and statistically significant qualitative and quantitative data from members and target non-members. This will then guide the website optimisations that need to be made to either correct a poor performing element, such as ‘high call volumes because content isn’t easily found’ or to optimise your website to ‘increase conversions, such as new member sign ups’.

Why use both quantitative and qualitative research data?

Robust data from your audience is a must-have element for effective conversion optimisation that centres on the customer needs. It allows you to back up decisions scientifically versus ‘gut feel’.

Here’s some basic information about the differences between quantitative and qualitative data:

Quantitative = Measuring items, numbers, fixed state, formulation of facts, web analytics, language of statistical analysis, closed questions in surveys.

Qualitative = Describing items, natural description, negotiable state, voice of customer, develops ideas, open ended questions in surveys.

Both types of data have their pros and cons. Quantitative insights constitute a fantastic base for numbers-driven organisational decisions and are always perceived as “solid data”. Thus, the numbers are usually extremely convincing for stakeholders. Alternatively, quantitative data is usually difficult to interpret correctly since you only know that something did or didn’t happen, but you don’t understand the why.

Qualitative data is ideal for illustrating the numerical analysis with individual studies. It reveals the way people feel, the emotions and motivations behind their behaviour. It’s really useful to plan and implement design/UI changes for example. However, a key weakness of qualitative data is that it’s very difficult to automate its analysis and therefore is a time-consuming process. Due to those constraints, only limited number of individuals can be studied, which means less statistical significance.

Each of these types of data have clear advantages. Adhering to just one of them can negatively impact research. When used separately there is a danger that you will either have a study with too many detailed and non-statistically significant conclusions (focus on just qualitative) or you will end up having very general conclusions without enough context (focus on just quantitative). This is why we suggest you use the combination of both types to your advantage. Looking at the likes of Google analytics, Core vitals and behaviour tracking (heat maps, HotJar etc), alongside member surveys, focus groups and remote unmoderated testing.



At NetXtra, we can talk to you about the areas in which you need help, and suggest a research roadmap and/or conduct the research on your behalf. Why not contact Cheryl Quin via email – cheryl.quin@netxtra.net to schedule a call to discuss your individual requirements?