What tool for what type of data?

List of the tools with the type of data it can be used for gathering either qualitative or quantitative.

Tess O'Brien avatar
Written by Tess O'Brien
Updated over a week ago

We are often asked about which tool captures what type of data which can also influence the tool you use for engagement. The table below provides a summary for each tool in EngagementHQ, highlighting if it captures quantitative data, qualitative data, or both. You can also refer to this article to understand the purpose and use of each tool.

At any time you can get quantitative metrics for engagement on your project and or your site through the Summary Report. The kinds of metrics include data on aware, informed and engaged visitors, & contributors, and contributions.

Note that you can get demographic data based on your sign-up / registration form but this is largely determined by you and by whether you require registered/verified participation.

You can read about the text analysis tool for information on qualitative data analysis.

Tool

Qualitative data

Quantitative data

Ideas (Brainstormer)

Image upload and text-based submissions

Count of Ideas, Votes, and Comments. The number of comments and votes can show weightage to the corresponding Idea.

A lot of the data you will draw down is qualitative as the tool allows participants to provide free-text comments/titles and upload images. You also get geo-locations and visual map images.

Count of each pin as well as survey results from the questions added which may be the quantitative format.

Some of your data will be visual or spatial as well which can be quantified to a degree.

Image upload and text-based submissions

Text-based submissions

Count of the up or down votes for each forum contribution populated to the tool. You can use this to generate a metric to show significance or weighting to each forum contribution, however, you would need to work on a methodology that is robust.

Note - The survey analysis tool to available to analyze and report on your data.

Choosing open-response format questions will result in qualitative text-based data, e.g. essay question or single line response question types. Files (docs, images & videos) can also be uploaded when we choose the file upload question.

You can, however, choose question types that are forced-choice (radio button, dropdown list) that result in quantitative data.

Text-based submissions

Text-based submissions

This tool creates quantitative data only. Useful for a single-question survey.

Text-based submissions

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