M07
Qualitative Coding
Systematically labelling interview and diary text so that recurring themes across many voices can be compared and counted.
Spatial Behaviour
When It's Useful
When a study has a large body of interview or diary text and needs to find and compare patterns across it rigorously.
STRENGTHS
- Turns rich narrative data into comparable categories.
- Keeps individual voice traceable back to the theme it informed.
- Reveals themes the research team did not anticipate.
LIMITATIONS
- Coding decisions involve judgement, so consistency across coders takes real effort.
- Time-intensive at scale.
- Can flatten nuance if categories are too broad.
Variables Typically Captured
theme frequencyco-occurring themessentimentillustrative quotes
Process
01
Question
02
Initial coding
03
Theme development
04
Cross-checking
05
Synthesis