Random Thoughts
March 22, 2023
Following last week’s “What is end-user research?” post, I thought it would be beneficial to expand on this type of “back to the basicss” type post and create a series out of it. So this week, I will shift the focus onto “projective techniques”—a rather common but vital probing method used in qualitative research, and give you an explanation of what it is, when, and why we use it.
Generally speaking, projective techniques are a set of probing methods that assist end-users/respondents articulate thoughts that are otherwise difficult to put into words—mostly emotional and subconscious. It works by literally asking end-users to project their feelings onto something much more familiar and easier to articulate for them, hence its name.
There are many different forms of projective techniques:
Word association: (ex. what is the first word that comes to your mind when you think of X);
Sentence completion: (ex. Complete this sentence, “brand x is ________”.);
Photo collage: (ex. Find the pictures that best match brand x);
Personification: (ex. Imagine brand x as a person, who would this person be);
Party association: (ex. If brand x is to host a party, what would it be like?);
And many others…
From my experience, projective techniques are an integral part of qualitative research, particularly when it comes to branding and advertising where establishing an emotional connection with the end users is the core objective.
Whereas, for other more tactical based research such as UX/UI research, it plays almost no role at all. So let’s not include card sorting exercise as a projective technique. Card sorting is merely a forced ranking exercise of attributes based on its perceived importance, there is nothing really psychological about it.
And there you have it, this is another “back to the basics” post. As always, please feel free to comment, I would love to hear your thoughts on this. And remember to follow us on our socials for more. Enjoy!
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