Visualizing the qualitative: making sense of written comments from an evaluative satisfaction survey

Area of Science:

• Health Education
• Data Visualization
• Qualitative Research

Background:

• Satisfaction surveys are vital in health education for improving training materials and facilitation.
• Analysis of qualitative data from these surveys can be specialized and challenging.
• Visualizing qualitative data can enhance accessibility and comprehension.

Purpose of the Study:

• To determine if qualitative survey results can be effectively visualized using Word Clouds.
• To explore the utility of Word Clouds in making qualitative health education feedback more accessible.

Main Methods:

• Qualitative comments from satisfaction surveys were coded and quantified.
• Quantitative data were transformed into "input terms" for Word Cloud generation.
• A three-tier display was developed, integrating Word Clouds, frequency tables, and textual summaries.

Main Results:

• Word Clouds visually represent qualitative data, increasing comprehension.
• The three-tier display caters to different information assimilation preferences.
• This visualization method enhances accessibility for stakeholders unfamiliar with statistical analyses.

Conclusions:

• Combining Word Clouds with quantified qualitative data improves comprehensibility.
• Visual representation aids diverse stakeholders in understanding survey feedback.
• This approach offers a valuable tool for analyzing and disseminating health education satisfaction data.