Writing blog articles can sometimes feel like venturing into an Alice In Wonderland rabbit hole. Depending on the topic, it can be a super enjoyable adventure or an all-consuming, time-sucking vortex! In my upcoming Lyssna articles, I focus on basic and advanced analysis and synthesis. During the process, I took an utterly joyful detour into thematic and content analysis, and created a comparison chart and use cases. This detail won’t fit into those articles, and I knew it wouldn’t, but I just couldn't help myself! LOL

I hope you find the following valuable for clarifying the disparity between thematic and content analysis techniques.

Thematic analysis and content analysis are both methods of analysis used to make sense of data, but they differ in several key ways:​

Here are five use case examples of each approach and why that approach is preferred.

Thematic Analysis Examples:

1. Self-Publishing Book Creation

Scenario: A self-publishing platform is conducting research to better serve its users. They conduct in-depth interviews with self-published photographers and authors to explore their journey, motivations, and challenges during the book creation process. Themes like “creative fulfillment,” “self-expression,” and “challenges in marketing” emerge from the narrative data.

Why Thematic Analysis? Thematic analysis is preferred as it explores the emotional journey, motivations, and challenges faced by self-publishers. This approach allows researchers to uncover and interpret rich themes related to personal experiences, creative fulfillment, and self-expression, providing a nuanced understanding.

2. E-bike Purchase Motivations

Scenario: A bicycle manufacturer wants to understand why consumers purchase e-bikes. They conduct interviews and surveys to delve into customers’ motivations. Through thematic analysis, they identify themes such as “commuting convenience,” “environmental consciousness,” and “health benefits.”

Why Thematic Analysis? Thematic analysis is an appropriate approach because it focuses on exploring and uncovering themes within qualitative data, such as interviews and survey write-in responses. Here, the research aims to understand consumers underlying motivations, which involves qualitative narratives and rich themes. Thematic analysis allows for the interpretation of these themes, providing valuable insights for product development and marketing strategies.

3. Informing Advocacy Efforts

Scenario: A nonprofit is researching the experiences of marginalized communities in a specific region. They conduct interviews to explore narratives related to social justice and equality. Thematic analysis reveals recurring themes such as “systemic discrimination,” “community resilience,” and “empowerment.”

Why Thematic Analysis? Thematic analysis is chosen because it aligns with the research goal of exploring narratives related to social justice and equality. This approach allows researchers to uncover and interpret recurring themes within qualitative data, providing valuable insights to guide advocacy efforts.

4. Exploring Patient Experiences

Scenario: A healthcare provider wants to enhance patient care. They conduct diary studies with patients to understand their experiences. Thematic analysis uncovers themes such as “communication with healthcare providers,” “emotional support,” and “access to information,” leading to improvements in patient services.

Why Thematic Analysis? Thematic analysis is well-suited for understanding patient experiences as it allows researchers to delve into qualitative narratives and uncover themes related to communication, emotional support, and access to information.

5. Investigating Workplace Stress

Scenario: An HR department aims to reduce workplace stress. They survey employees to explore stress factors. Thematic analysis reveals themes like “workload,” “communication issues,” and “work-life balance.”

Why Thematic Analysis? Thematic analysis is selected to explore employee experiences related to workplace stress. This approach allows researchers to uncover and interpret qualitative themes, providing insights into factors like workload, communication issues, and work-life balance that can inform HR policies to create a healthier work environment.

Content Analysis Examples

1. Online Fraud Mitigation Software

Scenario: A tech company is developing online fraud mitigation software. They seek to understand common keywords, phrases, and patterns used in fraudulent transactions to enhance their fraud detection algorithms.

Why Content Analysis? Content analysis is chosen because it focuses on quantifying specific keywords, phrases, and patterns within textual data. In this scenario, the team aims to identify and categorize fraudulent activities based on predefined criteria, making content analysis a suitable choice for quantitative analysis.

2. Social Media Assessment

Scenario: A agency is analyzing social media data to assess the impact of a recent campaign. They systematically code posts and comments using predefined categories such as “positive sentiment,” “negative sentiment,” and “engagement level.” The goal is to quantify the campaign’s success and identify areas for improvement.

Why Content Analysis? Content analysis is suitable here because it focuses on quantifying specific variables, such as sentiment and engagement level, in social media data. This approach allows for a quantitative assessment of the advertising campaign’s impact.

3. User Reviews of a Mobile App

Scenario: A mobile app developer wants to improve user experience. They collect user reviews from app stores and use content analysis to categorize feedback into themes like “ease of use,” “bug reports,” and “feature requests.”

Why Content Analysis? Content analysis is the preferred approach as it enables the systematic categorization of user feedback based on predefined criteria. This quantitative analysis helps prioritize app improvements by identifying common issues.

4. Analyzing Customer Support Interactions

Scenario: A customer support center for an e-commerce platform aims to improve service quality. They analyze transcripts of customer interactions using content analysis to identify frequent issues, categorizing them as “shipping delays,” “payment problems,” or “product inquiries.” This quantitative analysis informs

Why Content Analysis? Content analysis is employed to quantify and categorize customer interactions into specific issues. This approach allows for a data-driven assessment of customer support performance and helps identify areas requiring improvement, such as training and processes.

5. Online Reviews Analysis

Scenario: A restaurant chain seeks to evaluate customer satisfaction. They use content analysis to analyze online reviews, categorizing comments as “food quality,” “service speed,” and “ambiance.” This data-driven approach helps individual restaurants identify areas for improvement.

Why Content Analysis? Content analysis is chosen to systematically categorize online reviews into specific aspects, such as food quality and service speed. This quantitative approach enables a structured evaluation of customer satisfaction.

In each scenario above...

The choice between thematic analysis and content analysis is based on the research objectives and the nature of the data. Thematic analysis is favored for exploring narratives and uncovering nuanced themes, while content analysis is more suitable for quantitative assessment and categorization of specific, and generally previously identified, variables.

Last Week's QRCA Annual Conference

If you are not a member of QRCA I strongly encourage you to consider it. Last week I led an interactive workshop at their annual conference in Denver. The speaker line up, topic diversity, and after conference events, were excellent. The sessions are not recorded. The in-person interaction was so warm and refreshing. I met a ton of new colleagues I am eager to keep in touch with.

Next year's annual conference will have a UX track and will be held in Philadelphia, February 11 - 14, 2025. You'll find more details here on volunteering, call for proposal dates, and more.

Speak up, get involved, and share the love!​

• ​Connect with Michele on LinkedIn for more UXR tips and UX discussions

• Read about Curiosity Tank workshops.

• interested in team user research training? Let us know!​

• Participate as an On-Demand, or as an Observer, for less!​

• Dive into a different UX Research term every week! Sign up for UX Lex weekly emails here.

• Forward this email to someone who you think might enjoy it. Better yet, sign them up here. It will be the gift that keeps on giving.

And that’s a wrap!

We try to alternate between a theme and UX/UXR jobs, events, classes, articles, and other happenings every few weeks. Thank you for all of the feedback. Feedback is a gift, and we continue to receive very actionable input on how to make Fuel Your Curiosity more meaningful to you.

What do you think? We're constantly iterating and would love to hear your input.​

Stay curious,

- Michele and the Curiosity Tank team

PS: The “Interviewing Users: Evolving Perspectives and Umpteen Paths” with Steve Portigal event recording is now available here. All proceeds will be donated to the International Rescue Committee. Thank you for your support!