Using Drawings in Qualitative Interviews: An Introduction to the Practice (2025)

Drawing the researcher into data: drawing as an analytical tool in qualitative research

Qualitative Research, 2022

In qualitative research, visual methods often entail engaging with images as the subject of analysis. Yet, images may be of value also as a means of analysis. This article reflects on this analytical value in relation to drawings. To this end, the authors explore drawings made by researchers in various phases of qualitative research. Drawings made ‘in the margin’ are put centre stage to better understand their role in data analysis. They allow revisiting situations; and they supplement the audio-to-text act of transcribing. Actively drawing involves and stimulates a sensory engagement with the phenomena under study and the data. Drawings furthermore play an important role in arranging and re-arranging concepts when formulating conclusions. Examples highlight how researchers may explicitly incorporate drawing in data analysis to harness the potential of a multisensory skill set and engage with transcribing in new ways.

Combining interviews and drawings: methodological considerations

New Trends in Qualitative Research, 2022

Framework: In qualitative research, drawing on a blank sheet of paper during the interview is one of the tools in the researcher's toolbox. This technique is increasingly used in social sciences, but is still rarely included in research on social support for the chronically ill. Goals and Methods: The objective of this paper is to analyze the advantages of an innovative research method that uses both drawings and semi-structured interviews to study support networks of chronically ill patients. This method was used to conduct a qualitative research on changes in chronically ill support networks in France during the lockdown period (March-May 2020). The study triangulates three types of sources: 1. From chronically ill patients' oral accounts of their experience of lockdown, collected during 32 semi-directive interviews; 2. From the chronically ill patients' drawings of support networks they were asked to make by the end of the interviews; 3. From their oral description of the drawn elements. Results: The drawing technique has several advantages: i. the playful nature of the drawing facilitates the degree of adhesion and interest in the investigation process, ii. it leads to greater reflexivity on the part of the respondents, iii. triangulation of the data from the narratives and the network drawings brings to light some unexpected results: it highlighted which types of support are valued or invisibilized and revealed the important support role of non-humans during lockdown. Conclusions: The complementary use of drawings and narratives allows a more detailed and complex qualitative analysis. However, this method requires investigators to take special precautions before, during and after the field work.

Putting graphic elicitation into practice: tools and typologies for the use of participant-led diagrams in qualitative research interviews

Qualitative Research, 2018

The use of diagrams to stimulate dialogue in research interviews, a technique known as graphic elicitation, has burgeoned since the year 2000. Reviews of the graphic elicitation literature have relied on the inconsistent terminology currently used to index visual methods, and have so far drawn only a partial picture of their use. Individual diagrams are seen as stand-alone tools, often linked to particular disciplines, rather than as images created from a toolbox of common elements which can be customized to suit a research study. There is a need to examine participant-led diagramming with a view to matching the common elements of diagrams with the objectives of a research project. This article aims to provide an overview of diagramming techniques used in qualitative data collection with individual participants, to relate the features of diagrams to the aspects of the social world they represent, and to suggest how to choose a technique to suit a research question.

Visual Methodologies in Qualitative Research

International Journal of Qualitative Methods

Drawn Threads: Drawing as a visual methodology to enhance qualitative studies

2013

The efficiency and effectiveness of utilizing diagrams in interviews: an assessment of participatory diagramming and graphic elicitation

BMC Research Methodology, 2008

Full-text open access online Background This paper focuses on measuring the efficiency and effectiveness of two diagramming methods employed in key informant interviews with clinicians and health care administrators. The two methods are 'participatory diagramming', where the respondent creates a diagram that assists in their communication of answers, and 'graphic elicitation', where a researcher-prepared diagram is used to stimulate data collection. Methods These two diagramming methods were applied in key informant interviews and their value in efficiently and effectively gathering data was assessed based on quantitative measures and qualitative observations. Results Assessment of the two diagramming methods suggests that participatory diagramming is an efficient method for collecting data in graphic form, but may not generate the depth of verbal response that many qualitative researchers seek. In contrast, graphic elicitation was more intuitive, better understood and preferred by most respondents, and often provided more contemplative verbal responses, however this was achieved at the expense of more interview time. Conclusion Diagramming methods are important for eliciting interview data that are often difficult to obtain through traditional verbal exchanges. Subject to the methodological limitations of the study, our findings suggest that while participatory diagramming and graphic elicitation have specific strengths and weaknesses, their combined use can provide complementary information that would not likely occur with the application of only one diagramming method. The methodological insights gained by examining the efficiency and effectiveness of these diagramming methods in our study should be helpful to other researchers considering their incorporation into qualitative research designs.

Photo-elicitation: reflexivity on method, analysis, and graphic portraits

Through the looking glass: considering the challenges visual methodologies raise for qualitative research

Qualitative Research in Psychology, 2005

The Imagework Method in Health and Social Science Research

Qualitative Health Research, 1999

Visual Portraits: An Artistic Approach to Qualitative Educational Research

1997