Primary Research
Primary research is the act of performing research yourself. For example, playing and reviewing a game, handing out questionnaires/surveys, asking people their opinions on events, doing experiments and so on.
Primary research can be one of the most accurate of the research types when done correctly. It can be accurate because you did the research yourself and so you know that the facts have not been fabricated, but it can also be made in-accurate because the people you ask/survey could be lying or you could have possibly done the research wrong.
Primary research is very useful, to an extent. As you are doing the research yourself, you should have a good understanding of what the results mean, since you created (and in the case of surveys, collected) them. But because of the fact that you are the one doing the research yourself, you are limited by your researching skills and general knowledge in that particular area.
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| Doing experiments is an example of primary research (Image source: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20141016141226-66159532-solution-to-the-pay-problem-experimentation) |
Secondary Research
Secondary research is the act of researching research done by someone else. For example, reading game reviews, reading other people's questionnaires/surveys, looking at posts/videos on the internet, reading books and so on.
Primary research can be unreliable depending on your sources. Some sources are truthful and know about what they are actually doing., showing the un-altered results of their surveys, accurate information, etc. But some of the sources are a lot less reliable and sometimes rather incompetent/ignorant, with falsified questionnaires, biased reviews and straight up lies for information (I'm looking at you Fox News).
Secondary research is much more easily done that primary as the research is already there, you really just have to find the appropriate research, while avoiding the more unreliable sources.
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| Reading books is an example of secondary research (image source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book) |
Quantitative Research
Quantitative research is the type of research that focuses on numbers, ratings and short multiple choice questions.
This is designed for collecting numerical/group-able information like what people would rate a product, which of a few choices would they choose, and other similar methods.
Quantitative Research, while perfect for ratings and other such information, it is impossible to use for detailed opinions and open ended questions due to them being much too broad to group them all together.
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| Gathering ratings is an example of quantitative research (image source: http://amac.us/5-star-rated-medicare-advantage-and-prescription-drug-plans/) |
Qualitative Research
Qualitative research is the type of research that focuses on detail, opinions and long open ended questions.
This is meant specifically for collecting information such as what peoples opinions on an event are, their feelings about something, and other more detailed information.
Qualitative research while it is good for more detailed answers like opinions and feelings, it is not quite as good for quantitative information such as ratings and multiple choice questions, as they do not have nearly a sufficient amount of information.
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| Gathering opinions is an example of qualitative research (Image source: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20130620210041-23027997-just-my-opinion) |