WHAT IS RESEARCH DESIGN AND HOW IS IT DONE? - SCIENCE - 2025

The research design is a set of methods and procedures used to collect and analyze the measures of the variables specified in the investigation of the research problem.

The study design defines the type of study (descriptive, correctional, semi-experimental, experimental, revision or meta-analytic) and the sub-type (such as a longitudinal descriptive case study), research problem, hypotheses, independent and dependent variables, design experimental and statistical analysis plan.

Research design is the framework that has been created to find answers to research questions. The method chosen will affect the results and the manner in which the results are concluded.

There are two main types of research design: qualitative and quantitative. That said, there are many ways to classify research designs. A research design is a set of conditions or collections.

There are many designs that are used in an investigation, each one has specific advantages and disadvantages. The choice of method to be used depends on the purpose of the study and on the nature of the phenomenon.

Main characteristics of the research design

Parts of the research design

Sampling design

It has to do with the methods of selecting the elements to be observed for the study.

Observational design

It is related to the condition in which the observation will be created.

Statistical design

It is concerned with the question of how the information and data collected will be analyzed?

Operational design

It has to do with the techniques with which the procedures are collected in the sampling.

How to Create a Research Design

A research design describes how the study research will be handled; constitutes part of the research proposal.

Before creating a research design, you first need to formulate a problem, a main question, and additional questions. Therefore, you first need to define the problem.

A research design should present an overview of what will be used to carry out the project research.

It should describe where and when the research will be conducted, the sample to be used, the approach, and the methods to be used. You can do this by answering the following questions:

• Where? In what location or situation will the investigation be conducted?
• When? At what point in time or in what period will the investigation take place?
• Who or what? Which individuals, groups, or events will be examined (in other words, the sample)?
• How? What approaches and methods will be used to collect and analyze the data?

Example

The starting point of the research design is the main research problem, which is derived from the problem statement. An example of a main question could be the following:

Answers to these questions:

Where? From the main question it is obvious that the research should be focused on the H&M online store and possibly a traditional store.

When? The investigation needs to occur after a consumer has purchased a product from a traditional store. This is important as it is investigating why someone follows this path, rather than buying the product online.

Who or what? In this case, it is clear that consumers who have made their purchase in a traditional store should be considered. However, you could also decide to examine consumers who made their purchase online to be able to compare different consumers.

How? This question is often difficult to answer. Among other things, you may need to consider the amount of time you have to conduct the investigation and whether you have a budget to collect information.

In this example, both qualitative and quantitative methods might be appropriate. Options could include interviews, surveys, and observations.

Different research designs

Designs can be flexible or fixed. In some cases these types coincide with quantitative and qualitative research designs, although this is not always the case.

In fixed designs the study design is already fixed before the data collection takes place; they are usually driven by theory.

Flexible designs allow more freedom during the information gathering process. One reason to use flexible designs may be that the variable of interest cannot be measured quantitatively, such as culture. In other cases, the theory might not be available at the beginning of the investigation.

Exploratory research study

Exploratory research methods are determined as formulative research of studies. The main methods include: the literature-related survey and the experience survey.

The literature survey is the simplest method of formulating the research problem.

On the other hand, the experience survey is a method that looks for people who have had practical experience. The objective is to obtain new ideas related to the research problem

In case of descriptive and diagnostic research

They are studies that are concerned with the description of the characteristics of an individual or a group in particular. The diagnostic study wants to determine the frequency in which the same event will occur.

Research studies testing hypotheses (experimental)

They are those in which a researcher tests the hypothesis of the casual relationship between variables.

Characteristics of a good research design

A good research design must be appropriate for that particular research problem; usually involves the following characteristics:

• The way in which the information is obtained.
• The availability and skills of the investigator and his team, if any.
• The objective of the problem to be studied.
• The nature of the problem to be studied.
• The availability of time and money for research work.

References

1. Research design. Recovered from wikipedia.org
2. Basic research designs. Recovered from cirt.gcu.edu
3. Research design. Recovered from explorable.com
4. How to create a research design (2016). Recovered from scribbr.com
5. Research design (2008). Recovered from slideshare.net.