An Alternative Method and Display for Content Analysis: Textual Visualization

The purpose of this study is to describe the usage of textual-based visualization methods as an alternative method in qualitative researches and especially in content analysis process. Qualitative researches –like social media analysis, linguistic or communicational studies that statistical methods can not be applied directly- necessitate usage of special techniques to determine patterns and structures. Textual based visualization techniques allows researcher to analyze the unstructured corpus, explore the inner relations and thus provide meaning to these texts. Decoding this structure can be achieved with content analysis method, and findings can be represented by using matrices or diagrams. However, cases of multidimensional data requires advanced visualization techniques. Data visualisation is graphical edition and common product of the fields of statistics, information technologies, broadcasting and visual communication design. Data of the qualitative research findings about determining the effectiveness and further user expectations of Kastamonu University Kuzeykent Campus wayfinding system were used for analysis and visualization. The assessments of 20 participants are collected by using a semi-structured interview form developed by the researcher. The findings have been subjected to content analysis and displayed with matrice table. These process steps were repeated with three different web-based/online visualization tool.