NVivo is software for qualitative data analysis,
first developed in the 1980s. Although it wasn’t always called NVivo. Want to know its original name? See the answer below.
Qualitative data includes non-numerical information like interview transcripts, policy documents, images, or open-ended survey responses. You can find tips for collecting qualitative data here.
Managing qualitative data can become overwhelming, especially with multiple types of data or more than one person involved in the analysis.
For instance, a one-hour focus group may be a 50-60 page transcript and have multiple speakers you want to track. If you have 4 or 5 focus groups, from two different organizations, you may soon find your multi-coloured highlighters, sticky notes, and comments in the margin are insufficient and inefficient.
When working in a team environment, things can get very messy very quickly for anyone trying to keep track of each team member’s data, analysis, and reporting.
Using NVivo to manage the data is a great solution.
NVivo offers systematic organization, coding, and analysis for qualitative projects. Setting up your project in NVivo early (even before you have started collecting data) helps clarify your thinking. Working through how you will label and store your data, to meet the terms of ethics agreements and to suit your coding and analysis work processes, are valuable exercises that will save you time later on.
If your data is collected via audio or video recordings, you can do your transcription within NVivo, or use the NVivo transcription add-on service. See this resource for transcription options.
The workflow involves importing data, coding it (identifying patterns or topics), then analyzing coded segments to answer research questions. NVivo’s memos and queries assist with tracking progress and compiling reports.
I have found that those who are already well-versed in qualitative methods quickly translate their previous processes into the NVivo workspace. How to navigate NVivo commands seems particularly intuitive for NVivo for Windows users. There seems to be a slightly higher learning curve for NVivo for Mac users. Perhaps this is because NVivo for Mac arrived later and differs slightly. It is why at QuotesWork we teach most courses separately – either in the Windows or Mac version of NVivo.
In summary, using NVivo allows you to efficiently organize and analyze qualitative data whether you are working on your own or in a team. While NVivo doesn’t do the work for you, it does streamline the qualitative analysis process. Once you master the basics, you will have confidence that you can accurately summarize, report, and demonstrate the quality of your findings.
Check out our courses to help you get started.
Believe it or not, NVivo was first called NUD*IST, which is an acronym for
Non-numerical Unstructured Data – Indexing, Searching and Theorizing).
