Empirical Research

• Section 1.2 p.4-5
• Any research that uses structured observations from the real world to attempt to answer questions.
• Quantitative empirical research uses quantitative measurements (numbers, usually).
• Observations rather than reason
• More data sets, fewer interviews.
• Measurements hard to to collect precisely or interpret accurately
• Numbers we have don’t actually answer the research question we have, what can we do?
• Goal is to collect the right data to answer the question and design reasearch to do this