Steps to Follow in Creating A Descriptive Research Design

Creating a descriptive research design may sound technical, but it’s essential for understanding how things work and why they happen the way they do. So, if you’re looking to explore a topic thoroughly, here’s an easy guide on how to create a solid descriptive research design in simple steps.

1. Define the Research Problem

Before exploring any research, it’s essential to identify the problem or question you want to examine clearly. Ask yourself:

What do you want to know?

For example, if you’re studying the relationship between online learning and student performance, your research problem might be: How does online learning impact student engagement? This step will guide the entire design process, so take your time to think about the key areas you need to investigate.

2. Select the Research Method

Now that you know what you’re studying, it’s time to choose how you’ll gather the information. For descriptive research, you typically use methods like:

Surveys
Interviews or
Observations

Decide whether you want to collect data through questionnaires (surveys), personal interviews, or observing behavior naturally. This step will shape how you interact with your subjects and gather the necessary data to describe the situation.

3. Determine the Population and Sample

Once your research method is in place, it’s time to figure out who will be involved. In descriptive research, you need a group of people (the population) that represents the larger group you’re studying.

For example, if you’re studying high school students’ attitudes toward homework, your population might be students in a specific region. After identifying the population, decide whether you’ll work with the entire group or take a sample, which is a smaller, more manageable subset of that population.

4. Choose the Data Collection Tools

After defining your population, it’s time to select the tools or instruments you’ll use to collect data.

For surveys, this might mean designing a questionnaire with clear, unbiased questions.
For interviews, it might mean preparing an interview guide with open-ended questions.

Make sure your tools are aligned with your research problem and can effectively capture the information you need to describe your research subject accurately.

5. Analyze and Interpret the Data

The final step in your descriptive research design involves analyzing your collected data. With descriptive research, you’re mostly interested in summarizing and presenting your findings clearly. You might calculate averages and percentages or even use charts and graphs to illustrate trends or patterns. Once the data is analyzed, you’ll interpret it to draw conclusions about your study situation.