How to use the Research Methods Comparator.
Method selection should reflect the question, resources and consequences. No method is best for every research objective.
Make the workflow fit your task.
Define the research question, population, constraints and decision risk. Compare methods by the evidence they can produce, their practical requirements and their limits. Recommend a sequence when one method can locate a problem and another can explain it.
- What you provide
- Research objective and constraints.
- What you get
- Method trade-offs and fit assessment.
See the input and the result.
Illustrative input and output · a teaching example, not a live WebAct run
Example input
Research decision: understand why users abandon a setup step. No method has been chosen.
Completed example
Analytics — useful for locating the step and frequency of recorded abandonment; limited for explaining motives. Observation — useful for seeing where a person gets stuck during the task; requires suitable sessions and consent. Interviews — useful for exploring context and reported reasons; recall may differ from observed behavior. Proposed sequence: locate the pattern, then investigate it with observation and targeted questions.
Load this input into the prompt, then copy it to WebAct to try the task. Your result may differ from the illustration.
Decisions and troubleshooting.
Can analytics alone explain why users abandon a step?
It can reveal patterns in recorded behavior, but motives and context usually need additional evidence such as observation or interviews.
Why is a familiar method unsuitable for this research question?
Its evidence may not address the required inference. Match the method to the question before choosing based on convenience.
Try it with your own source.
Replace the example with your material in the task prompt. Keep the requirements you need, then copy the task into WebAct.
Customize and copy the task ↑