{"id":25776,"date":"2026-01-14T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T18:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/innovationhub\/?p=25776"},"modified":"2025-12-19T09:56:25","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T14:56:25","slug":"secondary-research-in-data-collection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/innovationhub\/secondary-research-in-data-collection\/","title":{"rendered":"Secondary Research in Data Collection\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In this blog, Kubra reflects on her experience of being a design researcher for the Innovation Hub, and how secondary research helped increase her confidence in data collection for the Supporting Student Leaders to Create Change project. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kubra Nur Saykili, Design Researcher, Honours Bachelor of Science, Cognitive Science<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

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Ever since I was a kid, I was always curious about how things worked. This curiosity stayed with me as I grew older, guiding the way I approached learning and eventually research. Before joining the Innovation Hub, I had prior experience conducting research for various projects and schoolwork. However, most of my past work was focused on quantitative research. Coming to the iHub, I knew what we were looking for was more than just numbers, and we needed to capture students\u2019 needs and lived experiences with methods such as interviews. Regardless of the research method, researchers often explore existing sources such as reports, academic papers, and other public documents to build a foundation of understanding, also known as secondary research. In this blog, I want to explore the role of secondary research in our design process at the Innovation Hub and share how it shapes the way we prepare for data collection. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Starting from Zero\u00a0<\/h2>\n\n\n
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When we started working on the Supporting Student Leaders to Create Change project, I was worried that I knew very little about how people on campus viewed the topic and how students felt about it. I was also confused about who was involved with this project and what their roles were. The structure felt unclear, and I had no real understanding of who the key players were or what roles they had\u2014I had a lot to learn and I expected the process to challenge me in new ways. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fortunately, my team worked on an environmental scan after our kickoff meeting, without me having to voice my worry. An environmental scan is a type of secondary research that is used to gather and analyze existing information related to a particular topic or field. In our case, we started by brainstorming what might influence student life on campus around our research topic, since we weren\u2019t yet sure what the key themes in our research would be. Using sticky notes, we mapped out our initial ideas and began looking into relevant articles, reports, and organizational websites. We grouped some of the themes we found related and removed ideas that were too vague or irrelevant to our research. This helped us turn our ideas into general topics and themes we could explore more deeply while conducting our interviews.  Although our secondary research process took approximately 2 weeks, it gave me a solid foundation to build on, with a clear understanding of past research. By looking at what was going on in other universities, how the University of Toronto differed in structure, and what we could potentially expect in our interviews ultimately gave me the confidence I needed to have conversations with students. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Preparation to Real Conservations\u00a0<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Going into my interviews, I was excited and curious to see if the topics we found during our secondary research would actually show up in real conversations. I remember thinking that if some of these issues were already happening on campus, I probably would have heard about them already. It made me question whether our topics were truly relevant or just things we came across during the scan.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n

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In my very first feedback session, a student talked about a challenge they had experienced on campus. After hearing that story, a few others shared similar experiences of their own. Hearing their stories reminded me of a resource one of my team members found during our secondary research. My team and I talked about this resource while organizing our ideas, and it was a topic that had already sparked some interest within our group. Hearing it come up during our discussions with students made it feel even more important. I knew it was worth digging deeper, so I asked follow-up questions to better understand students\u2019 experiences and how it might connect to the themes we were exploring. I would not be able to do so without having prior knowledge of past research and reports. Conducting comprehensive research before diving into our interview process helped me recognize themes students were talking about and categorize them in our research later. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s More\u00a0\u00a0<\/h2>\n\n\n
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Before these interviews, my understanding was that qualitative research explores the \u2018why\u2019 behind data, while quantitative research helps us see patterns and trends. However, conducting these interviews made me realize that secondary research helps us connect qualitative and quantitative research together. It helps me build a foundation of knowledge before I dive into fieldwork. Going through existing resources helped me build context around our research topic and helped me structure the conversations with our participants. Our preparation gave me a stronger sense of direction while conducting interviews. I felt more confident because I had something to build on. I was not just asking questions and collecting data randomly; I had a clear idea of what to look for. I believe that this experience taught me the importance of having a clear direction in interviews. As an interviewer, if I don\u2019t know which direction the conversation is headed towards, it is hard to ask meaningful questions to my interviewee. It allowed me to lead the conversations, instead of asking unrelated questions to kill time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Learn more about Secondary Research\u00a0<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

As a design researcher at the Innovation Hub, I learned that successful qualitative research is never purely based on interview data alone. For us as design researchers, secondary research findings serve as a valuable resource to not only familiarize ourselves with the topic, but also to collect meaningful data that will help create change.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In design thinking, one of the main goals is to understand people\u2019s experiences to address their concerns and needs. Our work at the Innovation Hub helps the various divisions and departments of the University of Toronto to understand the needs of their students, to improve their experiences by addressing challenges on campus. It was a pleasure to have worked with the Innovation Hub and gain this valuable experience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you are starting your own research project, take the time to explore what has already been studied and documented before you begin. Building this foundation will not only strengthen your work but also help you ask more meaningful questions and uncover deeper insights. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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In this blog, Kubra reflects on her experience of being a design researcher for the Innovation Hub, and how secondary research helped increase her confidence in data collection for the Supporting Student Leaders to Create Change project. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kubra Nur Saykili, Design Researcher, Honours Bachelor of Science, Cognitive Science<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Continue reading “Secondary Research in Data Collection\u00a0”<\/span>…<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"author":512,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[10878],"tags":[34735],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/innovationhub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25776"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/innovationhub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/innovationhub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/innovationhub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/512"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/innovationhub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25776"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/innovationhub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25776\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25780,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/innovationhub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25776\/revisions\/25780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/innovationhub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/innovationhub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/innovationhub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}