Qualitative analysis for research and teaching

For experienced qualitative researchers in universities and higher education, we aim to make the best coding and analysis experience for both those familiar with qualitative software, and researchers more comfortable with pen and highlighters. Whatever your approach and methodology, Quirkos is designed to become a transparent tool that brings you closer to your text-based data.

Learn more about Quirkos

If you prefer doing qualitative analysis with pen and printouts, Quirkos is designed to be a natural experience, with an interface that mimics the action of coding with highlighters, keeping you close to the data with live visual representations of your emerging data. You can even export your data at any time as a colour highlighted Word file, and print it out with all your colour-coding intact. It's quick to learn, and flexible so that you can work as you want.

Yet Quirkos also brings all the advantages of software analysis, including fast keyword search, the ability to manage dozens of sources and find quotes, live collaboration and of course full undo/redo capabilities.

Quirkos was designed by a team of qualitative researchers from academic backgrounds, with extensive experience in qualitative analysis using a variety of approaches. We aim to advance the field of qualitative research by enabling more people to take part in qualitative analysis, and to challenge the way qualitative data is conventionally disseminated.

We wanted software we could use on any kind of device - Windows, Mac, Linux, and mobile devices, with the same interface and compatible files. We also wanted software that looked less like a spreadsheet, was easier to learn, and reliably saved our data as we went along. It also needed to be cheap enough that large teams, including participants and co-researchers could get involved, and have the option of a perpetual license that wouldn't run out during the writing up stage!

Finally, we wanted to enable end-to-end participatory research. Should you wish to engage participants in the analysis process, Quirkos is easy enough to use that anyone can take part in qualitative analysis. Either use analysis as a data collection event, or allow participants to code their data themselves, see what themes are important to them, and validate thematic triangulation.

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