[Sigia-l] software for persona design

[Lada Gorlenko]

PVD> If you're thinking about data analysis tools, have you looked at the
PVD> software for ethnographic research, specifically software that supports 
PVD> grounded theory? It lets you input analyze lots of text. Don't know of 
PVD> of a name though, my girlfriend is working on an ethnographic project 
PVD> where they use it.

In my social scientist's days, I used NUDIST (also spelled as NUD*IST)
software for processing large sets of qualitative ethnographic data,
spdecifically when applying grounded theory methodology. Haven't
touched the package for a long while, but it definitely has pedigree
and a quick search shows that it is still very much alive and kicking.

In general, the buzzword to search by is "QDA" (Qualitative Data
Analysis). Here is a recent brief overview of some of the mainstream 
packages: http://sophia.smith.edu/~jdrisko/qdasoftw.htm and
http://www.quarc.de/software_overview_table.pdf will give you a
side-by-side comparison of six of them.

Lada