What methods of information collection could I use to improve the result of the questionnaire?

I can only think of two


Interviews- is a discussion which aiming at obtaining information, especially in asking questions





Observation - is noting and recording something while taking some notes where necessary





BUT WHAT ELSE COULD BE USED?

What methods of information collection could I use to improve the result of the questionnaire?
Focused Groups. A small ( 10-15 ) group of people that hold discussions prompted by a facilitator. This person steers the conversation to get to the bottom of the issue, without telling the group what the real issue is .





Example: talk about beverages , but without telling them that the facilitator wants to find out what people think of a specific brand of orange juice.





Questionnaires: A written questionnaire that goes from general to specific : number of questions vary depending on the survey level ( from 10 questions up to 100 questions)





Census data collection : If questionnaire deals with socio-economic or geographical issues.
Reply:In research, there are generally several types, and you have already identified 2 of them.





First, note that there is qualitative research (generally asks how, or what, and is open ended.. example: "Why do people make web pages?") and there is quantitative research (generally asks how many, or to what degree, and involves numbers... example: "What percentage of people in my neighborhood have web pages?")





Then there are further sub-categories...


1) Historical - looking up books, articles, and prior studies to help find information that other people already wrote about.





2) Textual Analysis - observing a text (like a movie, commercials, books, magazines, etc...) for content and emergent themes. For example, in observing the show "The Flintsones", one can see that it was obviously developed with humor that appeals to adults and children and was the first cartoon to market to adults.





3) Ethnography - This is what you called observation. Is watching a situation or environment from the outside to see what happens, generally for an extended period of time. For example, some researchers join tribes in the forest in order to see how they live.





4) And of course, Interveiwing. A good way to get more info from your respondents is to ask open ended statements--- for example:





Tell me about your childhood.


What do you think of _______?


Etc...





Doing this allows the person to tell a story rather than just answer yes or no.








Hope that all helps!