Qualitative research has always been about the why and how of human behaviour.

Traditionally, that meant hours of interviews, focus groups, and field notes, later distilled into transcripts. Valuable? Yes. But text alone can flatten the very things that make human communication so powerful. 

A transcript tells you what was said. What it misses are the pitch, tone, emotion, pace, pauses, and volume changes – the important nuances that often carry the real meaning. As is often said, “it gets lost in translation”.

With today’s tools, we don’t have to settle for part of the information. Voice, video, and images give us a truer, fuller picture, showing not just what people said, but how they meant it.

Voice: More Than Words on a Page

In most research, audio is just a step toward a transcript. But it’s so much more.

Remember the pitch, tone, and emotion that were mentioned above? Well, they all carry meaning. A long silence might hint at a difficult memory. A quick, bright tone might signal real excitement.

The ability to go back and re-listen is a big advantage. Subtleties missed the first time might jump out on playback. Because in voice-first research, how something is said matters as much as what is said.

Video: A Window into Real Life

Video adds another dimension – body language, facial expressions, even how someone moves through a space.

Watching someone unbox a product, for instance, tells you far more than a written review: the sequence of steps they take, where they hesitate, and their immediate facial reaction. These cues often surface insights that participants don’t think to mention.

While video isn’t new in research, digital tools have made it effortless. Remote interviews via Zoom or Teams, and high-quality smartphone cameras, all make it easy to scale, capture authentic moments, and revisit footage when new questions arise.

And importantly, people are more comfortable than ever sharing these moments on camera. Social media has normalised video as a natural form of self-expression, making participants more willing, and often eager, to show rather than tell.

Take Gen Z, for example. Their social media habits in 2024 underscore a strong preference for video-based platforms like TikTok and Instagram. According to Statista, 59% of Gen Z in the US use TikTok (compared to just 44% of Millennials), and 66% are on Instagram (while only 55% of Millennials use the app). This trend highlights how younger generations are not only avid consumers of video but are also key creators of the user-generated content that powers these platforms. Because of this, Gen Z is often more comfortable and natural behind the camera, which can make video research feel easier and more authentic.

Source: Statista, 2024

Images: Stories in a Snapshot

They do say “a picture is worth a thousand words”!
Photos spark memory and emotion in ways a survey never could.

Show someone a picture of their childhood home and you might get a vivid, unprompted story. Ask them to photograph how they use a product, and you hand them the storytelling power – letting them frame their world in ways you might never have anticipated.

Images carry cultural and situational context, symbols, and everyday details that words can’t always capture. In product research especially, they can reveal patterns of use you wouldn’t spot in a standard interview.

Where Tellet Fits In

At Tellet, we see rich media not as an extra, but as essential. 

Our voice-first, multilingual platform captures audio, video, and images seamlessly in conversation, and keeps them connected to the context that matters. Responses can be auto-translated, original recordings revisited, and all media analysed alongside your qualitative data.

The payoff is clear: richer insights and stronger engagement.
Making research conversational and media-driven is part of what gets our surveys to a nearly 90% completion rate. That’s not just a good start – it’s the best kind of head start.

Because when you bring voice, video, and images together, you don’t just collect data, you capture human experience. And that’s where the real insight lives.

If you want to go beyond survey ticks and actually know your consumers, we are here to help.