In research on user experiences Ray Lee and I have found that researchers usually do not decide to investigate what software is available with an eye to discovering the package best suited to their needs. Often the picture also includes some time pressure, such as a research grant coming to an end. Thus, while the immediate issue may be whether a computer package can help with their research problem, there are several connected issues that need to be explored before an answer can be given. There are several considerations to make in matching the kind of project and data base to the most appropriate software. First, there is the question of whether the data sources are single or multiple.
Packages vary in their fitness to handle data organised like that.
A project such as that described above would also benefit from facilities to make links between the different sources and from the ability to attach 'source tags' which tell you where information came from. There is a similar issue about single v. multiple cases. Users working with multiple cases usually want to be able to sort them according to different configurations, or examine a sub-set of the cases for a particular characteristic, or make comparisons across cases. Again, software packages vary in how easily one can select portions of the data base or do analysis of patterns across cases. The design of packages to facilitate qualitative analysis relates in some respects to software developed to support content analysis.