Sammanfattning
Using a research project on the understanding of family-centered care among health care
professionals, this article presents how vignettes and displays can be used as tools in qualitative
research. Vignettes are hypothetical but potentially real simulations of specific scenarios
used in the production of data, and displays are condensed visual and self-explanatory presentations
of data used in the final reporting. It is common knowledge that vignettes and displays
can be important tools in themselves. We argue that incorporating both already in the
design phase will strengthen the cogency of a project, as it forces researchers to pay attention
to the relationship between data input and analytical output from the beginning and throughout
the research process. We conclude that vignettes and displays are important research and
project management tools facilitating more cogent and resource-efficient projects, but we also
conclude that they are not relevant to all qualitative projects.