In my qualitative study, I am trying to avoid the traditional belief that types of qualitative research design are just grounded theory, ethnography, phenomenology, case study, historical, and narrative designs. I am of the view that the 'unstructured interviews' I conducted can be mentioned as my research design. However, the key methods undertaken were 'in-depth interviews' and 'focus group discussions. My confusion now is whether the mention of 'unstructured interview design' in the work can cover the two methods.
I will appreciate your contributions. Also, please add references. Thanks.
Yes, the limited list of research traditions that you list describe does indeed omit what is undoubtedly the most common set of methods for doing qualitative research, which is unstructured (or semi-structured) interviewing followed by thematic analysis.
But "traditions" are not the same as "designs," so you certainly can describe your design as based on unstructured interviewing. In general, things like focus groups are methods while research designs cover how you will use your methods, but this distinction often breaks down in practice.
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