Short Abstract

Fast, practical workshop: build a causal map from interviews in the Causal Map app. Learn manual coding, option to try AI-assisted suggestions. Leave with an understanding of what causal mapping can offer as an approach, an ethics/quality checklist and basic knowledge of how to use the app.

Description

Evaluators need to turn rich qualitative material into visuals to communicate findings and assist with evaluative judgements about pertinent drivers and outcomes. In this 40-minute, laptop-open workshop we guide participants through creating a credible causal map from interview excerpts using the Causal Map app, combining manual and optional AI-assisted coding. Causal Map is free to use for manual coding and public projects.

What we’ll do:

• 00–05: Why causal mapping? Quick examples of causal links and how maps support shared sense-making.

• 05–10: Interface tour and setup. Load a small, anonymised dataset (provided), skim transcripts, and discuss coding rules such as “no link without a quote”.

• 10–20: Manual first. Participants manually code 3–5 links; we merge near-synonyms.

• 20–30: Optional AI-assist. Instruct the AI to continue the coding (or continue with manual coding). We review, modify the instructions, recreate new suggestions and then accept/modify/reject individual causal links.

• 30–35: Make it communicable. Create a filtered map for a target audience to answer a specific question, add automatic narrative summaries, and export and share with clickable evidence.

• 35–40: Debrief: limits, mitigations, and next steps.

Learning outcomes: how to…

- Build a causal map that enables tracing from every node/link to the original quotes.

- Optionally, use AI-assisted coding safely with human oversight and clear acceptance rules.

- Produce narrative vignettes and filtered causal maps which support specific research questions and evaluative judgements.

Who it’s for:

Evaluators, analysts, and commissioners who work with qualitative data, including interviews and reports and need fast, transparent synthesis of causal links in the text. No prior mapping experience required.

What to bring / setup:

Laptop + browser. We provide sample data (anonymised), and a one-page crib sheet. Participants will also find out how to upload their own material.

Why UKES Theme 3?

The focus is communication: turning transcripts into visuals to support evaluative judgements, with transparent provenance, means evaluators can answer evaluation-relevant questions in an easily communicable way - maintaining rigour and traceability.