‘Connected with what something is like or how good it is, rather than with how much of it there is’ (Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries).
Qualitative research is an iterative process that aims to improve understanding by getting close to the phenomenon studied. It explores issues of ‘why’ and ‘how’ by analysing information, often in the form of words (e.g. notes from observations/interviews), pictures, videos or objects rather than statistics. This type of research involves interpreting events. It may be more subjective, producing data that is less readily generalised.