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Design Research guide
Design the right thing,
before designing the thing right
why design research matters to us
BECAUSE IT SUCKS BUILDING SOMETHING FOR 9 MONTHS ONLY TO FIND OUT NO ONE ACTUALLY WANTS TO USE IT
Any solution can only be as good as
the depth of understanding of the
problem.
DESIGNING THE RIGHT THING IS ABOUT ASKING “WHAT IS A GOOD PROBLEM TO SOLVE?”
Empathy gives us a deep understanding of the
problems of others
It helps us ultimately design the right thing because
we can see, feel, and understand the perspectives of
people who are different from ourselves.
OBSERVE
LISTEN TRY IT OURSELVES
We gain empathy for people in 3 ways
but let’s start with listening
“would you use this if…..” asking hypothetical questions about the future
“so what do you think of my idea?” directly pitching your idea
People who are new to design research start by
asking two types of questions (don’t do this)
It’s the users job to tell us about their problems,
it’s our job as designers to solve it.
We don’t act on the user’s request, we act on their behalf
“Are you interested in working out?..”
People don’t say what they mean, and don’t mean what they say
Attitudes help us understand what people think but are a poor reflection of actual behavior.
People are bad at predicting what they’ll do in the future. It’s not that we don’t value what people think, it’s just that we can’t make design mandates solely based on people’s opinions.
Instead of asking…
…a better question is
“How many times have you exercised
in the past month?”
EVERYONE WILL SAY YES TO THIS
“You may say that you like Blond,
Jewish, Democrats but you have a
habit of reaching out to pot-smoking,
Indian, Republicans..
This is called Revealed Preference”
- “Looking for someone”, New Yorker
Stated vs Revealed preferences
Online dating sites know that what people say doesn’t always match their behavior so their design has to accommodate attitudes + actual behavior.
They call this difference Stated vs Revealed preferences. Our products messaging should reflect stated preferences, but the designs should be based off of revealed preferences.
The things we find attractive in an online dating
profile have almost nothing to do with the things
that we find attractive in a real life person when
we’re sitting in from of them.
We react to a person’s behavior but what we see
in a profile are attitudes, preferences, and
background characteristics.
- Benjamin Karney, UCLA psychology professor
Short answer
5 - 20
Long answer
Typically we would speak with 5-20 people.You’ll start seeing clear patterns after speaking with a few carefully selected people. Nielsen Norman group did a study
showing 3 users gets you about 75% of the total usability problems. Speaking with 5-6 is a good number.
Before we talk about how to interview customers correctly you’re probably wondering, how many people should I speak with?
FRAMEWORK FOR INTERVIEWS
TO LEARN ABOUT PROBLEMS WITHOUT
DIRECTLY ASKING FOR SOLUTIONS
1. what was the hardest part about?
2. can you tell me the last time that happened?
3. why was that hard?
4. how did you solve that problem?
5. why was your solution not awesome?
HERE’S A SIMPLE FRAMEWORK FOR
INTERVIEWS
Meet Dave, a tech
startup founder
with 3 employees
“Knowing the bare minimum of what I had to do”
“When I wanted my company to be legit”
“I always felt like I could get in trouble later”
“Felt like lawyers were reaming you every second”
“I paid lawyers to help me set it up”
1. what was the hardest part about ______?
2. can you tell me the last time that happened?
3. why was that hard?
4. how did you solve that problem?
5. why was your solution not awesome?
“Knowing the bare minimum of what I had to do”
“When I wanted my company to be legit”
“I always felt like I could get in trouble later”
“Felt like lawyers were reaming you every second”
“I paid lawyers to help me set it up”
It’s tempting to give Dave exactly what
he wants, in this case some type of
feature that gives him access to lawyers.
But we as a design team know that the
solution was the give him the assurance
of ‘ knowing the bare minimum’ and ‘not
getting in trouble later’ without ever
even needing to speak with a lawyer.
1. what was the hardest part about_______?
2. can you tell me the last time that happened?
3. why was that hard?
4. how did you solve that problem?
5. why was your solution not awesome?
Why we observe
We observe people with our products or in their natural habitat.
Research interviews can teaches us about people’s attitudes and what they say they do but when we observe we see true behaviors.
Pairing observation, listening, and doing it ourselves lets see the workarounds and contradictions.
The starting point for most of our
projects is observation in it’s natural
setting.
Observation can sharpen our awareness
of how people respond to particular
arrangements; we notice what people
already do intuitively. That helps us
make predictions about how people
interpret this things we design.
-Jane Fulton Suri, IDEO
So after listening to, watching , and doing it yourself
you want a list of the following
How are people finding creative ways to solve problems they don’t even realize they have.
What are the contradictions between what people say and what they actually do
Workarounds
Contradictions
shows you that people actually
want your product
makes sure your product is
designed correctly
“People are already solving their problems somehow,
the Workarounds are so unconscious that people don’t even
realize that they do it.”
But when I asked him, ‘how did you
solve this problem?’ He said
1. found out his friend’s dad owns a
specialty athletic boutique 2.
reminds himself of the release date
3. finds out if his friend is working
there 4. asks him if it’s there 5.
pays him ahead of time 6.asks
friend to hide it under counter 7.
organizes his day to go pick it up
after school
One athlete mentioned an
occasional problem of
specialty gear being sold out
in his size but that “it wasn’t
a big deal to him”
We once spoke with athletes
about their buying behaviors
of specialty athletic gear
His workaround validates our
solution but we heard a
contradiction between his
attitude and workaround so we
need to frame our product so he
sees the value in it.
But when I asked him, ‘how did you
solve this problem?’
1. found out his friend’s dad owns a
specialty athletic boutique 2.
reminds himself of the release date
3. finds out if his friend is working
there 4. asks him if it’s there 5.
pays him ahead of time 6.asks
friend to hide it under counter 7.
organizes his day to go pick it up
after school
One athlete mentioned an
occasional problem of
specialty gear being sold out
in his size but that “it wasn’t
a big deal to him”
Design the right thing,
before designing the thing right
thoughts on designing the thing right
in order to design the thing right we ask
“what is the best way to solve a problem?”
Designing the thing right is about designing for the way people
already think and matching mental models. We know we designed
the right thing when people intuitively know how to use a product
without ever even seeing it before.
1. SIT DOWN AT RESTAURANT
2.WAITER COMES, PLACE ORDER
3. FINISH EATING, STAND UP GET CHECK
4. CHECKS ARE ALREADY SPLIT
5. TIP IS ALREADY INCLUDED
6. PAY AT COUNTER
1. SIT DOWN AT RESTAURANT
2.WAITER COMES, PLACE ORDER
3. FINISH EATING, WAITER BRINGS CHECK
4. FIGURE OUT HOW TO SPLIT CHECK
5. HOW MUCH SHOULD WE TIP?
6. WAIT FOR WAITER TO COME BACK
7. VENMO
5A. (STARE AT FRIEND WHO’S GOOD AT MATH)
4A. (FIGHT FOR CHECK)
mental model of eating out in the US mental model of eating out in the Costa Rica
1. SIT DOWN AT RESTAURANT
2.WAITER COMES, PLACE ORDER
3. FINISH EATING, WAITER BRINGS CHECK
4. CHECKS ARE ALREADY SPLIT
5. TIP IS ALREADY INCLUDED
6. STAND UP, GO PAY IN COUNTER
1. SIT DOWN AT RESTAURANT
2.WAITER COMES, PLACE ORDER
3. FINISH EATING, WAITER BRINGS CHECK
4. FIGURE OUT HOW TO SPLIT CHECK
5. HOW MUCH SHOULD WE TIP?
6. WAIT FOR WAITER TO COME BACK
7. VENMO
5A. (STARE AT FRIEND WHO’S GOOD AT MATH)
4A. (FIGHT FOR CHECK)
Eating out in the US Eating out in the Costa Rica
Designing the thing right is about designing for the
way people already think and matching mental
models.
If we opened a restaurant in Costa Rica we would
have to match their Mental Models for eating out, the
same is true for the products we design.
INTERVIEW FRAMEWORK
FOR LEARNING ABOUT MENTAL
MODELS
“where do you go next?” 3. Before each step ask..
“what do you expect will happen?”
4.…and then ask
1. SHOW YOUR PRODUCT OR PROTOTYPE
2.GIVE A SAMPLE TASK
5. KEY AN EYE OUT FOR ANY CONFUSION
do you know the workarounds?
do you know the contradictions
between what people say and
what they actually do?
CONCLUSION
Designing the right thing..
when you ask ‘where do you go
next?’ and ‘what do you think
will happen?’
do people consistently give you
the correct answer?
…designing the thing right
DESIGN RESEARCH: VISION + DISCOVERY
PROTOTYPING PRODUCTION LAUNCH + SCALE
MANAGEMENT + HANDOVER
a guide on connecting Design Research to Prototyping
Coming soon
T E S T
LEAR
N MAKE
