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Research and Development Methods
Parsons New School of Design
Design + Management
Fall 2011
Amanda Wirth
Strategy Consultant, DEGW
How to study people in order to design better.
Research Framing
A word on Design Problems - research to understand user
behavior and to recommend design solutions
• Many great questions and hypotheses from the assignments; take a
point of view - are you from spotify looking to learn something about
itunes? an outsider looking to crack the coke vs. pepsi rivalry?
• A design problem assumes the possibility for a design solution
• Think about the solution space - will your research findings lead you
to recommend:
• improvements to an existing product / service / experience?
• people to target for the future?
• a whole new product to address currently unfulfilled needs?
• **this is where it differs from scientific method
| Research and Development Methods | A. Wirth Framing Research
Examples
• Scientific research
• Are farmer’s market foods healthier for people?
• Design research
• Why do people purchase farmer’s market foods?
| Research and Development Methods | A. Wirth Framing Research
Examples
• Okay
• Why don’t people buy healthy food?
• Better
• How might we improve the experience of purchasing healthy food?
| Research and Development Methods | A. Wirth Framing Research
Additional Research Methods
Quiz time
| Research and Development Methods | A. Wirth Additional Methods - QUIZ
Communication Audit
• What is the value of conducting communication audits?
• get a sense of current offerings
• collaborate with the client
• reframe offerings in a clear and tangible way
| Research and Development Methods | A. Wirth Additional Methods - QUIZ
Experience Mapping
• What is the 5-E framework for mapping experiences?
• Entice > Enter > Engage > Exit > Extend
• What are the three “spots” to look for in an experience?
• bright spots
• hot spots
• gaps
• What are four qualities of a useful experience map?
• extensive photo or video documentation
• told from the point of view of people having the experience
• well structured, clear hierarchy
• collaborative, emerging from conversations among a team
| Research and Development Methods | A. Wirth Additional Methods - QUIZ
Deprivation Research
• What is the process for deprivation research?
• build a baseline of behaviors, take away an element, observe new
experience, give participants a “lifeline” and capture the reunion
• What is one of the critical things deprivation research may uncover?
• emotional attachments
• deeply embedded practices and beliefs
• key barriers to change
| Research and Development Methods | A. Wirth Additional Methods - QUIZ
Self-documentation (Cultural Probes and Diaries)
• What is a key difference between this method and most others?
• self-reported: potentially biased; can conduct during an activity where
you do not want to influence their actions
• long-term: captures an experience over time and the changes in a
user’s relationship to the product or service, not just a single interaction
• geographically neutral: method can be conducted remotely
• What are some of the things that change for a user during the
progression from newbie to expert
• mistakes are made
• mental models are built
• expectations are set
• habits are formed
• opinions are created
• a context is developed
| Research and Development Methods | A. Wirth Additional Methods - QUIZ
Self-documentation (Cultural Probes and Diaries)
• What are the two types of self-documentation?
• Unstructured
• Structured
• What are examples of structured diaries?
• survey-structured: set of questions
• usability test: asked to perform task and evaluate it
• problem reports: filled out whenever user has problems or insights
• cultural probes: prompts and tools given to capture cultural values
• How many participants and for how long?
• 5 - 10 participants for a small research group (or single researcher), for
a trend to be observable at least half a dozen diary entries so this will
depend on the frequency of use and requested diary entry (the more
frequent, the more subtle changes you can notice)
| Research and Development Methods | A. Wirth Additional Methods - QUIZ
Informance (performance ethnography, design improvisation)
• What is informance?
• technique of role-playing, creating characters and learning through
pretending
• What are the steps of informance?
• ethnographic study
• interpreting the data
• acts of role-playing / pretending
• What are two situations where informance is useful?
• entirely new products or services
• when designing for segments where you have little in common
| Research and Development Methods | A. Wirth Additional Methods - QUIZ
Surveys
• What is the definition of a survey?
• a set of questions that creates a structured way of asking a large group
of people to describe themselves, their interests and their preferences
• What are the three major categories of questions?
• characteristic: describe who someone is (demographic)
• behavioral: outline how someone behaves (usage)
• attitudinal: inquire into what people want and believe (satisfaction,
preference and desire)
| Research and Development Methods | A. Wirth Additional Methods - QUIZ
Surveys
• What are the steps for writing a survey?
• brainstorm questions
• write the questions
• edit and order the questions
• write the instructions
• layout the report
• How many people should be surveyed (sample size)?
• Population: 1000, Sample Size: 150 (15%)
• Population: 10,000, Sample Size: 300 (3%)
• Population: 100,000, Sample Size: 800 (.8%)
• **the smaller the population the larger percent sample size
• ***the larger the population the smaller percent sample size
| Research and Development Methods | A. Wirth Additional Methods - QUIZ
Analyzing Research
Analyzing Research - driving for insights
• Once your research has been conducted, results compiled it is
time to do qualitative research analysis
• This can be more challenging than quantitative where charts
and graphs can easily be used to visualize the results and
statistical analysis is easy to complete
• Qualitative analysis should be collaborative, visual and iterative
• **And it should drive towards insights
• (lets work backwards to define this)
| Research and Development Methods | A. Wirth Analyzing Research
What is an observation?
• An act or instance of noticing or perceiving
• A remark, comment or statement based on what one has noticed or
observed
• Examples
• Dr. Paul says, “I am skeptical of the latest drugs.”
• Angela’s unopened phone bills are in a pile in the bathroom next
to the cat litterbox.
•
| Research and Development Methods | A. Wirth Analyzing Research
What is an inference or interpretation?
• The act or process of deriving logical conclusions from premises
known or assumed to be true
• The act of reasoning from factual knowledge or evidence
• Examples
• If I had a severe illness Dr. Paul would recommend the tried-
and-true therapy over the cutting-edge, experimental treatment.
• Angela does not really care about looking at her phone bills.
•
| Research and Development Methods | A. Wirth Analyzing Research
What is an insight?
• An instance of apprehending the true nature of a thing, esp.
through intuitive understanding
• In psychology:
• a. an understanding of relationships that sheds light on or helps
solve a problem
• b. an understanding of the motivational forces behind one’s
actions, thoughts or behavior
•
| Research and Development Methods | A. Wirth Analyzing Research
Insights should:
• Be fuel for innovation and idea generation
• Be inspiring
• Be specific
• Connect or contrast ideas
• Feel new - frame or explain in a way that connects previously
known facts in a new and meaningful way
• Be revelation - unexpected things that make you sit-up and pay
attention
• Bring visibility and clarity to previously hidden meaning
• **Allow us to see the world in a new way
| Research and Development Methods | A. Wirth Analyzing Research
Insights are not:
• truth
• deliverables
• research for research’s sake
| Research and Development Methods | A. Wirth Analyzing Research
Is this an insight?
• “the solution must be intuitive and easy to use”
| Research and Development Methods | A. Wirth Analyzing Research
Is this an insight?
• “There are 3 basic types of doctors the world over: Cautious,
Moderate and Radical. These types are not defined by geography,
but rather by how they perceive risk.”
| Research and Development Methods | A. Wirth Analyzing Research
ARE THESE EXAMPLES OF INSIGHTS?
“There are 3 basic types of doctors the world over: Cautious,
new, unproven drug. unbalanced approach between being too radical or being too cautious.
that needs to be “shut off” by any means necessary before it is too late.
Is this an insight?
• “People think about their phone tariff once and for about 5 minutes
in the shop as they compare phones. Many people rarely even open
their phone bills after about the second month into their contracts.
They have other things in their lives that are much more important
to them.
• The phone bill is currently a wasted touch point for our client to
connect with customers.”
| Research and Development Methods | A. Wirth Analyzing Research
What is an insight?
• observation + inference + context = insight
| Research and Development Methods | A. Wirth Analyzing Research
Good insights:
• Compelling or even good insights are not easy to have
• Good insights tend to be hard-won conclusions that are usually
drawn only after careful consideration and interpretation of what
has been observed
• There is some creativity required for making observations
• There is some creativity required for making inferences
• There is a lot of creativity required for making insights
• Good insights tend to be some new combination of observed fact
with a creative inference which ideally creates new space for
creative or conceptual design
• **Like good ideas, good insights can come at any time
| Research and Development Methods | A. Wirth Analyzing Research
Process for analyzing research to find insights
• Debriefing
• Coding
• Cluster (develop themes)
• Visualization and diagrams
| Research and Development Methods | A. Wirth Analyzing Research
Debrief after each research method
• After each interview, observation, groups session or other method,
use your initial gut instinct to begin formulating observations,
inferences and insights. Ideally, debrief with others.
• Things to capture:
• Characterizations in response to main topics
• Common patterns or behaviors
• Anomalies
• Emerging themes, opportunity areas
• Answers to hypothesis, new hypothesis
• Activity/process diagrams
• Unmet needs, problems, issues
• Unanswered questions (for follow up or next interview)
| Research and Development Methods | A. Wirth Analyzing Research
Code your data
• Compile quotes, images, artifacts, any data from your research
and code them with a consistent set of attributes
• Things to look for:
• Values, mental models, orthodoxies, what creates interest/
passions, paradoxes
• Activities, processes, systems that are set up, specific ways users
do things
• Problems, limits of needs/desires, workarounds, notes, signs
• Rules of thumb, characterizations, typicals/extremes, great stories
| Research and Development Methods | A. Wirth Analyzing Research
Cluster into themes
• Compile data
• Group data into categories
• Develop themes from the rich categories
• From the themes develop “spreads”
Analyzing Research| Research and Development Methods | A. Wirth
1. theme and descriptive paragraph
2. supporting evidence
3. directives
Develop theme “spreads”
• Themes and Descriptive Paragraph
• Area of interest and insight related to research questions. Not
necessarily all the same kind of topics, use a variety to explore.
Describe in a few sentences.
• Supporting Evidence
• Verbal descriptions, quotes from interviews, pictures and video that
illustrate a point. Caption for evidence has a three-tier structure:
• Directive
• Recommendation for a new approach. Similar to considerations, but
at a higher level.
Analyzing Research| Research and Development Methods | A. Wirth
1. observation: state facts, what actually happens
2. implication: establish interest, irony, surprise
3. consideration: suggest possible solutions, new approaches
Create visualizations and diagrams
• Diagrams provide a visual structure for reporting findings and
insights consisting of:
• Overall visual structure
• Data layers organize what is known
• Interpretive layer calls out important aspects
• **a few examples
| Research and Development Methods | A. Wirth Analyzing Research
| Research and Development Methods | A. Wirth Analyzing Research
MANY RELATIONS CONNECT ENTITIES IN A SET3
FIVE USEFUL WAYS TO COMBINE COMPONENTS FOR ERAF ANALYSIS
NETWORK DIAGRAM
Portions © VIJAY KUMAR | INSTITUTE OF DESIGN | ILLINOIS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
Network Diagram
| Research and Development Methods | A. Wirth Analyzing Research
Position Map
FIVE USEFUL WAYS TO COMBINE COMPONENTS FOR ERAF ANALYSIS
5 MANYATTRIBUTES DEFINE ENTITIES IN A SET POSITION MAP
Portions © VIJAY KUMAR | INSTITUTE OF DESIGN | ILLINOIS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
| Research and Development Methods | A. Wirth Analyzing Research
Charts and Graphs4
FIVE USEFUL WAYS TO COMBINE COMPONENTS FOR ERAF ANALYSIS
ANATTRIBUTE DEFINES ENTITIES IN A SET
2015
59
43
89
30
50
29
93
30
20, 4%
15, 3%
59, 13%
93, 21%
30, 7%
CHARTS – BAR, PIE, LINE
Portions © VIJAY KUMAR | INSTITUTE OF DESIGN | ILLINOIS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1043, 9%
89, 19%
30, 7%
50, 11%
29, 6%
20 15
59
43
89
30
50
29
93
30
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
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Decision Tree
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| Research and Development Methods | A. Wirth Analyzing Research
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| Research and Development Methods | A. Wirth Analyzing Research
Service Blueprint
For more details on the topics discussed in today’s class
please reference:
• Design Research: Methods and Perspectives
• Observing the User Experience
•
Analyzing Research| Research and Development Methods | A. Wirth