Theme 5: reflection

This week was quite productive for me in terms of getting new knowledge.  In my previous blogpost I mentioned that I was curious how companies used design research in their work. Therefore, I was plunged in design research articles/books and cases.  I noticed that the field of design often uses both quantitative and qualitative methods. For instance, quantitative research is used once research objectives are defined and it helps to understand how to make things simpler and easier to use, how to find the ‘best’ product using experimental design and how to link attitudes to behaviors and set benchmarks to value improvements. Regarding qualitative methods in design research, I read a story of one guy with more than 15 years in marketing who shared his thoughts about the role these methods should play in the creation process. He stressed that clients typically had very narrow views of qualitative research and projects were isolated from the overall development process. He did a qualitative project for Disney and he had to conduct focus groups with moms to identify their design preferences. He didn’t follow a written guide prepared by Disney but made some changes to the traditional focus group approach. The guy played careful attention to each women in the group, by considering her lifestyle and personality and by asking ad hoc ‘what if’ questions.  I realized how it was important to be involved in conversation with potential consumers and then it could change the initial product design based on their impressions and feelings.

In a book Design research: methods and perspectives [Ed.] Brenda Laurel MIT Press, 2003 recommended me by Stefan I became familiar with certain phases at the beginning, middle and end of quantitative design research which can successfully form the design of products and processes.

Research at the beginning: working with thought leaders, talking to the right people and concept testing.

Research at the middle: feature testing (beginning to middle) and usability.

Research at the end: validation and standardization, segmentation and brand experience.

Moreover, it isn’t easy to say that quantitative research should take the place of qualitative research. In my opinion, it has a definite place and value of its own, especially in an iterative design process.

By the way, during the seminar we had some conversations with guys about collaborative design and prototypes. We had a paper in which several prototypes were developed and then combined into one. We also noticed that authors didn’t define research questions and started their paper explaining that the aim was to evaluate and test usability. It seems to be a  common practice in design research papers.