Research and Development Methods€¦ · Research and Development Methods Parsons New School of...

Research and Development Methods

Parsons New School of Design

Design + Management

Fall 2011

Amanda Wirth

Strategy Consultant, DEGW

[email protected]

How to study people in order to design better.

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

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?


Examples

• Okay

• Why don’t people buy healthy food?

• Better

• How might we improve the experience of purchasing healthy food?


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


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


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


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


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)


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


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)


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


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.

•


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.

•


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

•


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


Insights are not:

• truth

• deliverables

• research for research’s sake


Is this an insight?

• “the solution must be intuitive and easy to use”


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.”


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.”


What is an insight?

• observation + inference + context = insight


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


Process for analyzing research to find insights

• Debriefing

• Coding

• Cluster (develop themes)

• Visualization and diagrams


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)


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


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.


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



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


Position Map


5 MANYATTRIBUTES DEFINE ENTITIES IN A SET POSITION MAP



Charts and Graphs4


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


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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DECISION

BEGIN END

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Choice among alternatives


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Service Blueprint

For more details on the topics discussed in today’s class

please reference:

• Design Research: Methods and Perspectives

• Observing the User Experience

•


Research and Development Methods€¦ · Research and Development Methods Parsons New School of...

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