Design research

Research to find out what
people want
or to
identify their problems/needs?

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design research is to
identify:
user problems/needs and other
business opportunities

Field research or
Primary research (qualitative)

Methods for collecting primary data:
Video/photo observation and registration
(of user behaviour, rituals/habits etc.)
Interviews
(of users and other stakeholders)
Experiments
(usability tests, “method acting”, simulated scenarios)

Observations (User Ethnography)

“User ethnography is about seeing
patterns of behavior in a real world context”
“User ethnography is a research method
based on observing people in their natural
environment “
“User ethnography can provide insights into
how people make sense of the world.”

Observe reality
What people say is not what they do.
Ethnography highlights differences between what
people perceive they do and what they actually
do.

Identify problems
Ethnography identifies people’s “pain points” and guides the way towards solutions.

User culture
Understand your users needs, lifestyle, beliefs, aspirations and habits - and design for
that!
Make your products and brand relevant for your target groups.

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Somebody who watched and learned...

Discover meaning
Explore private and public rituals (and habits)
Examine the artifacts that reflect people’s lives, learn what they value and hold dear.

The tools

Guidelines for video/photo observation
and registration:
Be unobtrusive.
Record as much as possible.
Try to cover all angles

Interviews

Basic procedure:
formulate questions
design questionaire
collect information from interviewees
interpretate

Closed-Ended Question Open-Ended Question
What colour shirt are you wearing? That’s an interesting coloured shirt
you’re wearing.
Do you get on well with your boss? Tell me about your relationship with
your boss.
Who will you vote for this election? What do you think about the two
candidates in this election?

Reasons to do interviews:
• Obtain the interviewee’s knowledge about the topic
• Obtain the interviewee’s opinion and/or feelings
about the topic
•Obtain knowledge about the interviewee’s wants,
needs and believes

Experiments

variables:
Height: 65 vs 75 cm
Generator on vs. off
PSI: 40 vs. 55
responses:
time to complete fixed course on bicycle and pulse rate at finish

“Method acting” on the
real life stage...
become the user...

become a test pilot...

The user ethnography process:

1. Define the problem(s)
What are the issues?
Put the problem into words to give it structure and to nail down the objective.
This serves as the“creative brief” in the quest for insights.

2. Find the people
Who are the people who can most likely shed light on the questions?
Is it somebody who uses certain products or acts a certain way?
Is it somebody who changes or impacts how others act?
Are they people who live in a certain
environment, culture or geographic location?

3. Plan an approach
Figure out a game plan for observations
and interactions with respondents.
Create a set of questions to ask consistently.
Include opportunities for people to show what they own,
what they value and how they do things.

4. Collect data
Meaningful insights don’t come quickly.
The process involves slowing down, taking everything
in, using all five senses and being curious.
Take photographs, video, audio, handwritten notes and
sketches.

5. Analyze data and
interpret opportunities
The outcome of the analysis may include:
design principles, models, personas and user scenarios

6. Visualize insights
Information that is presented in a visually compelling way is
more likely to intrigue, inspire and engage.

Apply user ethnography to:
- get a deeper understanding of your
target users.
- be inspired for better design solutions.

“If you want to understand what motivates a guy
to pick up skateboarding, you could bring him into
a sterile laboratory and interrogate him… or you
could spend a week in a skatepark observing him
interacting with his friends, practicing new skills
and having fun. Ethnography is observing people’s
behavior in their own environments so you can get
a holistic understanding of their world...”
—LiAnne Yu, cultural anthropologist

Good ethnographers don’t just ask questions...
• They delve deeply into the lives of a few people
rather than study many people superficially.
• They holistically study people’s behaviors and
experiences in daily life.
• They tell stories instead of just listing facts.
• They make connections.

Desk research (quantitative):
Demographics
Market - competition
Economics
Rules and regulations
Product portfolios
etc.

Suggestions for research topics:
Society: demographics, cultural trends, etc.
Users: Anthropometry, ergonomics, needs, challenges, behav-
iour, habits, lifestyle, rituals, belief system, value system etc.
Technology: Client technologies, competitor technologies, other
related- and unrelated technologies, etc.
Market: Competition, market trends in related- and unrelated
markets and cultures, etc.
Brand: values, product portfolio, etc.
Business strategy: strategic targets, product portfolio strategy,
etc.