1. Design Research
(is not Market Research)
Brown Bag Series, UX Team
creationcenter | COPYRIGHT 2009 T-MOBILE, USA | PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL | NOT FOR PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION 1

2. Research and strategy in
design are ways to give
yourself a reality check.

3. the creation center
Design research is
used to encourage
disruptive innovation
before you create new
products.
T-Mobile: Creation Center Copyright 2010 Andrea Small

4. the creation center
Why don’t we just start viability
YES
coming up with cool desirability
ideas? YES
feasibility
YES
Cool ideas often don’t get to, or even tank, in market.
T-Mobile: Creation Center Copyright 2010 Andrea Small

5. the creation center
courtesy of xkcd.com
1. Get out of your
rabbit hole.
Understand the world through your customer’s eyes.
T-Mobile: Creation Center

6. the creation center
courtesy of xkcd.com
2. Mediate a group
opinion.
Open communication within a team is essential.
T-Mobile: Creation Center

7. the creation center
courtesy of xkcd.com
3. Connect with an
emotional story.
There is no formula for human behavior.
T-Mobile: Creation Center

8. Choose the right method for…
…research
…and synthesis

9. 3. Connect with an Research is
emotional story. about finding the
needs people
don’t even know
they have.
T-Mobile: Creation Center

10. Prepare beforehand.
1.Interview your stakeholder to
understand the company goal.
2.Research existing offerings in a
product space.
3.Align your research method with
the constraints of your project.
http://www.design-research-lab.org/MAPS

11. You are looking for:
•Behavior that surprises your
assumptions.
•Differences between what they say
and what they do.
•The way they define their values
and priorities.

12. research
Immerse yourself with multiple approaches.
Interview Experience Objects
Get a sense of their life context by talking Shadow their everyday life to understand Hold a show and tell of the things they use
about their everyday routine and see their their challenges and how they work around everyday to see what they consider
surroundings. them. important.

13. research
• Card sorts • Questionnaires
• Diaries • Surveys
• Mind maps • Extreme users
• Fly on the wall • Cognitive walkthrough
toolbox • Mystery shopper • Secondary research
• Analogous experiences • Co-design workshops
• Photo journals • Focus groups
• Contextual inquiry • Trend analysis
• Expert interviews • Competitive analysis

14. research
Contextual Inquiry
Interviewing individuals in their home to understand everyday lives.
> Behavior, value systems, unmet needs, workaround solutions
Analogous Experiences
goodies Observing interaction and context at comparative research sites.
> Group dynamics, relationships, navigation
Extreme Users
Shadowing and interviewing outliers to articulate essential human needs.
> Motivators, ecosystem drivers, redefining a problem

15. Synthesis is
about identifying
people’s unmet
needs.

16. Keep in mind:
1.This should be the sum of each
team member’s unique perspective .
2.It’s a bottom-up process to allow
surprising findings to emerge.
3.You are translating observations
into ways to guide new products.

17. Rules of thumb:
•Get concrete to communicate across
practice areas.
•Organize for patterns to visualize the
data and get a sense of scale.
•Make leaps to interpret, and then
keep on iterating for meaning.

18. synthesis
Ramp up your expertise with background knowledge.
Industry experts Cultural landscape Subject matter experts
Learn from the approach of other Look at the macro trends that effect your Understand the right language and
businesses to create revenue- generating customers, from changes in social norms to definitions of your research area, to minimize
recommendations. product fashions. multiple interpretations.

19. synthesis
• Visualizing • Clusters
• Analyzing • Venn Diagram
• Organizing • Typologies
• Experience map • 2x2’s
toolbox • Filtering • Journeys
• Interpreting • Scenarios
• Framework • Tensions
• Personas • Infographics

20. synthesis
Cluster
Filtering pieces of data to see emergent themes.
> Themes, pain points, need tensions
Experience map
Plotting out needs, actions or motivations of the user over time
> Customer journeys, key decision points, scenario plans
goodies Typologies
Breaking out the key user values with different definitions.
> Strategic landscape, User priorities
Framework
Organizing the motivators and trade-off decisions of your users.
> Tools such as 2x2’s, Venn diagrams, or infographics.

21. Now apply these learnings…
…for your own projects!

22. applied insights
Say you have a project on a mobile social networking app:
We don’t need another Facebook,
but then what do we need?
Some parameters:
1.Your marketing stakeholder wants to target young adults (18-34)
2.Your business strategy stakeholder wants to ensure that it is easy
enough to learn for a mass market

23. applied insights
Get to the heart of the matter
Use an analogous experience
1. Ask yourself, what is this
really about?
• Community
• Hangout spot
2. Is there something that
people do already?
• Parking lot at Dunkin’ Donuts
(hmm… no, you need to also think about your client)
• Skate Park

24. applied insights
Open your eyes, and go out the door:
Look for:
• Roles
• Relationships
• Crowded/ empty spaces
• Badges of affiliation
• Hierarchies of status
• Unique language

25. applied insights
You start to notice a pattern Advanced skaters teach and
Performance and mentorship come up mentor in a spontaneous way
over and over again. Skaters spend as much
time watching others skate
The most tricks happen in The best skaters have
front of the lunch tables Certain areas respected the same helmet sticker Casual socializing begins
as non-social with asking for tips

26. applied insights
Now make it actionable
Teaching space
Your users :
HIGH
• Socialize through teaching OPPORTUNITY
• Rely on a mix of different skill levels SOCIAL
• Prefer to hone their skills alone until they can perform
Audience Performance
So, they need:
• Clear marks of “teacher” expertise for learners
NON- SOCIAL
• Designated areas to switch into observation mode
• Practice spaces that are set apart from social areas
Practicing space

27. the creation center
thank you!
T-Mobile: Creation Center Copyright 2010 Andrea Small