The document discusses the process of synthesis in design research. It emphasizes that synthesis is the process of turning research findings into the beginnings of design solutions. Key points include: - Designers should spend more time understanding the problem than solving it. - The goal of synthesis is to develop a clear understanding of the problem from research and build consensus across a research team. - Techniques like affinity diagrams and grouping themes can help organize insights during synthesis. - Synthesis results in actionable insights and challenge statements to guide further prototyping and testing.

1. Synthesis

2. The most critical part of
the design process

3. “If I had an hour to solve a problem
I’d spend 55 minutes thinking about
the problem and 5 minutes thinking
about solutions”
-Albert Einstein

4. Designers often try to solve a design
problem while simultaneously trying
to understand the design problem
- Exposing the Magic of Design by Jon Kolko

5. Designers often try to solve a design
problem while simultaneously trying
to understand the design problem
- Exposing the Magic of Design by Jon Kolko

6. How we should spend our time
solving design problems

7. Finding the problem
Understanding the problem
Solving the problem

8. Finding the problem
Understanding the problem
Solving the problem
Research
Synthesis
Design & Prototyping

9. Synthesis is turning the mess of
research to the beginnings of a
design solution

10. Findings are observed
behaviors or quotes.
Insights show us what
people do, why they do it
and how we can design a
solution for it.

11. Insights show us what people do, why
they do it and how we can design a
solution for it.
People’s true needs and
motivations
Observed behavior or quote
Actionable design hypothesis

12. Less than 3 suggests you
didn’t cover a wide
enough range of people.
More than 8 suggests that
you might be expressing the
same insight multiple times.
So how many insights should we have?

13. How we synthesize
Going from problem finding to
problem understanding

14. The goal of synthesis
Consensus across the group
a clear journey of evidence
for design

15. Grouping Emerging Themes

16. Closely review the notes
Write down behaviors, emotions, and
verbatim quotes on post-it notes
Group notes on the whiteboard
Watch patterns emerge
Rearrange the notes as you continue
assess the patterns
Grouping Emerging Themes

17. Affinity diagrams organize and prioritize insights
Observations,
Behaviors,
Quotes
I asked someone
who did it
I asked lawyers I didn’t compare
That are
personalized to
them
wanted to hire my
first employee
In the right
location
Insights
People don’t
know what they
don’t know
People just want
it dealt with
Looking for
someone they
trust
Actionable
insight
People need
to compare
They need to
know you can
be trusted
Within their
family

19. Grouping theme form
usability testing

20. “In 25 years of doing this,
in virtually every usability test I’ve seen,
we knew what the top 3 problems were
once the final user had left the session.”
- the 7 deadly sins of user research, David Travis

21. You know you’ve done usability testing
correctly when
You already have a strong sense about
what you’re going to fix before your
round of testing is done.

25. User Journeys

26. Archetypes help organize useful quotes,
data, and anecdotes from interviews
“A quote that sums up his interview”
Goals
What are some of Dave’s goals?
What did he say?
Quotes that stood out to us
What did we observe?
What we noticed but he didn’t mention
Behaviors, habits, and workarounds
Meet Dave, again

27. User Journeys based on research visualizes the current
experience for how people solve problems. Here is a
sample for how people select an HR solution.
Trigger
Why did you start looking for an HR solution?
Search
Where did you start looking?
Compare
How many services did you look at?
Decide
What was your deciding factor?
Sign Up
How did you feel after you chose?

28. Research Retrospective

29. Three categories
Understood Confusing Noteworthy

30. Synthesizing our research even
farther into actionable insights
and challenge statements

31. We pair insights with
challenge statements

34. A good actionable insight
Based off research
Typically derived from a
grouping of insights
Is short and memorable
Very hard to do

35. A good challenge statement
Directly relates to the
actionable insight
Require further testing
to address

36. Team Sketch Session

37. You’ve synthesized your research.
And have some hunches to explore.

38. All team sketch session
Hunches Ideas

39. Scenarios and prompts
based off synthesis

40. Quick
Steal
Remix
No bad ideas
Fun

44. Take those stacks of sketches and
create polarizing prototypes