This document discusses the importance of design research and strategy. It provides examples of guerrilla design research techniques people can use without large budgets. These include observing analogous environments to understand user behaviors, roles, and relationships. The document recommends identifying patterns in the data and translating observations into insights that guide product development. It then gives an example of how to apply these techniques by observing a skate park to develop an understanding of how skills are taught, mentored, and developed among users that could inform the design of a mobile social networking app.

1. Guerilla
Design
Research
joycechou2010

2. You’re a DESIGNER.
So, why do you need
research and strategy?

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

4. Design research is used
to encourage disruptive
innovation before you
create new products.

5. Why don’t we just viability
YES
start coming up with
desirability
cool ideas? YES
feasibility
YES
Cool ideas often tank, or
don’t even get to the market.

6. 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

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

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

9. OK, you’re bought in.
How do you actually
do this?

10. Gather
data.

11. Go to where people
spend their everyday
life and look for the
needs they don’t even
know they have.
T-Mobile: Creation Center

12. You are looking for:
• Workaround or DIY solutions
to small annoyances.
• Behavior that surprises your
assumptions.
• Differences between what
people say and what they do.
• The way people define their
values and priorities.

13. Immerse yourself in their world
Perspective Experience Objects
Interview to get a sense of their Shadow their normal life to Hold a show and tell of the things
everyday routine and hear stories understand their challenges and they use everyday to get a sense
of what they consider important.
that are meaningful to them. how they work around them.

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

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

16. Next, make data
meaningful.

17. Translate observations
into ways that can
guide new product
development.

18. Identify unmet needs:
• 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.

19. Recognizing needs as a team
Define Explore Empathize
Each team member brings a Surprising findings emerge when To create a compelling story, the team
unique perspective and associate the team allows connections to form must make a personal connection
with the user experience.
meaning in different ways. organically in a bottoms-up way.

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

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

22. Now let’s get GUERILLA.
You don’t need a corporate expense
account or a team of experts. Use
what you have and observe the world
around you.

23. Say you have a project
on a mobile social
networking app...

24. We don’t need another
Facebook, but then
what do we need?
Understand your 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.

25. Get to the heart of
the matter
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
Finding an analogous experience.

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

27. Start out by looking
at the big picture
The environment shows you how
people behave as a whole .
The most tricks happen in
front of the lunch tables
Certain areas are
respected as non-social

28. You start to notice
a pattern Performance and mentorship
come up over and over again.
Skaters spend as
much time watching
others skate
The best skaters have Advanced skaters teach
Casual socializing begins
the same helmet sticker and mentor in a
with asking for tips
spontaneous way

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

30. thank you!
contact me at
joyce.hoice@gmail.com