[IxDA Discuss] Design research

[Mark Schraad]

I read this morning a column Dan Saffer wrote that is posted on the adaptive path web site. It caused me some concern.

http://www.adaptivepath.com/publications/essays/archives/000755.php

I am a huge proponent of design research, but I think it is all too often done poorly, and not done frequently enough. That said, I agree for the most part with what Dan says regarding many projects and many designers not needing research. What concerns me is the specificity of Dan's message and its audience. I have no data here... but I would surmise that many from the IxDA community get the context of this article and as such all is fine. Of concern is the portion of Dan's (my assumption here) growing audience that is in design school, just out of school and outside of the "designer as motivated learner" catagory. 

Did Dan just give designers with limited experience justification for blowing off research or testing? I am quite certain, that is not the intended message, but it is a concern. I guess I am not sure what the purpose of this article is. Experienced, confident designers with domain expertise and good sense of "hunch", likely don't need to be told that this is OK. They know. 

There is so much time and money wasted in product and service design. Business schools quote numbers of 70 - 80% of all new products fail. This is a horrible waste of resources. Surely... we can do better. One way to effectively improve the odds is to meaasure the intended audience or target market. Research is a great start at this. Even if the research confirms your hunches, it is likely worth the time.

Mark