[IxDA Discuss] Design research

[Marc Rettig]

Hi,
My $.02 on this....

The Design Process starts with understanding the people, context and
activity you're trying to fit. 

Maybe you already know a lot about it. Great. Capture that in some form you
can use to drive conception of the new thing. You could choose to test that
model of your understanding, or just go ahead and use it to cook up some
ideas. Once you put some form of your new thing out into the real world,
you're going to find out how your understanding was incomplete or plain
wrong. At the very least you'll get your first glimpse at the NEW context --
which is, the old context with your new thing in it. 

More likely you know right up front how your understanding is incomplete.
There's a big bag of techniques for improving that. Let's call that bag of
tricks "research," though we'll need to use a pretty broad definition of the
word. Draw from the bag of research tricks as befits your needs, schedule,
budget, and abilities. Learn some stuff. Capture that in some form you can
use to drive conception of the new thing,... and off you go. 

This might seem like stating the obvious or over-simplifying. But on every
project I just keep coming back to Trusting The Process, being humble about
what I know, and trying over time to add more techniques, wisdom and skill
to my various bags of techniques. 

Cheers,
Marc Rettig

Fit Associates, LLC
www.fitassociates.com 



-----Original Message-----
From: discuss-bounces at lists.interactiondesigners.com
[mailto:discuss-bounces at lists.interactiondesigners.com] On Behalf Of Dan
Saffer
Sent: Wednesday, May 09, 2007 1:34 PM
To: IxDA Discuss
Subject: Re: [IxDA Discuss] Design research


On May 9, 2007, at 10:09 AM, Josh Damon Williams wrote:

> The essay lists some scenarios where a designer might want to delve  
> into research -- I'm curious if you considered the converse,  
> scenarios where research isn't necessary (aside from the obvious  
> inversions of the listed cases)?

Smaller projects, projects where the designer is likely to be the  
target audience, a subject area/user base/activity the designer is  
familiar with, and maintenance projects on existing products (like to  
fix a usability issue or add in features)...all might be situations  
where research is unnecessary. Which is why I think for in-house  
designers especially, research is a tool to be used only when needed.

Dan


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