[IxDA Discuss] Design research

[Josh Damon Williams]

It's an interesting essay, and I like the conversation it's sparked.  
Your points about designer hunches reminds me of Malcolm Gladwell's  
premise in Blink -- you meet a doctor on the street and he says, "You  
don't look to well" -- while he might not be able to articulate your  
exact problem in that quick moment, his years of experience are  
informing his hunch, and it might be a good time for you to go for a  
check up. The same applies to design practitioners -- a solution  
might just be based on a hunch, but the hunch is informed by all the  
experience kicking around consciously and/or subconsciously.

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)? For example, I've seen projects  
forego research when meterics on existing functionality have been  
deemed useful enough to provide a sense of how the proposed redesign  
would improve the experience (increasing conversion, say, on a  
transactional site).

On May 9, 2007, at 7:34 AM, Dan Saffer wrote:

>
> The point of the article was to run counter to the dogma that is
> currently in vogue: namely that research is needed on every project,
> all the time. Which is nonsense, especially for in-house designers
> working on projects in which the users and subject area are well- 
> known.
>
> I would content that even designers with limited experience can have
> good hunches. I've worked alongside some amazing, talented designers
> with limited experience whose hunches were great. And I've followed
> them.