Research methods

There are numerous research methods commonly used in contemporary product design. This section covers a range of these: observing people to find out what they do (rather than what they say they do); enlisting people’s participation to obtain information for your project; learning how to analyze information collected to identify insights and patterns; and creating simulations to help empathize with your target population and to evaluate design proposals. An explanation is also included of the impact of personal and contextual inspiration on a design project, with descriptions of a variety of project triggers, such as interviews, literature reviews, questionnaires and surveys, focus groups, shadowing, and ethnography.

Typically, the aim of product design research is to ask, observe, think, and learn (with objectivity) from people who interact on a day-to-day basis with products, spaces, and systems. Most research methods utilized in product design involve people, so it is vital you have empathy with your research participants. The following guidelines are useful when dealing with people:

• Make sure you treat people with courtesy at all times during your research.
• You must clarify to your participants your research intentions, what you are looking to find out, why, and what this information will be used for.
• You should describe how you are going to use the information you are collecting and its value to you as a product designer.
• You must gain permission from your participants before collecting any photos or videos of them.
• You need to ensure that the information you collect remains confidential, unless you have agreement with your participants beforehand.
• You must inform your participants that they can decline to answer specific questions or stop the research at any time before the research commences.
• You must ensure that you retain a consistent non-judgmental, relaxed, and harmonious relationship with your participants throughout your research activities.

Once you have completed your design research, you are usually expected to produce new knowledge or understanding that will improve the world, be that from an economic, social, cultural, or environmental perspective (typically by designing a new product, environment, service, or system). The product design research methods used in the early stages of the design process have been categorized in this section. Research methods for a third stage, the concept stage, are covered in Chapter 3.

Design students discussing design research at the start of a project.

Background stage

The background stage referred to here includes the gathering of information from users, clients, and other individuals likely to be involved during the creation of the product. Methods of gathering this information include interviews, questionnaires, and surveys. The information sought embraces potential users’ wants, needs, and desires along with evaluations of competitors’ products.

Interviews

One of the simplest ways to explore whether or not users are happy with a product is to ask them. Interviews basically comprise a series of questions that are posed directly to the participants. They are a good way to get users to comment on how they feel about products. When interviewing, for example, product designers can ask users how they feel when using the product, whether it is easy or difficult to operate, if they enjoy using it or if it is frustrating or annoying to use. There are three broad categories of interviews: unstructured, semi-structured, and structured.

In an unstructured interview, the interviewer asks users a series of open-ended questions and the users are free to steer the content of the interview to cover the issues relevant to them. This type of interview is best used in situations where the product designer has little idea of what the users’ concerns and needs might be. With a semi-structured interview, the interviewer will typically have a clearer idea of what he or she wishes to cover during the interview. In this type of interview, then, users will be more constrained than in an unstructured interview, as the interviewer will have a set agenda to cover. With a structured interview, the interviewer has a much clearer idea of the issues that need exploration. Structured interviews typically comprise a predetermined list of values that the user is asked to select from. Interviews are a versatile method for gathering information throughout the design process, but product designers should be mindful that it can be time-consuming to arrange, conduct, and process the information collected during them.

Literature review

A literature review is the effective evaluation of selected documents on a particular topic. This is a useful early-stages method that enables the design team to develop an informed point of view. A good product design literature review should include a review of published articles and papers, patent searches, a survey of competitors’ products, and an analysis of historical trends and anthropometric data.

Cross-cultural comparisons

Cross-cultural comparisons can often reveal important differences in users’ preferences and how they interact with certain products. Analyzing personal or published accounts of users’ interactions with products or systems across cultures can help product designers design for unfamiliar or global markets.

Noise Bomb, by Jenny Kelloe, an example of a cultural probe pack for research on digital interaction design.

Example of a questionnaire.

Cultural probes

Cultural probes are typically made up of a kit of products that might contain items such as a camera, a notebook, and instructions. Cultural probes are a creative way of collecting and assessing users’ perceptions and interactions with designed products, spaces, and systems. They are one way to access environments that are difficult to observe directly and also to capture more of a user’s actual life. Selected volunteers are given cultural probe packs and asked to use the items in the pack over a period of a few days or weeks and then return the pack to the researchers. The cultural probe items in the pack depend largely on the specific circumstances of the project, but the probe is designed to stimulate thought as well as capture product-user experiences.

Questionnaires and surveys

Questionnaires and surveys are an effective way to elicit responses from a large number of people. However, one major disadvantage of written questionnaires is the possibility of low response rates. Another disadvantage of questionnaires is the inability to probe responses and, when nearly 90% of all communication is visual, gestures and other visual cues are potentially lost. This method can be useful, however, for ascertaining particular traits and values of many users relatively quickly. Questionnaires and surveys can be conducted via email, by the internet, by post, by telephone, and by researchers asking people for responses on the street, in their workplace, or at their home.

Exploratory stage

The stage involves the product designer/researcher working much more closely with their intended end users, creating tools and techniques for gathering information, and using props or prototypes to gauge responses from potential end users. For example, end users may be given specific tasks to carry out with prototypes and “narrate” their thoughts as they use them.

Camera journals

Camera journals involve users recording their daily activities via a written and photographic diary. This is a useful method for getting users to reveal real insights into their daily patterns of behavior. Camera journals are a highly effective method for recording visual evidence of how people interact with products, spaces, and systems.

Narration

Narration is a valuable method for identifying users’ concerns, desires, and motivations when using specific products, systems, and services. Narration involves asking users to think and describe aloud while they are performing a specific activity or operating a product in a particular context.

Focus groups

Focus groups are a form of group interview that capitalize on the communication between participants in order to generate information. Although group interviews are often used as a quick and convenient way to collect information from several people simultaneously, focus groups explicity use group interaction as part of the method. Focus groups typically involve around ten to twelve consumers who are led by a moderator for anything up to two hours in duration. The group works to a tightly scripted discussion. This is an effective way to generate ideas and develop understanding on particular themes without having to reach consensus.

Photographic storyboard capturing the sequential process of making a bag, by Andy Murray Design.

Shadowing

Shadowing is a research method that involves the product designer tagging along with people to observe and gain a good understanding of their day-to-day routines. It is a useful method for identifying potential design opportunities and learning first-hand how users interact with designed products, systems, and services. There are a number of other product design research methods that fall under the general heading of shadowing:

• “fly on the wall” (for observing and recording users’ behavior without interfering with their daily routines);
• “guided tours” (involves designers accompanying users on a tour oftheir relevant designed spaces, products, and regular systems);
• “a day in the life” (a method for identifying the tasks and experiences of users throughout a full or part day).

Ethnography

Ethnography has its origins in anthropology; it is a research approach that is usually defined as the description and explanation of the culture of a group of people. Recently, however, ethnography has been recognized as a creative process that is about discovering cultural patterns and developing models to explain those patterns. Used in this way, ethnography is employed as a front-end design research method to investigate everyday social life and culture as a context for innovation and creativity. The commercial success of this approach has been proven and documented by many leading product design and development companies, including Intel, Microsoft, BMW, and IDEO. Ethnography does not aim to study people, but instead observes people in order to examine everyday experiences, situations, environments, activities, relations, interactions, and processes in rich detail. Various options are: field ethnography (a group of people are observed by a researcher while they go about their normal lives); digital ethnography (using digital tools including digital cameras, PDAs, and laptops to speed up the process without compromising the quality of the data collected); photo ethnography (a camera is used to capture images of their day-to-day life that are annotated with textual descriptions); and rapid ethnography (designers spend time with people in their regular habitats to understand first-hand their habits and rituals).

Observing user working methods and behavior—an example of ethnography.

An example of a user persona.

Personas

Personas are archetypal users with specific objectives and needs based on real research. Personas typically include:

• personal details—name, age, gender
• interests and hobbies
• experience and education
• a photograph
• demographic characteristics
• personality details (shy, timid, outgoing)
• barriers and/or challenges
• specific goals, needs, and motivations

Personas are a useful method during the exploratory stages of the design process. They allow product designers to gain a good understanding of their customers’ expectations and needs in a relatively cheap and straightforward manner.

Branding research

You need to evaluate your rival products and brands and compare and contrast your product against them by asking the following questions:

• Is the product true to the brand?
• Is it relevant and credible in the context of its product field?
• How does it motivate its target consumers?
• Is it distinctive in the competitive context?
• Have you struck the right balance between the buyers and users?

Market research

This can be achieved by observing how rival products are advertised, fitted into the brandscape and retailed by asking the following questions:

• How is this product field merchandised overall?
• What’s the immediate brandscape of competitive brandssurrounding your own?
• How orderly or chaotic is the overall visual impression of the sector?

Retail research

The last step is to observe how people shop in a particular sector:

• Do they devote browsing time to the category, or is it a case of graband go?
• Which elements of the design language in this marketplace seemto be the critical ones used by the consumers in making brand choices?
• Is this a market balanced between buyers and users, for example, a sector featuring adults buying for children?
• Does this product sector seem to represent an “easy buy” for consumers, or do they find it confusing or difficult?

Mood board mapping the market, aesthetics, and user comments of cleaning products, by Tom Harper (see p. 223).