Synthesis!

The most critical part of the design process

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“If I had an hour to solve a problem

I’d spend 55 minutes thinking about

the problem and 5 minutes thinking

about solutions”

-Albert Einstein

Designers often try to solve a design

problem while simultaneously trying

to understand the design problem

- Exposing the Magic of Design by Jon Kolko

Designers often try to solve a design

problem while simultaneously trying

to understand the design problem

- Exposing the Magic of Design by Jon Kolko

How we should spend our time solving design problems

Finding the problem

Understanding the problem

Solving the problem

Finding the problem

Understanding the problem

Solving the problem

Research

Synthesis

Design & Prototyping

Synthesis is turning the mess of research to the beginnings of a

design solution

Findings are observed behaviors or quotes.

Insights show us what people do, why they do it and how we can design a

solution for it.

Insights show us what people do, why they do it and how we can design a

solution for it.

People’s true needs and motivations

Observed behavior or quote

Actionable design hypothesis

Less than 3 suggests you didn’t cover a wide

enough range of people.

More than 8 suggests that you might be expressing the same insight multiple times.

So how many insights should we have?

How we synthesizeGoing from problem finding to

problem understanding

The goal of synthesis Consensus across the group a clear journey of evidence

for design

Grouping Emerging Themes

Closely review the notes

Write down behaviors, emotions, and verbatim quotes on post-it notes

Group notes on the whiteboard

Watch patterns emerge

Rearrange the notes as you continue assess the patterns

Grouping Emerging Themes

Affinity diagrams organize and prioritize insights

Observations,Behaviors, Quotes

I asked someone

who did it I asked lawyers I didn’t compare

That are

personalized to

them

wanted to hire my

first employee

In the right

location

InsightsPeople don’t

know what they

don’t know

People just want

it dealt with

Looking for

someone they

trust

Actionable insight

People need

to compare

They need to

know you can

be trusted

Within their

family

Grouping theme form usability testing

“In 25 years of doing this, in virtually every usability test I’ve seen, we knew what the top 3 problems were

once the final user had left the session.”

- the 7 deadly sins of user research, David Travis

You know you’ve done usability testing correctly when

You already have a strong sense about what you’re going to fix before your

round of testing is done.

User Journeys

Archetypes help organize useful quotes, data, and anecdotes from interviews

“A quote that sums up his interview”

Goals

What are some of Dave’s goals?

What did he say? Quotes that stood out to us

What did we observe? What we noticed but he didn’t mention

Behaviors, habits, and workarounds

Meet Dave, again

User Journeys based on research visualizes the current

experience for how people solve problems. Here is a

sample for how people select an HR solution.

TriggerWhy did you start looking for an HR solution?

SearchWhere did you start looking?

CompareHow many services did you look at?

DecideWhat was your deciding factor?

Sign UpHow did you feel after you chose?

Research Retrospective

Three categories

Understood Confusing Noteworthy

Synthesizing our research even

farther into actionable insights

and challenge statements

We pair insights with challenge statements

A good actionable insight

Based off research

Typically derived from a grouping of insights

Is short and memorable

Very hard to do

A good challenge statement

Directly relates to the actionable insight

Require further testing to address

Team Sketch Session

You’ve synthesized your research. And have some hunches to explore.

All team sketch sessionHunches Ideas

Scenarios and prompts based off synthesis

Quick Steal Remix

No bad ideas Fun

Take those stacks of sketches and create polarizing prototypes

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