Design Research guide

HJ Kwon : @hatchejota

Design the right thing,

before designing the thing right

why design research matters to us

BECAUSE IT SUCKS BUILDING SOMETHING FOR 9 MONTHS ONLY TO FIND OUT NO ONE ACTUALLY WANTS TO USE IT

Any solution can only be as good as

the depth of understanding of the

problem.

DESIGNING THE RIGHT THING IS ABOUT ASKING “WHAT IS A GOOD PROBLEM TO SOLVE?”

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…. Design research and

synthesis lies between problem finding and problem solving acting

as a form of problem understanding.

- Exposing the Magic of Design by Jon Kolko

Design research helps us truly understand the problem rather than trying to solve a problem we don’t truly understand yet.

Empathy gives us a deep understanding of the

problems of others

It helps us ultimately design the right thing because

we can see, feel, and understand the perspectives of

people who are different from ourselves.

We gain empathy for people in 3 ways

OBSERVE

LISTEN TRY IT OURSELVES

but let’s start with listening

1. What are people trying to get done?

2. How do they currently do this?

3. What could be better about how they do this?

Interviews are based around actual behaviors not attitudes or opinions,

All variations of interview questions gives us answers to these 3 questions

“would you use this if…..” asking hypothetical questions about the future

“so what do you think of my idea?” directly pitching your idea

Here are two types of questions to avoid but seem

intuitive

It’s the users job to tell us about their problems,

it’s our job as designers to solve it.

We don’t act on the user’s request, we act on their behalf

“Are you interested in working out?..”

People don’t say what they mean, and don’t mean what they say

Attitudes help us understand what people think but are a poor reflection of actual behavior.

People are bad at predicting what they’ll do in the future. It’s not that we don’t value what people think, it’s just that we can’t make design mandates solely based on people’s opinions.

Instead of asking…

…a better question is

“How many times have you exercised

in the past month?”

EVERYONE WILL SAY YES TO THIS

“You may say that you like Blond,

Jewish, Democrats but you have a

habit of reaching out to pot-smoking,

Indian, Republicans..

This is called Revealed Preference”

- “Looking for someone”, New Yorker

Stated vs Revealed preferences

Online dating sites know that what people say doesn’t always match their behavior so their design has to accommodate attitudes + actual behavior.

They call this difference Stated vs Revealed preferences. Our products messaging should reflect stated preferences, but the designs should be based off of revealed preferences.

The things we find attractive in an online dating

profile have almost nothing to do with the things

that we find attractive in a real life person when

we’re sitting in from of them.

We react to a person’s behavior but what we see

in a profile are attitudes, preferences, and

background characteristics.

- Benjamin Karney, UCLA psychology professor

Short answer

5 - 20

Long answer

Typically we would speak with 5-20 people.You’ll start seeing clear patterns after speaking with a few carefully selected people. Nielsen Norman group did a study showing

3 users gets you about 75% of the total usability problems. Speaking with 5-6 is a good number.

Before we talk about how to interview customers correctly you’re probably wondering, how many people should I speak with?

FRAMEWORK FOR INTERVIEWS

TO LEARN ABOUT BEHAVIOR &

PROBLEMS WITHOUT DIRECTLY ASKING FOR SOLUTIONS

1. what was the hardest part about?

2. can you tell me the last time that happened?

3. why was that hard?

4. how did you solve that problem?

5. why was your solution not awesome?

HERE’S A SIMPLE FRAMEWORK FOR

INTERVIEWS

Meet Dave, a tech

startup founder

with 3 employees

“Knowing the bare minimum of what I had to do”

“When I wanted my company to be legit”

“I always felt like I could get in trouble later”

“Felt like lawyers were reaming you every second”

“I paid lawyers to help me set it up”

1. what was the hardest part about ______?

2. can you tell me the last time that happened?

3. why was that hard?

4. how did you solve that problem?

5. why was your solution not awesome?

It’s tempting to give Dave exactly what

he wants, in this case some type of

feature that gives him access to lawyers.

But we as a design team know that the

solution was the give him the assurance

of ‘ knowing the bare minimum’ and ‘not

getting in trouble later’ without ever

even needing to speak with a lawyer.

“Knowing the bare minimum of what I had to do”

“When I wanted my company to be legit”

“I always felt like I could get in trouble later”

“Felt like lawyers were reaming you every second”

“I paid lawyers to help me set it up”

1. what was the hardest part about ______?

2. can you tell me the last time that happened?

3. why was that hard?

4. how did you solve that problem?

5. why was your solution not awesome?

INTERVIEW TRY IT OURSELVES

Observe

OBSERVE

Why we observe

We observe people with our products or in their natural habitat.

Research interviews can teaches us about people’s attitudes and what they say they do but when we observe we see true behaviors.

Pairing observation, listening, and doing it ourselves lets see the workarounds and contradictions.

The starting point for most of our

projects is observation in it’s natural

setting.

Observation can sharpen our awareness

of how people respond to particular

arrangements; we notice what people

already do intuitively. That helps us

make predictions about how people

interpret this things we design.

-Jane Fulton Suri, IDEO

So after listening to, watching , and doing it yourself

you want a list of the following

How are people finding creative ways to solve problems they don’t even realize they have.

What are the contradictions between what people say and what they actually do

Workarounds

Contradictions

shows you that people actually

want your product

makes sure your product is

designed correctly

People are already solving their problems somehow, the

Workarounds are so unconscious that people don’t even realize

that they do it.

We observe because there are actions that are so obvious to

people they don’t even think to mention it

But when I asked him, ‘how did you

solve this problem?’ He said

1. found out his friend’s dad owns a

specialty athletic boutique 2.

reminds himself of the release date

3. finds out if his friend is working

there 4. asks him if it’s there 5.

pays him ahead of time 6.asks

friend to hide it under counter 7.

organizes his day to go pick it up

after school

One athlete mentioned an

occasional problem of

specialty gear being sold out

in his size but that “it wasn’t

a big deal to him”

We once spoke with athletes

about their buying behaviors

of specialty athletic cleats

that costs over $200

His workaround validates our

solution but we heard a

contradiction between his

attitude and workaround so we

need to frame our product so he

sees the value in it.

But when I asked him, ‘how did you

solve this problem?’

1. found out his friend’s dad owns a

specialty athletic boutique 2.

reminds himself of the release date

3. finds out if his friend is working

there 4. asks him if it’s there 5.

pays him ahead of time 6.asks

friend to hide it under counter 7.

organizes his day to go pick it up

after school

One athlete mentioned an

occasional problem of

specialty gear being sold out

in his size but that “it wasn’t

a big deal to him”

OBSERVE

INTERVIEW TRY IT OURSELVES

Do it yourself

but let’s start here

Experiencing something in the first person can show you what interviews

and observing can’t

Synthesis is about the organizing of chaos and the revelation of clarity. It creates the stage for problem understanding. Here are some simple techniques for synthesis

After conducting research we synthesize

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?

Affinity diagrams organize and prioritize insights

Design Mandates

Insights

ObservationsI 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

People don’t

know what they

don’t know

People just want

it dealt with

Looking for

someone they

trust

People need

to compare

They need to

know you can

be trusted

Within their

family

Design the right thing,

before designing the thing right

thoughts on designing the thing right

in order to design the thing right we ask

“what is the best way to solve a problem?”

Designing the thing right is about designing for the way people

already think and matching mental models. We know we designed

the right thing when people intuitively know how to use a product

without ever even seeing it before.

1. SIT DOWN AT RESTAURANT

2.WAITER COMES, PLACE ORDER

3. FINISH EATING, STAND UP GET CHECK

4. CHECKS ARE ALREADY SPLIT

5. TIP IS ALREADY INCLUDED

6. PAY AT COUNTER

1. SIT DOWN AT RESTAURANT

2.WAITER COMES, PLACE ORDER

3. FINISH EATING, WAITER BRINGS CHECK

4. FIGURE OUT HOW TO SPLIT CHECK

5. HOW MUCH SHOULD WE TIP?

6. WAIT FOR WAITER TO COME BACK

7. VENMO

5A. (STARE AT FRIEND WHO’S GOOD AT MATH)

4A. (FIGHT FOR CHECK)

mental model of eating out in the US mental model of eating out in the Costa Rica

1. SIT DOWN AT RESTAURANT

2.WAITER COMES, PLACE ORDER

3. FINISH EATING, WAITER BRINGS CHECK

4. CHECKS ARE ALREADY SPLIT

5. TIP IS ALREADY INCLUDED

6. STAND UP, GO PAY IN COUNTER

1. SIT DOWN AT RESTAURANT

2.WAITER COMES, PLACE ORDER

3. FINISH EATING, WAITER BRINGS CHECK

4. FIGURE OUT HOW TO SPLIT CHECK

5. HOW MUCH SHOULD WE TIP?

6. WAIT FOR WAITER TO COME BACK

7. VENMO

5A. (STARE AT FRIEND WHO’S GOOD AT MATH)

4A. (FIGHT FOR CHECK)

Eating out in the US Eating out in the Costa Rica

Designing the thing right is about designing for the

way people already think and matching mental

models.

If we opened a restaurant in Costa Rica we would

have to match their Mental Models for eating out, the

same is true for the products we design.

INTERVIEW FRAMEWORK

FOR LEARNING ABOUT MENTAL

MODELS

“where do you go next?” 3. Before each step ask..

“what do you expect will happen?”

4.…and then ask

1. SHOW YOUR PRODUCT OR PROTOTYPE

2.GIVE A SAMPLE TASK

5. KEY AN EYE OUT FOR ANY CONFUSION

do you know the workarounds?

do you know the contradictions

between what people say and

what they actually do?

CONCLUSION

Designing the right thing..

when you ask ‘where do you go

next?’ and ‘what do you think

will happen?’

do people consistently give you

the correct answer?

…designing the thing right

Thank You

HJ Kwon@hatchejota

DESIGN RESEARCH: VISION + DISCOVERY

PROTOTYPING PRODUCTION LAUNCH + SCALE

MANAGEMENT + HANDOVER

a guide on connecting Design Research to Prototyping

Coming soon

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