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Design Research and Decision-Making (Slides fro...

Sam Kapila
October 10, 2014

Design Research and Decision-Making (Slides from Aggregate Conference 2014)

Sam Kapila

October 10, 2014
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  1. What is design research? • Seeking out information and data

    to help define and solve goals and design problems, leading to a solution.
  2. Erika Hall’s reasons to do design research • Solves a

    problem (that the client may or may not be aware of) • Discover cultural, social, or economical factors that may not be previously obvious • Competitive edge • Setting valid goals for a foreseeable future
  3. Why else do we do design research? • Consider the

    right solution or number of possible solutions for a design problem • Use the research to narrow down options • Add value to what designers do and create 
 (we are not decorators; this is an opportunity)
  4. Benefits of design research • Defend design decisions that are

    right for the user, brand, website, etc. rather than based on the client or designers personal preferences • Get designers, developers, and clients on the same page, trying to solve the same problem • Decisions based on FACT rather than ASSUMPTION • It gives us a strategy or at least a starting point other than…
  5. …And what happens when we don’t research • Risk factor

    goes up (Jeffrey Veen in intro for Mental Models by Indi Young) • Heavy reliance on design trends that do not suit the client or design solution • Decisions more likely to be arbitrary or subjective • Not solving the right problem, if at all
  6. Risk factors • Going off-brand or off-personality • Possibility of

    insulting the audience • Harming the user experience • mismatched trends applied to design
  7. FLAT DESIGN IT IS NOT A DESIGN TREND. 
 IT

    IS MODERNISM REPEATING ITSELF, AGAIN.
  8. The Hamburger Pizza Parallax (I’m working on a more catchy

    name… but for now… it’s food related)
  9. What they found • User tests included three types of

    RWD-friendly menu styles: • The three-line Hamburger menu icon • The three-line Hamburger menu icon designed as a button (outlined box) • The word “Menu” • An outlined box with the word “Menu”
  10. The Dangers of Parallax • bloated code, not necessarily RWD-friendly

    or cross browser friendly • “May enhance but do not improve the user experience” • Scrolling for longer periods of time and more effort required • Caused vestibular side effects or vertigo
  11. 60% of the time, 
 I research every time* *I

    don’t actually have research that backs up this statistic, but I do have this GIF, so it seems like the right number.
  12. Types of Research • Qualitative (ethnographic, interviews) • Quantitative (surveys,

    testing, analytics) • Internal or External (competitive) audits
  13. How to conduct research • Background checks and history (audit)

    • Interviews • Competitive Market Study • SWOT Analysis
  14. Potential Research Goals • Solve a problem (including one the

    client may not know about) • Sell something • Build guidelines or structure • Compete, justify • Reflect, analyze
  15. Competitive Market Study ! • What are we doing right?

    • What are we doing wrong? • What are they doing right? • What are they doing wrong? • What can we do differently? • Will it alienate our users?
  16. When everyone zigs, ZAG! — Marty Neumeier, brand strategist and

    author of The Brand Gap, Zag, and The Designful Company
  17. Starter Interview Questions
 for Clients • Who are you? •

    Who needs to know? • How will they find out? • Why should they care?
  18. User Interviews • Realize the you’re designing for the user,

    not other designers or clients. • Remove your ability to assume what the user needs or will say • Ask general questions to gauge experience and feedback, without narrowing it down too much • Analyse what you learned
  19. Blend Concepts • Make wordlists • Merge unexpected ideas •

    Find patterns and similarities • Don’t marry one idea; work on iteration
  20. More than one answer might be right. Michael McVicar, Red

    Antler, and Mike Davenport, Swarm App
  21. John Kane’s rules for choosing typefaces, and how it applies

    to design decisions • Actual content • The context it exists in • Historical connotations • The intended audience
  22. How we access the web (Steph Hay’s list during BDConf)

    • Touch • Click • Hover • Speak • Sense • Grab • Stretch • Listen • Pull • Push • Type • Swipe
  23. Edward DiBono’s six thinking hats • Managing • Information •

    Emotional • Logical • Optimistic • Creative