AIGA/Refresh Columbia Design Research

Nov 19th, 2014, at SoCo Work in Columbia, SC

Transcript

1. Making Decisions 
 as Designers Sam Kapila — @samkap
2. CURAÇAO
9. Growing into Design
10. What is design research? Seeking out information and data to help 
 define and solve goals and design problems, leading to a solution.
11. It’s the WHY of Design
12. Just Enough Research Erika Hall
13. 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
14. 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)
15. 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 print and web designers, developers, art directors 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…
16. …a blank artboard to stare at.
17. EDUCATE THE CLIENT
18. DESIGN FOR THE USER
19. …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
20. Risk factors • Going off-brand or off-personality • Possibility of insulting the audience • Harming the user experience • mismatched trends applied to design
21. FLAT DESIGN IT IS NOT A DESIGN TREND. 
 IT IS MODERNISM REPEATING ITSELF, AGAIN.
22. The Hamburger Pizza Parallax (I’m working on a more catchy name… but for now… it’s food related)
23. The Hamburger Menu And the research that defends why it may not be the most user-friendly
24. 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”
25. It’s not delivery, it’s not research
27. 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
28. When does design end and research begin?
29. 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.
30. It’s not what you say it is, it’s what they say it is — Marty Neumeier
31. Types of Research • Qualitative (ethnographic, interviews) • Quantitative (surveys, testing, analytics) • Internal or External (competitive) audits
32. Potential Research Goals • Solve a problem (including one the client may not know about) • Sell something • Build guidelines or structure • Compete, justify • Reflect, analyze
33. How to conduct research • Background checks and history (audit) • Interviews • Competitive Market Study • SWOT Analysis
34. How to conduct interviews with users, clients, employees, etc
35. 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 • Analyze what you learned
36. Answering questions is relatively easy. Answering the right questions is more difficult. — Michael Cronan
37. Starter Interview Questions
 for Clients • Who are you? • Who needs to know? • How will they find out? • Why should they care? — Marty Neumeier, brand strategist
38. When everyone zigs, ZAG! — Marty Neumeier, brand strategist and author of The Brand Gap, Zag, and The Designful Company
39. SWOT Analysis • Strengths • Weaknesses • Opportunities • Threats
40. Grab data for qualitative and quantitative research, then get strategic.
41. How? • Make wordlists • Merge unexpected ideas • Find patterns and similarities • Don’t marry one idea; work on iteration
42. More than one answer might be right. Michael McVicar, Red Antler, and Mike Davenport, Swarm App
43. 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
44. How we access the web (Steph Hay’s list during BDConf) • Touch • Click • Hover • Speak • Sense • Grab • Stretch • Listen • Pull • Push • Type • Swipe
47. Process is a competitive advantage Alina Wheeler, author of Designing Brand Identity, pg 91, second edition
48. Jesse James Garrett’s Nine Pillars of Web Teams
49. RMReO
50. Edward DiBono’s six thinking hats • Managing • Information • Emotional • Logical • Optimistic • Creative
51. Research and decision making 
 is about understanding, which creates value in design. — Me, right now
52. Research is about understanding — Me, right now