- In this section we're going to discuss another
research method called market research.
For those of you that's familiar with research
and design, the term market research
might resonate with you.
Market research studies human behavior
towards a market-based economy.
In essence, it's research aimed at understanding
how human connect to goods, services and experiences.
For instance, what colors, textures and styles
are we drawn to?
Will this advertisement appeal to us?
Are we ready for this new version of a product?
Market research talks about people
in the context of being a consumer
and its primary goal is to connect consumers
to products, services or experiences
through a means of visual communication and design.
Let's say we're part of a team that has been
asked to develop and brand a bike share system
for a major metropolitan city.
One effective way we might conduct market research
is to carry out a demographic study in order
to understand if our city would support this system.
Demographics are collections of data
that represent a group of people or market segment.
They are quantitative data.
They can describe anything from cultural,
economical and social characteristics.
This data can be particularly useful
to give context to the needs and motivations of an end user.
So we begin by using secondary research
to study the demographics of other cities
that have started bike share systems.
From this, we have a good understanding
of some important factors, the average age
of users, their income, the amount of time
they use a bike, how far they travel,
how often they exercise and what they believe
about urban transportation.
Then, in order to become more familiar
with our own potential end user,
we study the demographics in our city.
And we use these two sets of data
to compare and discuss whether or not
we believe that we have the appropriate market segment
needed to use and support this system.
Market research can also be used to establish
preferences within a design outcome,
such as in the following case.
We found that most people prefer the color
of the bikes to be bright so that they're easy to identify.
This also helps the user to feel more recognizable
to surrounding traffic.
With that data in mind, we chose a limited
palette of red, yellow and green,
all bright colors, to present and test
with our sample audience.
Preferences, such as what color will appeal
to customers most, are called psychographics.
Psychographics are collections of data
that represent subjective beliefs.
Psychographics help researchers to gain insight
into the preferences of a market segment
and they can measure anything from opinions
to religious beliefs to lifestyle preferences.
So remember, market research considers
our needs and preferences with a focus
towards a market-based economy.
I need that pink blender or I wanna buy
that new red car I saw in the ad
with the star athlete.
This is important to keep in mind
when we discuss the next research method, ethnography.