- I hope you've enjoyed learning more about
design research in this course.
It's a booming idea right now
within design disciplines of all kinds,
and many people are pushing
the boundaries of what design is,
and what sort of problems it can solve.
All of this thinking comes back to the user,
and understanding how the problem applies to them,
and they context they exist within.
If you've watched this entire course you should now
have a good foundation of what design research is,
and how it can impact your design work.
My biggest piece of advice is to get out
and start practicing these ideas.
I'm sure some things I've shown you
have seemed a little strange.
I remember learning about Graphic Organizers,
you remember those right?
AEIOU, POEMS, THINK DO USE, The 5E's,
these tools seemed so strange to me,
and kind of like a big waste of time.
Why push all the research you've
just gathered into these models,
only to highlight what you already knew anyway?
It wasn't until I tried using them a few times,
before I really discovered how to make them work for me.
I've always liked the 5E's, I'll be the first to admit
that it's my favorite of these models.
The first time I used it was for a project
on health and wellness for college age students.
We used it to break down our observations
of the various places students could buy food on campus,
and what that experience was like.
It helped us to come up with some ideas
like a speedy checkout for healthy food,
food carts with fresh food,
speedy packaging designs for eating on the go,
and plans to change the placement of food in stores.
I could see that if we hadn't used that model,
we could of missed at least one or two of those ideas.
I also wouldn't be surprised if when you begin to practice
these tools you might find certain ones uncomfortable,
or even worse you could flat out fail at something.
You wouldn't be learning if you didn't right?
I still remember the first time I tried to randomly
approach a stranger for a short interview.
I was working on a project to collect research
about a segregated urban neighborhood,
and part of my research required that I go out
and talk to the residents of that neighborhood.
One day when I was out walking around,
taking some observational notes,
I decided to go for the interview.
I circled around the block for what felt like an hour,
looking at each person I passed,
giving a reason to pass each one in my head.
They looked like they were in a hurry,
or that guy looked like he'd
rather punch me than talk to me.
When I finally found my mark,
a gentleman working on the grounds of a church,
I approached him slowly and nervously,
and I told him something about me
and my project that I hope made sense.
He simply replied, "No thanks,"
turned and walked back inside.
Very defeated, I got in my car and drove back to my
office and thought, "What did I get myself into?"
Now of course, I had no choice but to get that information,
and I had to keep at it.
After getting through one or two rough interviews,
the whole process became much smoother,
and I gained some much needed confidence.
Take comfort in the fact that it
will be a bumpy road ahead, there's no doubting it,
but also know that the more you practice
these methods the smoother things will get.
Your instincts will kick in,
and projects will run maybe not smoothly,
because design is seldomly a smooth process,
but things will at least become comfortable,
and your confidence will grow.