Why is design research important?
Perhaps the single most pernicious
sort of folly I have seen over nearly thirty years in the computer
field is the
belief on the part of engineers, designers, and marketing people
is that they "just know" what will work for their audience. For
extremely observant, experienced designer, this may indeed be true,
but such people are exceedingly rare, and those who are most successful
have "trained" their intuition by carefully observing and reaching
deep understanding of certain kinds of people, cultures, and contexts.
For the rest of us, that first "great idea" is usually a shot in
the dark. Examining the idea to discover the hypotheses that are
implicit in it gives the designer a platform for inquiry that will
inform the project. It may also surprise and delight the designer.
Full-blown ideas for great, innovative products do
not come from research subjects. The designer need not fear that
engaging in research means that one is the slave of their findings.
Design research includes the careful analysis of findings, turning
them this way and that, looking for patterns. At the end of the
day, well-designed research findings can spark the imagination
of the designer with outcomes that could not have been dreamt of
by either the research subjects or even the designer herself. Good
design research functions as a springboard for the designer's creativity
and values.
You've said that good design needs to
understand "deep, roiling
currents of our dynamic culture." Is research the best method
of divining those currents?
Well, "research" is a pretty broad
term. Exploration, investigation, looking around, finding out
are all synonyms for
research. In the business of cultural production, exposure to popular
media is essential research. Television, movies, news, games, nonfiction,
science fiction --all facets of the Spectacle--can provide a great
deal of information about the trajectories of change, what people
long for and what they fear; what sorts of stories are told and
why; how people are likely to greet particular changes in their
world.
As Henry Jenkins' work demonstrates
so well, it is also extremely useful to delve into the currents
and eddies of
particular "fandoms" or subcultures. One cannot possibly explore
them all, but designers can identify those that are most relevant
to their work. For example, my colleagues and I are deeply inspired
by hard science fiction as well as popular science fiction and
fantasy. At a deeper level, thoughtful designers engage in critical
discourse regarding culture and change. What should designers look for when doing research?
The dictionary definition frames
research as "scholarly
or scientific investigation or inquiry." The first step is to deliberately
identify one's own biases and beliefs about the subject of study
and to "hang them at the door" so as to avoid self-fulfilling prophecies.
One must then frame the research question and carefully identify
the audiences, contexts, and research methods that are most likely
to yield actionable results. Those last two words are the most
important: actionable results. Often, the success of a research
program hangs upon how the question is framed.
For example, in my own experience
in an effort to design computer games for girls, we first framed
our research question
in the obvious manner: "why don't girls play computer games?" But
the answers to that question (at least at the time we were asking
it, in the mid-1990s) were at the same time highly predictable
(e.g., the early, rapid vertical integration of the computer game
industry around a monolithic male demographic) and not particularly
actionable (e.g., girls don't play games because games aren't design
for them or offered in retail spaces where girls go). A much more
fruitful line of inquiry was, "how does play vary by gender?" The
answers to this question gave us very broad coverage--from biology
to local culture and social practice. The results were generative
and generalizable to areas beyond game design. For example, insights
into social play informed our web design efforts, and findings
regarding gender signaling in toys informed our content, branding,
and marketing.
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