By Stephen P. Anderson

"Design, in short, is becoming an ever more important engine of corporate profit: It's no longer enough simply to outperform the competition; to thrive in a world of ceaseless and rapid change, businesspeople have to out-imagine the competition as well. They must begin to think - to become - more like designers," Roger Martin, dean of the Business School at the University of Toronto once said.

Yet, successful products can only come from careful design research.

Stephen P. Anderson is a product strategist and design consultant who has a strong and passionate mindset devoted to effective ways of design research. In helping large companies create valuable customer experiences, he tries to understand customers first. Therefore, according to Anderson, good design research is more than looking at products - it examines people, activities and the context of those activities. His services include design research, product experience strategy, information architecture, user interface & interaction design, visual communications and information graphics. During an interview with Anderson, he provided a gem of advice on effective design research strategies, and hopeful messages for the better future of design.

IMPORTANCE OF DESIGN RESEARCH

Obviously, I'm a huge advocate for design research, but you have to be clear about the intent of your research. For me, it's about learning what you don't know - gaining insights into customer behaviours, desires and motivations. It's not necessarily product research. If you go into the field and start asking people what they think of your product, you may get some great iterative feedback, but you'll miss the opportunities to discover how people view themselves and think about the various roles they play. You'll miss out on opportunities to discover what might really delight someone, whether it's a simple feature or a whole new system you could have never dreamed up.

Sometime, there can be a hidden agenda to the research. A few years back I organised a design research project for a global organisation - no one was really aligned around what the customer needed. To help break down some of these divisions, I organised a "research" team comprised of designers, marketers, product managers and engineers. The instructions were simple: Go out and listen. Learn what you don't know. I hosted a breakfast to give everyone a crash course in design research (as opposed to user or market research), then paired individuals from these other business units with someone from the design team. In the meetings that followed, it was encouraging to see suspicion replaced by a shared sense of priority- we all now had common experiences and customer stories to refer back to.


It's best to work in a collaborative fashion, exposing the process allowing whoever to be involved to join in problem framing and solving.

A SYSTEMATIC PROCESS OF DESIGN RESEARCH

As far as process goes, I've used a simple approach that a friend of mine shared with me. I ask that everyone involved keep a research journal - and I expect that notebook to be filled up with observations by the end of a project. But what happens to all these notes? While the observations are still fresh in the memory, everyone is a given a stack of index cards on which to write down "insights" that we gleaned from the research. One insight per card. Since these are subjective inferences and personal to each person involved, each person must also write (on the back of the card) the objective, observed data that supports this hunch. We then start sharing these and taping every idea to a wall. Inevitably, we see patterns emerge- the same insights from multiple people backed by different data. Or maybe clusters of ideas. This part is very laborious, but also exciting. There's always a nagging fear that you'll invest all this time only to confirm what was already known, but this is never the case- you always learn something new!

THE EXPERIENCE OF DESIGN CONSULTING

The entrepreneurial personality is fascinating. Typically, you have an individual with a lot of charisma, an idea and strong opinions about how something should be built. Whereas larger organisations (given the budget and support) are more likely to invest in design research projects, the startups I've worked with would rather move quickly and work from a hunch. I've worked with clients who came to me for my consulting expertise as well as clients who viewed me as a talented resource to help realise their ideas. With all but the most difficult clients, I've found it's best to work in a collaborative fashion, exposing the process and allowing whoever wants to be involved to join in the problem framing and solving. In doing so, these other people experience what a good designer brings to the table - the thought process and exploration of different ideas. I usually learn more along the way that leads to a better solution, or I'm challenged by a different perspective-which is fantastic!

As far as design research in these smaller environments goes, I'll often introduce some basic guerilla usability testing, but combine it with lightweight, generative questions. For example, before simply exposing a user interface for testing, I might spend some time in casual conversation, trying to get a sense of how this person views the problem space in which we are designing. The moment you share a screen or a sketch, you've directed the kind of feedback you'll get. I try to learn a bit more from the individual before setting a direction for their feedback.


Design research is critical to the success of a business. Most success stories typically generate from those who showed some kind of empathy and an awareness of human needs.

FUTURE OF DESIGN EDUCATION

I'm amazed at some of the student work I've seen, particularly from design-minded programs at schools like Carnegie Mellon or the Institute of Design at IIT. Amazing work happens when you replace rote assignments with real projects- projects whose success can lead to meaningful change - conserving energy, solving water problems in areas plagued by drought, envisioning the social impact of future technologies and so on. As a former educator, I'm a big fan of problem-based learning: challenge students to solve a big problem and facilitate their learning along the way. With the rate at which technology changes, simply teaching "tools" is short-sited; students need to learn how to find the necessary information or figure out what approach is needed to solved the problem. Increasingly, there's also the need to connect information from different, seemingly unrelated, fields. Obviously, there's a baseline of knowledge assumed here, but in my experience a lot more time could be spent on this kind of hands on learning. This approach doesn't work the same in advanced science or mathematics classes where there is a body of knowledge you need to build upon. However, in a skills-based subject such as design, success comes from developing the ability to see patterns, focus on details, synthesize information, cultivate empathy, identify opportunities and reframe problems to be solved. If you're helping students develop these skills with real problems, then the transition from academia into business is much easier.



I'd urge students to take ownership of their career. If they're not in a good program, the web makes it easy to find and contribute to so many projects. As a user experience designer, I never had the benefit of any formal training, and neither have most people who've been doing this for any length of time. Instead, we've all had to find our way, drawing upon our different backgrounds in visual design, copywriting, library sciences, education, computer sciences, psychology and other fields. We all saw opportunities and a chance to learn something new. I'd be willing to bet whatever our backgrounds, we benefited from an educational background that nurtured this natural inquisitiveness. For design programs, this is vital. Stay curious, and never stop exploring!

CONCLUSION

Design research is critical to the success of a business. Although some companies manage to successfully launch their products without design research, most success stories typically generate from those who showed some kind of empathy and an awareness of human needs, even if it wasn't labeled as "design research."

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This article was originally published by designdb magazine and has been republished with permission.

About Stephen P. Anderson

Stephen P. Anderson is a product strategy and design consultant who helps large companies create valuable customer experiences.

Prior to becoming an independent consultant, Stephen spent more than a decade growing and leading teams of information architects, interaction designers and UI developers in the creation of all types of interactive experiences, bringing value to clients such as Nokia, Frito-Lay, Sabre Travel Network, and Chesapeake Energy as well as smaller technology startups.
www.poetpainter.com

About Korea Institute of Design Promotion

A standing member of Icsid, Korea Institute of Design Promotion (KIDP) was established by the Korean government in 1970 in an aim to promote the design industry and expand export. As a national government design organization, KIDP promotes Korea’s mid- to long-term design policies and engages in various exchange programs with countries around the globe. To meet the demands of the digital design era of the 21st century, KIDP particularly focuses on leading Korea’s economic development and enhancing the quality of life by promoting cutting-edge design industry.
global.designdb.com