AC4D design library project planning

Design Research: Project Planning Lauren Serota Professor, Austin Center for Design

Research Methods

This deck is part of a series - Preparing for Design Research: I.  Project Conception II.  Project Planning III.  Skills & Tools

This deck is part of a series - Preparing for Design Research: I.  Project Conception II.  Project Planning

I.  Focus-Setting II.  Recruiting Participants III.  Research Plan & Discussion Guide

III.  Skills & Tools

Focus-Setting

Research Focus A point of view that defines what you aim to learn in your research. Directs the selection of participants and research plan creation Helps manage limited interview time Directs questioning towards a goal Creates understanding Keeps the conversation from becoming too broad

A research focus strikes a special balance - it should neither be too broad, nor too narrow.

Too broad a focus will yield data that is too varied;

Too narrow a focus will yield data that misses a larger context.

Research Methods

If our Success Criteria is to answer the question: “What is the customer journey for someone experiencing a chronic illness, and how might we play a role?” We can use following research focus: Understand the healthcare journey for customers experiencing a chronic illness. Identify current barriers and successes that play a role in their healthcare ecosystem.

It’s based on:

1.  The amount of time you have 2.  The amount of money you have 3.  How much you already know 4.  Your success criteria

ACTIVITY: Let’s take 10 minutes and, in our groups, set the focus for our guerilla research – which we’ll conduct tomorrow morning. Also, let’s establish the context of our research.

Topics: security food area copier / breakfast area guest parking garage

Recruiting Participants

Research Methods

Finding the right people is critical to the outcome of your research. It is difficult, and requires a “whatever it takes” attitude. (Remember, these are just people. They are everywhere, you simply have to find the right ones.)

Research Methods

Before recruiting participants, we must know from whom we want to learn. Who do we want to talk to, and which criteria defines them? Do we want a breadth of people, or to focus on one type of person? Where do we want to do our research?

Research Methods

We must also have a first blush of how we want to go about the research. How many people do we want to talk to? How much time do we spend with each person? How much should we compensate each participant?

Research Methods

A few artifacts to get in order before recruiting: -General Research approach/methodology (where, how long, etc) -Participant Criteria -Screener -Compensation Amount

Research Methods

Participant criteria is just that – key attributes that make your prospective participants unique. Some examples: -Age -Location -Family Status -Occupation -Hobbies/Lifestyle -Household Income -Familiarity with Technology -Ownership of ____________ -Awareness of ____________ -Etc…..

Participant criteria list example:

In this example, Shopping Behavior is a key criteria. This particular customer is based off of the client’s segmentation, which has specific “personas” defined.

ACTIVITY: Let’s take 5 minutes in our groups and define Participant criteria.

Research Methods

A Screener is a literal script for a recruiter to use to qualify a recruit. It documents, in detail the criteria that are important to your recruit. A “choose your own adventure,” so to speak.

Screener example:

Screeners start out broad – to narrow down potential participants based on more general characteristics early on. Each screener question is critical to the success of a recruit.

Research Methods

Compensation amount and type per participant depend on a few things: -How they were recruited -How long the session will be -The nature of the interview For example: A nurse being observed may not be able to receive monetary compensation if recruited through her employer. She may be allowed to accept a gift card or certificate. For consumer research, we typically compensate around $100/hour of the research session.

Research Methods

Once you know exactly who your participants are, you can begin recruiting! There are a few different recruiting methods available, each with different implications, pros and cons.

Research Methods

Friend & Family Recruit Professional Recruit Client-Assisted Recruit Good for: When a topic is common enough

to recruit friends of friends. Smaller sample sizes. When quality control of recruits is critical (e.g. Early Adopter research).

Great for most common consumer research. When recruiting in other cities/countries or when a recruit is complex.

B2B situations, where you need to research your clients’ clients, partners or vendors.

Lead time required: (Aggressive)

T-2 weeks to fielding T-2 weeks to fielding (if screener complete and all material in order)

T-4 weeks to fielding (may be more, depending on client relationships)

Channels used:

Social Media (Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin), Ads (Craigslist, etc), Personal outreach.

Professional Recruiting Vendor with a participant database (Example vendors: Ipsos, Fieldworks, etc).

PM, Sales Manager, Coordinator on the client side.

Pros: •  Research team can be highly involved in the screening of participants, yielding a high-quality recruit.

•  No professional recruiting cost (though hours required)

•  Fairly “hands-off,” the heavy lifting is done by the vendor.

•  Multiple markets can be managed by one vendor.

•  Unparalleled access to the right users in otherwise unreachable positions (think medicine, legislature, law).

•  Often able to spend more time with each participant.

•  Instant rapport, can refer you to others in their org.

Cons/Challenges:

•  Not always a “representative” sample due to proximity to the research team.

•  Requires heavy management and monitoring of channels from the team.

•  Quality control of recruits: oversight and regular review of recruits needed to ensure recruits are on target.

•  Challenging recruits (specific criteria) can push timelines.

•  Not good for any “early adopter” research.

•  Complete dependency on client assistance.

•  The team is considered part of the client, which often means certain lines of questioning are too political or off-limits.

•  Participant compliance dependent on a good relationship with the client coordinator.

Friend & Family Recruit Professional Recruit Client-Assisted Recruit Good for: When a topic is common enough

to recruit friends of friends. Smaller sample sizes. When quality control of recruits is critical (e.g. Early Adopter research).

Great for most common consumer research. When recruiting in other cities/countries or when a recruit is complex.

B2B situations, where you need to research your clients’ clients, partners or vendors.

Lead time required: (Aggressive)

T-2 weeks to fielding T-2 weeks to fielding (if screener complete and all material in order)

T-4 weeks to fielding (may be more, depending on client relationships)

Channels used:

Social Media (Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin), Ads (Craigslist, etc), Personal outreach.

Professional Recruiting Vendor with a participant database (Example vendors: Ipsos, Fieldworks, etc).

PM, Sales Manager, Coordinator on the client side.

Pros: •  Research team can be highly involved in the screening of participants, yielding a high-quality recruit.

•  No professional recruiting cost (though hours required)

•  Fairly “hands-off,” the heavy lifting is done by the vendor.

•  Multiple markets can be managed by one vendor.

•  Unparalleled access to the right users in otherwise unreachable positions (think medicine, legislature, law).

•  Often able to spend more time with each participant.

•  Instant rapport, can refer you to others in their org.

Cons/Challenges:

•  Not always a “representative” sample due to proximity to the research team.

•  Requires heavy management and monitoring of channels from the team.

•  Quality control of recruits: oversight and regular review of recruits needed to ensure recruits are on target.

•  Challenging recruits (specific criteria) can push timelines.

•  Not good for any “early adopter” research.

•  Complete dependency on client assistance.

•  The team is considered part of the client, which often means certain lines of questioning are too political or off-limits.

•  Participant compliance dependent on a good relationship with the client coordinator.

For your group projects, you will be

doing this one.

Research Methods

So, how do we start? When your recruiting artifacts are in order… 1.  Approach your users - in person.

Discussing the project with them face-to-face is always the most successful way to recruit them. After you’ve tried that…

2.  Write up an easy-to-digest blurb to post on emails and social networks. This should include who you are looking for, why you need them, and a clear call to action/contact person.

3.  Call & send emails to your network Personal friends, family, anyone who may be able to help.

4.  Post to Social Networks, Intranet boards, etc.

Research Plans & Discussion Guides

Research Planning Research planning is design. It’s highly iterative, and you can only make educated guesses on what will happen in-field.

In a research session certain things have to happen before others – similar to baking a layer cake. Anticipating the “arc” of the session will ensure a successful experience.

Research Planning: Research Plans & Discussion Guides

Scaffolding: Gradually easing the participant into more difficult or conceptual topics & questions.

When conducting research, remember:

!

Things will never go the way you expect. Think on your feet and stick to your focus.


Research Plan A short document that describes your approach, methods, activities, interview structure, interview length and participants - relating each back to the objectives/focus of the research.

ACTIVITY: Let’s take 10 minutes and outline a Research Plan.

ACTIVITY: Let’s take 10 minutes and outline a Research Plan. 1.  (5 minutes) As a group, write down a few key questions you

have. Start with 5-6, but reduce to 2-3. e.g. “What could be improved in the security line?”

2.  (5 minutes) What do you need to observe/do in order to answer those questions? In what order?

Use your focus and participant criteria from the last activities.


Discussion Guide A document that describes, in detail, the questions and activities you will utilize during the interview (similar to a script, but not).

Study your discussion guide well, and use it if you feel the research is going off course. DO NOT use it as a script.

-why not?

In Contextual Inquiries, your Discussion Guide is your to-do list.

In activity-based or structured sessions, there can be time-based components to your guide, and reference to materials/tools used for specific activities.


When creating the discussion guide: Ask your teammates the questions you have – rephrase them to be sure they are easy to answer and open-ended.


Question Generation Session To get from your research plan to your discussion guide: 1.  Hold a session with the full team (1-2 hours). 2.  Review the focus and the research plan. 3.  Spend the first 30 minutes letting everyone capture the

questions they have pertaining to the focus. 4.  Rewrite them in a manner that a participant can answer

(may require multiple questions). 5.  Organize these questions by topic or a best guess at the

inquiry order, and put them in the discussion guide.

Understanding Mental Models

Research Planning

What we should understand about our focus area based on our Contextual Inquiries:

-  Current behaviors and why they happen -  Any workarounds or considered solutions -  Perceptions - opinions and complaints -  Processes that exist (used and unused) -  Language used -  Mental models*

Research Planning: Understanding Mental Models

There are three types of models that describe systems (as articulated by Alan Cooper):

Implementation Model How something works

Manifest Model How something presents itself to the user

Mental Model How the user thinks the thing works

Research Planning: Understanding Mental Models Implementation Model: The way the engineer must build the machine or software.

(illustration taken from The New Way Things Work by David Macaulay)

Implementation Model for a lock and key:

(illustration stolen from Jon Kolko)

Implementation Model for a login screen:

Research Planning: Understanding Mental Models Mental Model: The way somebody thinks a process or machine works. What is your mental model for a lock and key? …for a login screen?

Research Planning: Understanding Mental Models Manifest Model: The way the product presents itself to the user.

Manifest Model for a lock and key:

Manifest Model for a login screen:


(illustration taken from About Face by Alan Cooper)

Research Planning: Understanding Mental Models User Interfaces that conform to the implementation model are almost always bad.

Research Planning: Understanding Mental Models As designers, we have little control over the implementation model (unless we’re developing the product, which we might be), and very little control over the mental model. Good News! As designers, we have almost complete control over the manifest model.


Good manifest models are born from an understanding of the implementation and mental models.

Lauren Serota Professor, Austin Center for Design [email protected]

Download our free book, Wicked Problems: Problems Worth Solving, at http://www.wickedproblems.com

AC4D design library project planning

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