Design Research Synthesis
Transcript of Design Research Synthesis
Synthesis!
The most critical part of the design process
!
“If I had an hour to solve a problem
I’d spend 55 minutes thinking about
the problem and 5 minutes thinking
about solutions”
-Albert Einstein
Designers often try to solve a design
problem while simultaneously trying
to understand the design problem
- Exposing the Magic of Design by Jon Kolko
Designers often try to solve a design
problem while simultaneously trying
to understand the design problem
- Exposing the Magic of Design by Jon Kolko
How we should spend our time solving design problems
Finding the problem
Understanding the problem
Solving the problem
Finding the problem
Understanding the problem
Solving the problem
Research
Synthesis
Design & Prototyping
Synthesis is turning the mess of research to the beginnings of a
design solution
Findings are observed behaviors or quotes.
Insights show us what people do, why they do it and how we can design a
solution for it.
Insights show us what people do, why they do it and how we can design a
solution for it.
People’s true needs and motivations
Observed behavior or quote
Actionable design hypothesis
Less than 3 suggests you didn’t cover a wide
enough range of people.
More than 8 suggests that you might be expressing the same insight multiple times.
So how many insights should we have?
How we synthesizeGoing from problem finding to
problem understanding
The goal of synthesis Consensus across the group a clear journey of evidence
for design
Grouping Emerging Themes
Closely review the notes
Write down behaviors, emotions, and verbatim quotes on post-it notes
Group notes on the whiteboard
Watch patterns emerge
Rearrange the notes as you continue assess the patterns
Grouping Emerging Themes
Affinity diagrams organize and prioritize insights
Observations,Behaviors, Quotes
I asked someone
who did it I asked lawyers I didn’t compare
That are
personalized to
them
wanted to hire my
first employee
In the right
location
InsightsPeople don’t
know what they
don’t know
People just want
it dealt with
Looking for
someone they
trust
Actionable insight
People need
to compare
They need to
know you can
be trusted
Within their
family
Grouping theme form usability testing
“In 25 years of doing this, in virtually every usability test I’ve seen, we knew what the top 3 problems were
once the final user had left the session.”
- the 7 deadly sins of user research, David Travis
You know you’ve done usability testing correctly when
You already have a strong sense about what you’re going to fix before your
round of testing is done.
User Journeys
Archetypes help organize useful quotes, data, and anecdotes from interviews
“A quote that sums up his interview”
Goals
What are some of Dave’s goals?
What did he say? Quotes that stood out to us
What did we observe? What we noticed but he didn’t mention
Behaviors, habits, and workarounds
Meet Dave, again
User Journeys based on research visualizes the current
experience for how people solve problems. Here is a
sample for how people select an HR solution.
TriggerWhy did you start looking for an HR solution?
SearchWhere did you start looking?
CompareHow many services did you look at?
DecideWhat was your deciding factor?
Sign UpHow did you feel after you chose?
Research Retrospective
Three categories
Understood Confusing Noteworthy
Synthesizing our research even
farther into actionable insights
and challenge statements
We pair insights with challenge statements
A good actionable insight
Based off research
Typically derived from a grouping of insights
Is short and memorable
Very hard to do
A good challenge statement
Directly relates to the actionable insight
Require further testing to address
Team Sketch Session
You’ve synthesized your research. And have some hunches to explore.
All team sketch sessionHunches Ideas
Scenarios and prompts based off synthesis
Quick Steal Remix
No bad ideas Fun
Take those stacks of sketches and create polarizing prototypes
!