Universal Methods of Design - 100 ways
Image Boards (RM/S/AT)
A collage of collected pictures, illustrations, or brand imagery can be used to visually communicate an essential description of targeted aesthetics, style, audience, context, or other aspects of design intent. - typically created once a general focus for design aesthetics, style, context, or audience have been selected.
Contextual Design (RM/Syn./Analy./Deliv.)
A customer-centered process that begins with customer data revealed by the contextual inquiry method. the process is intended to help with the transitions between the steps of the design process: moving from (1) discovering what matters to users and characterizing what they do, (2) identifying and articulating new ideas and direction, (3)redesigning activities and technology to provide value, and (4) iterating the system with users to make meaningful improvements.
Observation (RM)
A fundamental research skill, observation requires attentive looking and systematic recording of phenomena - including people, artifacts, environments, events, behaviors and interactions. - the action or process of observing something or someone carefully or in order to gain information, such as: setting, doing what, who, relationship, with whom, context. - Semi-structured, casual observation early in the design process to collect baseline info through immersion. researcher may have a guiding set of questions, but is primarily open-minded - structured, systematic observations formalized by the degree of coding behaviors/artifacts/events.
Participatory Design (RM)
A human-centered approach advocating active user and stakeholder engagement throughout all phases of the research and design process, including co-design activities. - engages users in a wide range of activities throughout the exploratory, generative, and evaluative cycles of research and design. Here participants use creative toolkits for design input, and offer feedback on prototypes. - When users representing the target market for a product perform realistic tasks by interacting with a paper version of the user-product interface manipulated by a person acting as a computer who does not explain how the interface works.
Usability Testing (RM)
A method by which users of a Web site or other product are asked to perform certain tasks in an effort to measure/determine the extent to which the software/ product is understood, easy to learn, easy to operate and attractive to the users under specified conditions, as well as the user's perception of the experience. - focuses on people and their tasks, seeking evidence about how to improve the usability of an interface prior to launch
critical incident technique (RM/Syn./Analy./Deliv.)
A method for measuring service quality in which marketers use customer complaints to identify critical incidents—specific face-to-face contacts between consumer and service providers that cause problems and lead to dissatisfaction. this allows for triangulation and ultimately improvement. - users are asked to identify critical aspects of behavior or performance in a particular job that led to success or failure. usually 50-100 captured via story telling, interviewing, or diary studies.
Heuristic Evaluation (RM)
A method of identifying usability problems in a user interface through informal inspection of regular team members instead of participants. - instead of making willynilly designs you can use these agreed upon rules to catch issues in the design process. - examines the interface by comparing it to a set of Nielsen's '94 heuristics or principles for interface design: 1. Visibility of app status 2. Match between app and the real world 3. User control and freedom 4. Error prevention 5. Consistency and standards 6. Recognition rather than recall 7. Flexibility and efficiency of use 8. Aesthetic and minimalist design 9. Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors 10. Help and documentation
Automated Remote Research (Research Method)
A method that can reveal statistically relevant data about what people are doing on your website, to help identify the usability enhancements with the biggest impact. -Once enough quantitative data about what users are doing, the research team can triangulate research findings with observed behavioral data to decide which usability enhancements to make to the site. - In ARR focus shifts from recruiting and observing studies to planning the appropriate strategy for the study, and accurately selecting the right ARR tools and configuring the logistics of the study - tools can be used to further understand specific usability issues and help collect quantitative data
experience sampling method (RM)
A methodology where participants report on their momentary thoughts, feelings, and behaviors at different points in time over the course of a day.
think-aloud protocol (RM)
A procedure in which participants are asked to say out loud what they are thinking while completing a task, revealing aspects of an interlace that delight, confuse, and frustrate. This procedure is used to help determine people's thought processes as they are solving a problem. - concurrent: most common way; done while participant is actively engaged with product. focus is on what is happening, not on why. - retroactive: asks participants to complete the task in silence and then talk about what/why they did what they did, can provide additional insight into participant reasoning, intentions, and strategy.
Affinity Diagramming (Synthesis/Analysis technique)
A process used to externalize and meaningfully cluster observations and insights from research, Keeping design teams grounded in data as they design. - Affinity diagramming helps designers capture research-backed insights, observations, concerns, or requirements on individual sticky notes, so that the design implications of each can be considered on its own. Those with higher affinity form research-based themes.
participatory action research (RM/S/AT/D)
A research method in which the research questions, data collection, and data analysis are defined through collaboration between the researcher and the subjects of research, to understand the conditions that produce the community's problems and find solutions to those problems. - An approach in which the people being studied are given control over the purpose and procedures of the research
focus group (RM)
A small group of people who meet under the direction of a moderator to communicate their opinions about an organization, its products, or other given issues. - can lead to deep insight into themes, patterns and trends (qualitative method) - gauges the opinions, feelings, and attitudes of a group of carefully selected participants
Cognitive Walkthrough (Research Method)
A usability evaluation technique used to evaluate a computer interface or a software program(walk-up-n-use system i.e ATM) by breaking down and explaining the steps that a user will take to accomplish a task. - evaluates whether the order of cues/prompts in a system reflect the way people cognitively process tasks and properly anticipate "next steps" - For each action in a task, tell a story asking: will the user be trying to produce the effect the action has? Will the user see the control for the action? Will the user recognize the control produces the desired effect? After the action is taken, will the user understand the feedback and be able to proceed?
User Journey Map (D)
A visualization diagram showing the steps in a scenario in which a user interacts with a system/service, so that each moment can be individually evaluated and improved. - telling a story about an individuals actions, feelings, perceptions, and frame of mind- including positive, negative and neutral moments as they interact w/ a multi-channel product or service over a period of time. this allows for opportunity to redesign and improve. - usually coupled with personas and scenario documents these three give rich qualitative data of users actual needs. - multiple maps will be needed for multiple personas, as each persona will have different tasks and goals, and will experience different breakdowns and successes on their journey.
AEIOU Testing (Synthesis/Analysis technique)
AEIOU is an organizational framework used for guiding observations and reminding the researcher to attend to, document, and code information under a guiding taxonomy of: Activities, Environment, Interactions, Objects, Users.
A/ B testing (Research Method)
Also called split testing; an analysis technique in which a Web site developer builds two identical pages with slight changes in design to determine the better conversion rate for each design - wont help you understand why the design was preferred over the alternative; and thus should be used as supplemental material.
Brainstorm Graphic Organizers
Beyond creating lists of new ideas and concepts, brainstorm graphic organizers help in the creation of new knowledge by visually structuring a deep dive into a problem space.
Brainstorm graphic organizers (Synthesis/Analysis technique)
Beyond creating lists of new ideas and concepts, brainstorm graphic organizers help in the creation of new knowledge by visually structuring a deep dive into a problem space. these3 techniques are used to visualize brainstormed information and chllenge old patterns of thinking. - Webs: best when developing central concepts/question and its identifying characteristics, supporting facts, and related ideas. Useful to find overarching themes. - Tree Diagrams: best to represent and communicate hierarchy, system/relationship between main and supporting ideas. can be useful for both in/deductive thinking. - Flowchart: best to show sequence of events, actions/processes of different actors in a system, process, or show cause and effect of interrelated elements within a system.
Bodystorming (Research Method)
Bodystorming is a technique sometimes used in interaction design or as a creativity technique. It has also been cited as catalyzing scientific research when used as a modeling tool. The idea is to imagine what it would be like if the product existed, and act as though it exists, ideally in the place it would be used.
Business Origami (Research Method/Deliverable)
Business origami Enables teams to paper-prototype the interaction and value exchange among people, artifacts, and environments in a multichannel system. - It uses paper cut-out to mimic different types of user journeys in a whole business system. The business origami can help designers understand various types of users' behaviors, feelings, and actions in a complex business model. You can get user experience touchpoints across different channels by manipulating paper cut-out to do some tasks in a given scenario. usually over a horizontal whiteboard
Experience prototyping (RM)
Facilitates active participation in design through subjective engagement with a prototype system or service, product, or place. - similar to role-playing/simulation exercise, and bodystorming. - for exploring and evaluating design activities
Generative Research (RM/S/AT/D)
Generative design exercises engage users in creative opportunities to express their feelings, dreams, needs, and desires, resulting in rich information for concept/prototyping development. - i.e allowing people to construct their desired interfaces
Flexible Modeling (RM)
Given a component kit of parts, users can provide insight into product or interface configurations as guiding information for designers. - a participatory design method that allows users to configure a software interface, product, or environment, from a set of predetermined feature elements provided by the researcher/designer.
Content Inventory and Audit (Synthesis/Analysis Technique/deliv.)
Inventory - a detailed listing of basic information about all the content= what it is. Audit - recommends what is should be. - helps stake holders see where they are and where they can be.
Ergonomic Analysis (RM/S/AT)
Provides an assessment of tools, equipment, devices, workstations, work places, or environments, to optimize fit, safety, and comfort of use by the poeple - 5 criteria commonly used: size, strength, reach, clearance, posture. ranging in micro(fingers, hand, tool) to macro(limbs, body, environment) - The objective is to minimize the amount of stress and fatigue experienced as a result of doing work; the focus is on understanding how job tasks affect physical movements and physiological responses
Remote Moderated Research (RM)
Remotely observing users completing tasks on their own electronic devices can reveal rich insights into contexts of use that cannot be replicated in a controlled lab environment. - use this method when the benefits of accessing a geographically diverse group of participants, and studying their native environments outweigh the costs and time constraints.
Parallel Prototyping (RM/S/AT)
Simultaneously exploring multiple design opportunities can help teams keep from fixating on a design direction too early, improve the nature of design critiques, and lead to more effective design results. - by simultaneously designing and testing multiple design approaches and delaying the selection of any one specific direction, there is a better chance that the final design will represent the best qualities of all the design options. -use this method when working with teams that have a tendency to get stuck on the design approach in the early exploration/concept generation phases.\][[[[[[[[[[
Bodystorming
Situates brainstorming in physical experience, combining role-playing and simulation to inspire new ideas and empathic, spontaneous prototyping.
Diary Studies (research method)
The experimenters or participants record events from their own lives and keep track of events over long periods of time. Later, their memory for these events can be tested.
Cognitive mapping (Synthesis/Analysis Tech./Research Deliverables)
The process by which a person acquires, codes, stores, recalls, and decodes information about his or her problem space. most effective to structure problems and inform decision making. - patterns or reasoning are exposed as is the nature of the underlying problem - a visualization tool that represents a network of ideas/associations linking them with nodes; those with the most connections are the most salient concepts,
Competitive Testing (Research Method)
The process of conducting research to evaluate the usability and learnability of competing products from the end-users point of view.
Contextual Inquiry (Research Method)
The process of observing and interviewing a user in context - while they are engaged in the actual setting of life to reveal underlying work structure giving insight into how people work. - 4 principles: context, partnership, interpretation, focus
Key Performance Indicators (S/AT)
The quantifiable metrics a company uses to evaluate progress toward critical success factors, such as, to measure the efficiency and effectiveness of the business's performance.
Evaluative Research (RM/S/AT/D)
This research attempts to gauge human expectations against the designed artifact in question, determining whether something is useful, usable, and desirable. - research that measures how well a program or project works in relation to its goals in an effort to reiterate and refine.
Card Sorting (Research Method)
UX Design technique where a group of subject experts or "users", however inexperienced with design, are guided to generate a category tree or folksonomy. It is a useful approach for designing information architecture, workflows, menu structure, or web site navigation paths. - when user comprehension/meaningful categorization is critical CS can help clarify how people group info into categories, identify how they perceive/describe different info - hearing what users say/discuss as they sort is just as useful info - helps determine confusions/misunderstandings
Behavioral Mapping (Research Method)
Used to systematically document location-based observations of human activity, using annotated maps, plans, video, or time-lapse photography. - BMs are used to doc readily observable characteristics, movements, and activities, including approx age/gender, whether people are alone or with others, what they are doing, time spent at fixed locations or in transit, and the details of environmental context.
KJ Technique (S/AT)
When the traditional meeting format fails to achieve group consensus, this technique can be used to help teams work through a problem space and prioritize what should be focused on first. - Meetings that use this technique are done in silence. Team members independently identify their respective concerns and project requirements on sticky notes, and then silently cluster similar concerns and challenges. It is effective in helping teams reach census and externalizes the range of issues that teams need to work together to solve.
design charette (RM/Syn./Analy.)
a brainstorming method used at an intensive workshop in which stakeholders address an issue and intensive collaborative efforts brings together citizens, stakeholders, and staff to develop a detailed design plan for a certain area. small groups collaborate for 10min and then shuffle to other tables, cross-pollinating ideas to design superior concepts.
Case study (Research Method)
a descriptive technique in which one individual or group is studied in depth in the hope of revealing universal principles.
Interviews (RM)
a fundamental research method for direct contact with participants, to collect firsthand personal accounts of experience, opinions, attitude, and perceptions. - a survey tool, the other being questionnaires
cultural probes (research method)
a hybrid method of art and design to provoke inspirational response, understand culture, and people's feelings over a long period of time. intended to find patterns and themes in groups/cultures.
Surveys (RM)
a method of collecting self-reported information from people about their characteristics, thoughts, feelings, perceptions, behaviors, or attitudes. - questionnaires and interviews
semantic differential (RM)
a method that can help reveal "felt" meanings that are a direct product of ones experiences, culture, and dearly held beliefs. - A linguistics tool designed to measure peoples attitudes towards a topic, event, object, or activity so that its deeper meaning may be ascertained. - consists of a series of bipolar rating scales with opposite terms on either end and a 7-pt scale - these scales are particularly powerful when eliciting cross-cultural attitudes and perceptions to the same stimuli.
Time-aware Research (RM)
a moderated remote testing method that allows researchers to engage with a real person in real time, just as he/she is about to complete a task of interest to the research team. - intercepting people at the precise moment they choose to complete a task provides keen insight into how they accomplish self-directed goals via real-time live recruiting.
scenarios (D)
a narrative that explores the future use of a product from a user's point of view, helping design teams reason about its place in a persons day-to-day life.
participant observation (RM)
a naturalistic, immersive, ethnographic observation method for understanding situations and behaviors through the experience of membership participation in an activity, context, culture, or subculture; in which the observer becomes a participant in the group being observed - investigators systematically observe people while joining them in their routine activities
rapid iterative testing and evaluation (RM)
a powerful formative usability inspection method that helps teams evaluate and identify interface issues quickly fix them and then empirically verify the efficacy of the fixes early in the design process before costly prototypes are built. - Tests are conducted and re-done/re-designed until 5 successful test are ran in a row, allowing you to make any necessary design changes before you test with actual users - this method has the power to promote how a user processes an interface, solves problems, and successfully completed tasks. it is an effective way to immediately identify and remove issues blocking task completion early on in the design process before building a high-fidelity prototype.
Kano Analysis (S/AT)
a quality measurement tool used to help categorize and prioritize customer requirements based on their impact on customer satisfaction: - the 5 product attribute categories are: Required, Desired, Exciter/Delighter, Neutral, Anti-feature - To better understand what value your customers place on the features of your product or service, which can reduce the risk of providing products or services that over-emphasize features of little importance or that miss critical-to-quality features/attributes.
Mental Model Diagrams (S/AT/D)
a rigorous framework for analysis that aligns the behaviors, beliefs, and emotions people have a they set out to accomplish a task (top half of diagram) against your features, product, and service offering (bottom half of diagram). the goal is to help teams make appropriate product development strategies that align with how people already approach problem solving in their daily live, as opposed to building a product that neither resonates with them, nor augments their existing patterns of behavior. - People tend to behave in ways consistent with dearly held beliefs. this model can help you articulate root causes behind behaviors and develop solutions that can deeply resonate with people. - use this research method when you have multiple audience segments that do similar things but accomplish them in different ways. instead of attempting to build one product to meet everyones needs this model can help you build streamlined, appropriate offerings that align with everyone.
Laddering (RM/S/AT)
a technique used in in-depth one-on-one interviews in an attempt to uncover consumers' associations between product attributes, the benefits and consequences of using the product, and the personal values the product reinforces - 7 unspoken motivations behind making purchases: self-esteem, accomplishment, belonging, self-fulfillment, family, satisfaction, and security - laddering connects a products specific attribute to one of these values by asking the questions "why is this important to you"
literature review (RM)
a useful component of any research/design project to collect and synthesize research on a given topic. - draws connections between past research to draw on proposed research
Concept mapping (Synthesis/Analysis Technique)
a visual means of exploring connections between a subject and related ideas - organized in a downward hierarchy w/focus question on top and concepts below. - concepts are well-understood ideas, object, events - connected by linking words, which when two or more concepts are connected a proposition is formed that potentially challenges existing thinking/creates new meaning.
mind mapping (S/AT)
a visual organizational strategy used when a topic/problem has many moving parts providing a method to visually organize the problem space in order to better understand it. when used as a method of analysis and sense-making, mind mapping allows us to simultaneously identify the subject of the map, relationships between the components, and understand the relative importance of the information that is represented. uses words or symbols to identify the concepts and their connections to each other - Data sorting technique in which group members add related ideas and indicate logical connections, eventually grouping similar ideas.
role playing (RM)
acting the role of the user in realistic scenarios can forge a deep sense of empathy and highlight challenges, presenting opportunities that can be met by design.
Directed Storytelling (research method)
allows designers to easily gather rich stories of lived experiences from participants, using thoughtful prompt and guiding and framing questions in convos. - short hand means of collecting stories when time/other factors prevent direct observation
Fly-on-the-Wall Observation (RM)
allows the researcher to unobtrusively gather information by looking and listening without direct participation or interference with the people or behaviors being observed.
Evidence-Based Design (RM/S/AT/D)
an approach that bases decisions for effective design on the implications of credible research and assessed outcomes, rather than sole reliance on intuition and anecdotal information. - including the use of lit. reviews, comparative analysis, case studies, interviews, surveys
Eyetracking (RM/D)
an eyetracking device is configured to precisely measure where and for how long participants look or don't look as they perform tasks or interact naturally with interfaces such as websites, applications, physical products, or environments.
Graffiti walls (RM)
an ideal method for capturing informal opinions about an environment directly in the context of use. - encourages participants naturally and anonymously to contribute remarks about an environment, space, system ,or facility with long format paper adhered to the wall with a pen attached.
Triading (RM)
an interviewing technique that reveals deep-seated attitudes, perceptions, and feelings toward brands, products, and services. - 3 items are used in contrast to elicit constructs people create in order to make sense of the world around them. "how do 2 of these examples differ from the 3rd?"
Site search analytics (RM/S/AT)
analyzing the words and phrases entered into a site search gives organizations insight into what people are looking for, which is an opportunity to evaluate how well site content meets those needs.
Design Ethnography (research method)
approximated the immersion method of traditional ethnography to deeply experience and understand the users world for design empathy and insight - uses qualitative methods
picture cards (RM)
artifact-based interview method, providing an anchor around which participant conversations can take place. - these contain images and words that help people think about and tell true stories of their life experiences, grounded in context and detail. - the power in this method lies in the artifact-centered nature of the interview. cards are sorted by participants and used to guide storytelling of past experiences and the sketching of future scenarios. - this method is ideal for engaging couples and families, acting as prompts to inspire the telling of human stories, with participants reminding each other of missing details, habits, and history.
Thematic Networks (S/AT)
building this network is a step by step process that helps to identify, organize, and connect the most common themes in rich, qualitative data - this analysis technique serves to not only summarize the main themes constituting a piece of text, but to also organize the info into a web like illustration that can be used to communicate findings w/stakeholders. - this technique can help you systematically break down text into simpler, manageable clusters of patterns and themes, and then help you to explore relationships between themes so that the most unifying message can be visualized. - thematic networks have 3 classes of themes: - basic themes: text segments derived directly from the textual data, representing the most obvious/reoccurring concepts forming themes. - organizing themes: middle-order theme serving to organize basic themes into similar clusters in an effort to form a higher order premise. as separate organizing themes come together they begin to take on an argument/macro theme that emerges is the global theme. - global themes: distill the overarching point of the text into a single statement, they are the most abstracted representation of the textual data, articulating the deeper meaning and complexity of the data.
customer experience audit (Syn./Analy./Deliv.)
capture day-to-day context in which people engage with your product/service. capturing what customers think, do, and use isolating moments of apathy, frustration, and delight during the entire experience - from which opportunities for innovation can be identified.
Creative Toolkits (Research Method)
collections of physical elements conveniently organized for participatory modeling, visualization, or creative play by users, to inform and inspire design and business teams. - engaging people with tangible objects inspire a way to project thoughts, feelings, emotions, desires that might other wise be harder to articulate through traditional research methods
Word Cloud (S/AT/D)
colorful word collages showing the most frequently used words/word-pairs in just about any text-based source doc. size of the word is based on how frequent the word was used - a method of information visualization that organizes text-based content into interesting spatial arrangements - when interview transcripts are segmented based on meaningful criteria, this method generates and reveals potentially insightful and surprising themes.
Secondary Research (RM)
consists of info collected and synthesized from existing data, rather than original material sourced through primary research with participants.
Simulation Exercises (RM)
deep approximations of human or environmental conditions, designed to forge an immersive, empathic sense of real-life user experiences.
Exploratory Research (RM/S/AT/D)
defined by user and product studies, intended to forge an empathetic knowledge base, particularly when designers may be working in unfamiliar territory
Scenario Description Swimlanes (D)
deliverables that visualize the activities of multiple actors in a flow of events and prove that a holistic perspective is greater than the sum of its parts - each story has these elements: +Storyboard Lane: the top, and most visual, lane. capturing events in a story +User Experience Lane: uses a flowchart of boxes and arrows, depicting the story with more detail/insight into the process of ux +Business Process Lane: business logic that support the user story/ux is flow charted in lane 3. providing info supplied by business analysts in terms of required business processes that facilitate the steps of the ux. +Tools and Systems Lane: the back end tech that is involved to support the user actions and business goals is documented on this lane.
Design Workshops (research method)
engage participants, often non-designers, in intense creative activity usually centered on assigned problems. - used to train interested audiences in the methods and processes of design and design thinking
Wizard of Oz (RM)
in this technique a researcher (the wizard) simulated system responses from behind the scenes, while a participant engages w/a system that appears to be real.
Usability Report (D)
informed by the empirical evidence, helping teams decide whether a product is usable enough to release, or needs revision and further testing with more participants. - the goal of the report is to clearly outline which parts of the user interface should be fixed or improved: + executive summary + total number of problems found + the list of problems that will be fixed + reports on positive findings + detailed tasks/scenario descriptions
Value Opportunity Analysis (S/AT)
maps the extent to which a products aspirational qualities align to peoples idealized lifestyle or fantasy version of themselves. the 7 value opportunities and their attributes are: 1. Emotion: adventure, independence, security, sensuality, confidence, power 2. Aesthetics: visual, auditory, tactile, olfactory, taste 3. Identity: point in time, sense of place, personality 4. Impact: social, environmental 5. Ergonomics: comfort, safety, ease of use 6. Core Technology: reliable, enabling 7. Quality: craftsmanship, durability - these are rated on a low, med, high scale
experiment (RM)
measures the effect that an action has on a situation by demonstrating a casual relationship or conclusively that one thing is the result of another. - may determine cause and effect by 3 conditions: the presence of two observable and measurable actions/events; the cause event occurring before the effect; and eliminating all other possible causes. - a hypothesis is posed, the exposure to something is manipulated for some participant while all others are held constant for others, and the effect is measured and compared between the two groups, keeping all other conditions of the experiment the exact same. - IV = manipulated variable, DV = measurable variable - randomize, and have control group -
Crowdsourcing (research method)
occurs when an undefined, large group of people voluntarily respond to an open call and completes tasks and microprojects.
Weighted Matrix (S/AT)
once your team has generated multiple design concepts, this method can help you identify /prioritize the most promising opportunities by evaluating each design opportunity against business criteria opposed to personal preference.
questionnaire (RM)
survey instruments designed for collecting self-report information from people about their characteristics, thoughts, feelings, perceptions, behaviors, or attitudes - a written set of questions to be answered by a research participant - careful attention should be paid to the way these are constructed, as it will play a key role in the way responses and analysis is done.
Triangulation (RM)
the convergence of multiple research methods on the same research question, as a way of producing more reliable empirical data than are available from any single method from several different angles. - ensures accuracy of information by combining methods and eliminating weaknesses of any single method or source, thus increasing confidence in the results.
touchstone tours (RM)
the guided tour is a contextual, empathetic method that efficiently immerses the designer in a participants world to understand how they organize info and systems through the use of space and cognitve artists. - designed as a conversation that uses artifacts and the environment as touchstones for questions and insights.
Web Analytics (S/AT/D)
the measurement, collection, analysis, and reporting of internet data for the purposes of understanding and optimizing web usage - a gateway to understand what your customers is doing online and why
Prototyping (S/AT/D)
the process of building a model that demonstrates the features of a proposed product, service, or system - low-fidelity prototypes of interface behaviors are used to build consensus and understanding among project team members and clients - (high-fidelity) industrial design prototypes are used for iterative form development, gauging user response, and communication of actual design concepts.
content analysis (Synthesis/Analysis Technique)
the systematic description of form and content of written, spoken, or visual materials expressed in themes, patterns, and counted occurrences of words, phrases, images, or concepts. - helps to extract themes and make meaning out of unstructured information w/help of software(NVivo). - provides an established and systematic technique to organize qualitative information - 2 types: inductive(most preferred/common) and deductive. - Inductive: key phrases emerge and make common themes. Deductive: nodes are decided before the study. - can be quantitative by counting occurrences
Personal Inventories (RM)
these allow the designer to see and understand the relevance of objects in a user's life from the participant's point of view, to inspire design themes and insight. - collected objects from personal inventories reveal much about the significance of participant-owned objects, but may rely on the designer to extract insight about the user and their context relevant to the particular design inquiry.
Task analysis (RM/S/AT)
this analysis breaks down the constituent elements of a user's work flow, including actions and interactions, system response, and environmental context. - this helps visualize stakeholder scenarios and prioritized tasks; each column starts out with a scenario, describes a task, and is followed by all the sub-tasks necessary to complete the tasks. sub-tasks are color coded and prioritiezed
Storyboards (D)
this deliverable provides a visual narrative that generates empathy and communicates the context in which a technology/product or form fact will be used. - they shape social, environmental, and temporal factors into a compelling narrative and help design teams to more carefully consider how products and services could improve peoples lives - 3-6 panels w/1 focused idea only; know your target audience
Stakeholder Walkthrough (RM)
this method brings end users, stakeholders, and the design team together to evaluate early prototypes from the end-users perspective, providing actionable recommendations for improvements and building empathy.
Personas (S/AT/D)
this method consolidates archetypal descriptions of user behavior patterns into representative profiles, to humanize design focus, test scenarios, and aid design communication.
Photo studies (RM)
this method invites the participant to photo-document aspects of his or her life and interactions, providing the designer with visual, self-reported insights into user behaviors and priorities.
Elito Method (Syn./Analy.)
this method is used to develop solid design arguments grounded in research observations and anchored to business directives. - helps teams to articulate an observation-based narrative that explicitly links business logic with design insights. -After the design team builds the elito spreadsheet together, each elito "logic line" is printed and posted to a board for sorting, clustering, and commenting to further analyze, evaluate, and share the work. - 5 entities create "logic line": Observation, Judgement, Value, Concepts, Key Metaphors
Research Through Design (RM/S/AT/D)
this method recognizes the design process as a legitimate research activity, examining the tools and processes of design thinking and making within the design projects, bridging theory and building knowledge to enhance design practices
The love letter and the break up letter (RM)
this methods allows deign workshop participants to express their thoughts and emotions in a familiar format (handwritten letter) addressed to a product or a service that they either love or has recently disappointed them. more often than not participants will reveal that are situated in real life experiences about the meaning and place that a particular product plays or has played in their lives. - a personal letter written to a product often reveals profound insights about what people value and expect from the objects in their everyday lives.
Shadowing (RM)
this observational method provides key insights into a participants activities and decision patterns as the researcher follows him or her closely through his or her daily routines.
stakeholder maps (S/AT)
this process helps to visually consolidate and communicate the key constituents of a design project, setting the stage for user-centered research and design development.
unobtrusive measures (RM)
used to acquire info w/out direct contact w/participants, through nonreactive physical traces, archives, and observations.
Territory Maps (S/AT)
visual artifacts that represent the shared focus of the design team for anticipated design activities, including the identification of suggested stakeholders.
speed dating (RM/S/AT)
when people compare multiple design concepts in quick succession, design teams can learn how people react to new technology while also taking into account existing contextual and social factors. process is as follows: - conduct contextual field research - create storyboards for each scenario - "speed date" storyboards in a session - reflect and discuss - conduct a simulated environment
Desirability Testing (research method)
when there is disagreement about which design to pursue, this research method shifts the convo from which design is best to which design elicits the optimal emotional response from users. the emotional response you want people to have when using your product. - have 3-5 adjectives (+, -, neutral) to choose from have participants choose and explain why they chose those, then that data can be reviewed until the desired experience is in place
