DECO1100/7110

RESEARCH FOR DESIGN (20%)

Due 24 March 14:00, 2025.

Submit your research portfolio through Blackboard. This will be a Turnitin assignment

(plagiarism detection).

Purpose

Primary research (i.e. original research you conduct yourself) is an essential skill for human- centred design. Your current life experiences, whatever they are, enable you to imagine what

people you haven’t met are like. But people will always surprise you. In this project you will do

user research, you will study a context and the people within the context (users) with the aim of

trying to identify problems or design opportunities where you can improve the existing system.

This project requires you to go out and observe people, places, and technologies, you will need to

interview people, study how (and when) people interact and use technology, collect data, analyse

it in order to develop interesting design insights, and to identify design opportunities.

Choose one open space area, where lots of people normally visit every day, e.g. outside a food

court, a busy corridor, a market square, green spaces, a waiting area, a library, a museum or any

open space you prefer.

Deliverables

You will conduct your own research and collate a research portfolio. The research will be

delivered in the form of a PDF (word processed) report (minimum of 6 A4 pages and a maximum

of 10 A4 pages, excluding references and appendix).

Following sections should be included:

1. Introduction. A short introduction to the research you have conducted. Describe the

context you have chosen and what kind of people are normally active in your chosen

context. Introduce what methods you have used for the user study, your process for

analysing your data, a short summary of the insights you have found, and what problems

or design opportunities you have identified from your research.

Your project needs to include interviews, observations and a probe.

2. Analysis. A section that presents in-depth analyses of at least three excerpts from your

data. These might be narratives that were collected in interviews, outcomes of activities

that you conducted with people, actions or reactions that you observed, or other forms of

data you have collected. For each excerpt, go beyond/behind the surface features of the

data. For example, if analysing an interview, do not just tell us what they say, but identify

what values are implied by what they say or how they say it; consider how their answers

convey something of their own identity or sense of self; how what they talk about (and

avoid talking about) suggests latent needs.

3. Themes and outliers. In this section you need to present your data holistically and

attempts to organise and makes sense of it together.

Include at least one of below:

-excerpts from your data (interviews or observations) that you have organised into

themes;

-affinity diagrams of your other data (e.g. from your observations, notes or returned

probes)

-annotated site maps that identify common or uncommon happenings.

Present the diversity of the data you have collected by describing at least one group of

‘outliers’. Explain how this group is ‘outliers’ in comparison to the themes or

commonalities you have found.

4. Insights and implications for design. This section highlights the insights that you gained

from your research. Present at least 2 design opportunities or problems you have

identified and relate to your research findings so we can verify how you came to your

conclusions. Explain what the problems or design opportunities might add or change for

the kinds of experiences the users in the context will have. If you can, try to identify

design principles.

5. Conclusion. Write a paragraph that concludes the research report, reminds readers of its

purpose and presents its contribution.

6. Appendix. Include an appendix with your raw data to show evidence of your work. Each

student must attach at least 5 minutes of interview that is fully transcribed in this section.

You should also include observational notes, evidence of analysis (early mappings of

themes, for instance) and other raw material that was collected and used in preparation of

this submission. If you used probe methods such as photo diaries or group chat prompts,

you may include those here too.

Criteria

In evaluating your research portfolio, there are five pass/fail criteria.

• TRANSCRIPTION Pass/Fail: Has the student transcribed at least five minutes of one

interview they have conducted with a participant?

• AUDIO RECORDING Pass/Fail: Has the student submitted audio recordings of 2

interviews?

• OBSERVATION Pass/Fail: Has the student provided evidence of having conducted an

observation of people’s use for the specific choice of site at a specific time of day?

• PROBE Pass/Fail: Has the student provided evidence of having conducted a probe to

complement the interview and observation data?

• DESIGN OPPORTUNITIES/PROBLEMS Pass/Fail: Has the student proposed at least two

design opportunities or problems that they have identified in response to the research

they have conducted?

The submission will be assessed using the following questions as guides (see more detail in

marking rubric):

• Strategic choices: to what degree has the student made appropriate choices with respect to

selecting a group of participants and identifying relevant locations to observe? How do

these choices reflect on the student’s understanding and interpretation of user research?

• Methods: how well has the student applied the research methods? How well does their

interview transcript show their facility with open-ended and semi-structured

interviewing as a method for design research? How detailed are their observations? What

other method/s have they chosen, and what skills have they shown in their execution?

• Analysis: how well has the student been able to go beyond the content of the data to

identify values, themes, insights and design implications? How well have they

demonstrated an understanding of the purpose of data analysis for design? What kind of

design principles have they been able to distil from their research?

• Communication: how clearly does the report communicate the student’s understanding of

the work they have done and its purpose? How appropriate is its style and structure? Is it

concise?

Places to start with relevant methods:

Gaffney, G. (n.d.). Cultural probes | Information & Design. Retrieved February 26, 2019, from

https://infodesign.com.au/usabilityresources/culturalprobes.html

Labaree, R. V. (n.d.). Research Guides: Organizing Your Social Sciences Research Paper: Writing Field Notes

[Research Guide]. Retrieved February 26, 2019, from //libguides.usc.edu/writingguide/fieldnotes

McNiff, K. (n.d.). Are you really listening? Tips for conducting qualitative interviews. Retrieved February 26,

2019, from https://www.qsrinternational.com/nvivo/nvivo-community/the-nvivo-blog/are-you-really-

listening-tips-for-conducting-qual

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