FIRST DRAFT OF A4 POSTER
Lectures on Research Methods
Week 1: Research Methods
Research
-
Research tools & techniques
-
Design research is designing in context
-
Design effect of an object is more critical than the design itself. “Form follows function”. As designers we need to understand the form and how your target audience and user interacts with the designs created.
Design ladder
No design > design as styling > design as process > design as strategy
Research in design is really important, mainly because it gives you a direction and tell you where to start. Without research, we usually get stuck between process and there are no branches for us to develop ideas.
Different research tools:
-
Primary & secondary research
-
Quantitive & Qualitative research
-
Formative and summative research
As student, I am more familiar with primary research and secondary research because I believe it is the easiest form of research, as the internet and books are readily available for us.
Quantitative research and qualitative research define the type of data that is being collected. For quantitative research is an object measurement and qualitative research is a subjective belief.
Why is it important to have objective research data?
It establish the scope and depth of your project. This helps you avoid unnecessary research. It also means that your research methods and conclusions can easily be evaluated.
Formative research & summative research:
Refers to the different points of the design process that research is being conducted at.
Formative helps us to understand problem and gathers information to solve and improve it and for summative is to test and refine ideas until the best solution is achieved.
Week 2 : Introduction to secondary research
Secondary research: Books, journals, published literature, reviews, ‘grey literature’, website.
‘Grey literature’
Umbrella term for material that is not published commercially and is difficult to obtain through the usual book-selling and bibliographical channels.
Reliable sources of information:
.com , .net , .gov , .edu , .org , .ac
When considering secondary research, it is always important to validate the research by finding out ‘who’, ‘when’, ‘how’, ‘why’. Its also important to verify the information found with another source, to ensure that it is reliable and correct.
How to conduct searches?
#1 keyword search
#2 snowball technique (tracking articles from one to another and following up on references)
#3 Track and record your search with a database research log
Week 3 : Research
Reflection: For my design studio project, to understand my users and user testing, I did an interview with my potential users on how they feel about the garment and considerations of the garment.
I think an interview is the most effective form of research. It helps gather the information needed on people’s opinions, thoughts, experiences and feelings. It is also great for inquiring into issues that requires complex questioning and considerable probing.
Interview with my co-creation partner : Project Anew Founder, Mei Shan Poon
1. What inspired you to start project-anew?
Project Anew was started as merely a Passion Project! Prior to starting the Project, I ran a vintage and graphic tee online business alongside being a volunteer and activist for social change and kindness. I wanted to find a way to combine both of my passions into one, which was how the idea came about!
Initially, it was just intended to only do small online fundraising through donations from friends and family. However, with the help of social media. We garnered quite a-bit of attention on the platform TikTok! Through this, we were given opportunities to be sponsored to host a physical event. We also had photographers, models, stores and talents whom reached out to us to be part of our journey for change!
2. In the process of gathering all of this local sellers, what are the important aspects you look out for?
When looking for local sellers, we mainly look at their sustainability effort! As aside from our main goal being to increase social change and bring to attention charitable aspects. We are also aware of the impacts that the clothing industry has caused to the environment. As such our secondary mission is to also spread awareness on sustainability!
Thus, we do mainly work with stores that promote and try to contribute to circular fashion such as by providing life to pre-loved items.
We also place a very big importance on our collaborators being supportive of the idea that thrifting should NOT be expensive which is seen in many stores today. Gentrification is something we hope to combat. We always ensure our prices are fair and generally below $25 and our rag house being 5 pieces for $15 always.
3. Is there a particular vision for this project?
The long term vision of Project Anew would be to definitely to see an impactful change in the youth community. We hope that fellow youths will not only garner an interest in contributing to the community but also be more educated on topics we don’t frequently visit such as environmental detriment and societal ideas and mentality on “charity work”.
Ideally, in the future we hope to be able to host our own fundraising and direct ways to contribute instead of being a third-party! we also have ideas of expanding into other ways to engage youths such as workshops, podcast and more!
4. How do you choose which charity organisation you want to collaborate with?
When choosing a charity organisation, we are very careful in our considerations. We firstly check, “what are the causes that need the most help at the moment?”. Such as during our first event, we worked with “food from the heart” our reason for doing so was because we realised post covid, with the recession amidst the regulation being lifted. There were still many who needed the extra support! With their myriad of programs, we were sure that the money raised would be done for good and contribute to something meaningful. For our second event, we wanted to touch back nearer to the team and what felt close to us. Which is why we worked with CARE.sg which aims to promote and support underprivileged and neglected youths.
We also seek out mutual transparency and also guidance from these organisations!
5. Last but not least, is this project a way of yourself contributing to sustainable fashion?
Project Anew hopes to be an avenue where one can be educated without shame and promote the benefits that come with it! We do also have plans on expansion to further promote the agenda of sustainable fashion in the near future~
As for myself, although minuscule project anew is one way where I feel that I can contribute to the world both societally and environmentally. I believe that by creating opportunities where youths can come to a place unjudged with accessible prices as well as the opportunity to be educated through open conversations. That’s a step towards change.
The idea is that if one person leaves our event or our page knowing more about the environment or feel more inclined to contribute to society, we’ve done what we are set out to do
User testing interview with potential users and target market regarding my design
Week 4 : Ethnographic research
-
Empathy : put yourself in the position of the user
-
Observation research: Systematic process of viewing & recording human behaviour without questioning, communicating with/ interacting with the group studied.
-
Visual anthropology : Using visual media to aid interpretations of cultural behaviour.
-
Photo ethnography : Subject are asked to record their daily experiences. Different from visual anthropology in that Photo- ethnographies is in the hands of the subject
Week 6 : Research- driven design
(Understanding your target Audience true needs)
Without research methods, the design process will not be complete and will often find itself stuck in the process. Research-driven designs incorporates research methods into the design process to deliver measurable results.
It gives importance to designer-client relationship to create effective communication, better understanding of the target audience.
Research helps to
Frame the problem > gather context > understand the people you are designing for
Person-first design: Person-first approach employs research to help creative to understand the needs, behaviours and culture of their audience.
Philosophies:
User-Centered Design & Human-Centered Design
​
User-centered design focuses on individual users, which produces user-friendly designs and outcomes. Human-centered design, however, takes “humans” as its central focus, which lends itself more to “social problem solving”
Reflection on what I have learnt this semester?
Prior to studying design thinking, I had no idea about research methods, I have always thought of the end process and solution but not the design process. Design thinking offers a defined process for innovation. The trial and error method is a good way for us as young designers to test and experiment what works and what doesn’t and understanding our users and consumer needs above all else. “Form follows function” is a philosophy I really understand and think is very effect because we prioritise the needs and uses of the product before the aesthetics of the product. Design thinking is a problem-solving approach that has the intention to improve products, I loved learning about the importance of research because it helps us to carefully assess and analyse the design trends, current users and competitors and bring value to the problem we are solving for them.
For my design studio project, for this semester, even though it is a continuation from last semester, I still continued doing more research on the problems I am trying to solve, my inspiration and did more research on user testing and review. It was important for me to understand that my user understands my designs and I was in all ear to listen to considerations given by them and how to improve my project. Research helped me to replace assumptions with design insights and made me more confident during decision making process.