Let’s Stop Doing Research*

and get smarter about design

https://medium.com/research-things/lets-stop-doing-research-48efcd7118c9

Good decisions require good information, therefore research. The problem with research is the confusion about what it entails.

When I say “research” some people hear “surveys” or “focus groups” or “testing”. Sure some of those are research, but that doesn’t mean they are all-occasion or that research can reduce to any one of those.

The point of design research is to make sure everyone working towards the goal is benefitting from a collective understanding of the problem, and that it needs to answer the questions design needs answered most.

User-centered design
Understanding the system from the user’s perspective is simply not enough.

Data-driven design
Reinforces the false belief that quantitative data (measurements) are superior to qualitative (descriptions), that the data will tell you what to do. But they aren’t and they won’t.
As long as humans are involved, data-driven design is still just human bias-driven design. 
We’ll still need to ask the right questions, interpret the answers, and determine the implications for what we’re designing, no matter how good the data is.

Genius (Intuition) Design
Information and intuition are compatible. Intuition is either a judgement based on experience, or it’s confirmation bias.
A great designer learns from experience and avoids relying on assumptions.

We need evidence-based design
We need to include research as part of the design process.

We need evidence-based design. Because what we are doing first and foremost is designing. It doesn’t matter how much research we do, or what method we use. There is no one right answer. It matters that we have sufficient evidence to support our choices and decisions, however we get that evidence.