Chapter 5 User:Research

This chapter introduces important concepts to understand how the act of design cannot be truly realized with understanding just who are we designing for, their values, actions, and mindsets. Designing for the people of downtown Trenton is no easy task. Each individual is different in how they see they world, but there is no true ideal design to create as well. We must work with what we have been brought and methods like ethnographic design bring us one step closer to understanding how we can help Trenton grow. An ethnographic focus in our methods can reveal details such as how users will use our created product, user interaction and also produce a helpful collection of personas on which to represent our end goals for the design. Ethnographic design also helps to disregard any previous assumptions about an idea,people, or community. This is important for downtown Trenton as there is more to this city that the blights of crime and poverty. It shows that we must dive more into the heart of the city and understand its people for who they are.This chapter also emphasized the idea to never assume that people are always reliable in their answers. As we interview these individuals in Trenton, we must understand that they might not have a full grasp of their own situation and cannot relay an accurate description of their predicaments. Direct questions that can be answered with a simple yes or no do not help with our data collection. Questions that produce stories and experiences of an interviewee can produce better results as it helps to reveal more about their habits, behaviors and their overall environment as a whole.