Challenges of Design Research
Research is the fundamental and initial step in every project. For the majority of us with a design-related background, starting your process with user research is a necessity, especially in UX. The research should be qualitative, specific to the behavior and psychology of the end user, not simply quantitative. However, practicing design research in a real project in collaboration with multiple diverse majors can be more challenging than you think! For instance, recently I discovered that this process is not the same for other majors, and that it is not based on the user as the center of the research. I volunteered (as a UX major) for a project consisting of students from multiple majors. At the beginning, although I really wanted to be as active and effective as possible, since I was a volunteer, I decided not to control the process.
However, after the second meeting, I knew that something was not right, and that we were on the wrong path! Could we jump to the Ideation phase without having acurate results in the research phase? Did we take the necessary research steps? Could we just rely on reading some related articles, or study the future market to pass the research phase? I didn’t think so, and I was thinking to myself, review the process and it clicked — the big missing piece was the actual user research!
Sometimes you should defend user research for design sake!
At the next meeting, I shared my discovery with the other team members. Some were in agreement, although some thought the really limited research that we had done was enough to move on to the ideation phase! At that moment, it wasn’t just the lack of design research that was bothering me, but the importance of having design thinking. I didn’t know where to start explaining the whole process. And, that was where I felt speechless.
Until that moment, I didn’t realize that design thinking was so ingrained in me based on my education and experience — it was simply my unconscious mindset. Perhaps the other members of the team had not been trained in design thinking, and that was the reason it wasn’t a priority for them.
As a UX design major who will collaborate with diverse majors in the future, as well, here are some points that I’ve realized and learned during my recent experience:
- The first important aspect to have a successful, effective collaboration in a design process is having a general understanding of each other’s majors. That would help everyone to have a beter understanding of each member’s potential.
- The second is to decide as a group which research techniques a project needs. For instance, members should understand the difference between qualitative and quantitative research approaches, and how these methods can be useful on a specific project. That would create an opportunity to take advantage of your knowledge, skills, and training.
- And, the third is to be respectful to each other and always remember that each of the majors is important. We should all learn where and when in the design research process each participant can be the most helpful and effective.
