The process will inform the Design
UX design is a process, a series of steps that if taken correctly will lead to a well made product. Like many processes if a deviation occurs the final product suffers. As a cohort, IXDMA has been in the throws of this process and it has been challenging to say the least. We’ve decided to focus on access to shelter as a problem space. This week we re-focused our research and started to better understand what barriers exist in access to shelter.
One challenge we faced as a group and as a cohort was that shelter is an extremely broad topic. We all wanted to focus on a topic that was close to our hearts as well as that would benefit the world. We started to do primary and secondary research individually. We broke down roles by type of research. Two people did secondary research, two people conducted in person interviews and one person created and distributed a survey. This gave us a bunch of raw data and insights. The challenge lied in how we chose to synthesize that data and then use that data to narrow down our problem space.
In order to focus on what is really important in the space of access to shelter we started by creating an affinity map of our research. By seeing the basic correlations between our separate research we were able to narrow our problem space from “access to shelter” to “creating a sense of home while in transitory living.” This statement is much more focused than providing “access to shelter.” This is an important part of the research process. By focusing in on some very specific people and places it will be an easier space to define problems for users. When the research is broad, the solution will be broad too.
A part of the UX process is creating a solution out of the research you’ve done. However this part of the process can come earlier than it needs to. This is another problem we faced as a cohort. We all wanted to jump to a solution before we defined the problem. This is why going through the process of UX design is important. If you skip a research step you may start to work on an entirely wrong or unrelated problem. If you have the space, time and money DO THE RESEARCH.
So what did we learn this week? You need research to understand a problem but too much research can make it difficult to narrow to a specific topic. Be critical with your research and your final product will not suffer. Try your hardest to not jump to solutions… solution anxiety is a real thing and it distracts from finding actionable insight in your research. Again as shown in the above diagram UX design is a process, not an act of God. Trust in the research process to get to a design.
