Stage 2 : Exploratory Research Synthesis
2/6–2/12
After 2 weeks of interviews, shadowing and exploration, we collected all of our findings and learnings to identify key insights and design objectives. In our Research Methods studio, we were introduced to various synthesizing methods such as AEIOU, Rose-Bud-Thorn, Affinity Diagrams, importance/difficulty matrix, etc.
Looking to explore these methods, we used the Rose-Bud-Thorn method to synthesize our key learnings. This method involves us segregating our learnings into three categories —ROSEs (pink) are things that are working well for the user; BUDs (green) are things that works, but have some potential for improvement. THORNs (blue) are things that obviously do not work well.
We each spent a few minutes capturing key takeaways from each research interviews and visits. We then grouped them into RBT buckets.The advantage of this exercise was that we all saw what each of us considered as opportunities and challenges. We then voted on key learnings. Each of us having 10 votes, we sorted through them and discussed why each of them were important or made a significant contribution.
We then did an exercise in affinity mapping to group, sort and rearrange our findings, looking for patterns. Sorting our key findings into buckets helped us identify the broad categories of information we had and how they might interconnect or overlap to help us find our insights.
Insights
Insights represent our most salient learnings from research, the complex human truths we have chosen to design to.
A conceptual understanding how it works is important, but at some point you have to get your hands dirty.
“At some point, you just have to touch it.” — Dave
Mechanical work is very physical. It’s about feel. It requires a lot of tacit knowledge.” -Bob
“I need to see a car that doesn’t start, one that I’ve never seen before. Then, I need to get my hands into it.” -Paul
Collaboration and strategic mentorship gives learners the confidence they need to experiment.
“Having a mentor gives you the confidence to try something for the first time.” — Kate
“In remote collaboration settings, it’s helpful to be able to point over someone’s shoulder.” -Dan
“A lot of times, people don’t even know the right questions to ask. In many cases the information needed to fix a problem is on the machine, but people don’t know where to look.” -Kate
“When walking someone through a technical procedure, you either have to have a very clear mental model of the system or be able to provide highly detailed instructions even though you can’t see what they see.” -Dan
Familiar patterns make new environments easier to navigate. Introduce too much change and they become difficult to recognize.
“If you know how something works you can find the right material to Macgyver it. Like, ‘I need something that’s long and flexible, but not too flexible, that has some force. I need something I can shape.’ ” — Kate
“You have to work within the systems people are already comfortable with, rather than change everything at once.” — Dan
“I have to reverse engineer what the engineer did to troubleshoot it.” -Paul
Technological change demands extreme flexibility, and that too can be taught.
“The information age is changing the education space completely.” — Paul
“We like to hire people that are jacks of all trade, masters of nothing because the company pivots so quickly. We need employees that will pivot with us.” -Janelle
“We want to provide enough knowledge so that our students can become self-directed learners.”
Principles
Design principles are our insights made actionable, inspiring statements with clear implications for our design.
Support physical learning, don’t get in the way.
“The more vivid the virtual world, the less time people spend in the physical world. Too much information in the digital world can be a bad thing. People will miss things. Technical work needs to be rooted in the physical world.” — Dan
Provide timely and contextualized feedback.
“I would love to have Alexa around to answer smart questions. She should know what kind of materials I’m using and where I am in the process. There’s nothing more annoying that having to read through a series of steps from the beginning when I’m already at number four” — Bob
Facilitate pattern recognition.
“Certain people need to see the entire system to know what’s going on. For others, that can be overwhelming. They just need to see the small part they are working on.” — Vinita
Accommodate technological change and the adoption of new processes.
“Today’s cars are half computers. Both instructors and students need to stay up to date.” -Dave
