Week 8: Research & Ethics
Honestly, I feel like I’ve blinked and we’re already on Week 8, how is this possible? Nevertheless, onwards we go. This week we are looking at audience/user research methods that we will encounter in the industry and how we can begin to incorporate these methodologies into our own work.
I’m really excited about this topic, I’ve always enjoyed the research stage of any project i’ve worked on. As a fashion designer, carrying out trend, colour or fabric research at the start of a new season is always so exciting. We get to look at what other brands are doing; catwalks by those who inspire us and collections by those who lead the way in the industry. At this point we don’t necessarily need to limit our research to our own brands DNA. We can be free to explore, learn and most importantly be inspired.
The nature of fashion is that the trendsetters and top level design houses not only inspire other brands, but inspire the end consumer. The pages of any Vogue magazine are filled with new trends, catwalk collections, and inspiration that ignites a desire in the reader (or in my case designer). It is on trend because they say so, and these trends filter down into all different levels of design (often very quickly with fast-fashion retailers such as H&M or Zara.
Once research is collated, we can then hone this research into our upcoming project based on relevance and importance to our customer and brand. Striking the right balance between trend research and product design is crucial to the designer.
I do find myself often thinking about how what I learn on this course applies to my role as a designer.
User Research in Design
This week we are particularly looking at User Research as well as its methodologies and ethics. With any product design, the most important factor is to design with the audience or customer in mind. If we are designing a service for a user, it has to function the way the user needs it to function, and also be aesthetically pleasing to allow ease of use. The same applies to product design. In order to design with the user at the forefront of our mind, we must carry out user research in order to make strategic decisions in the early stages of development. As Mike Kuniavsky says,
User research is the process of understanding the impact of design on an audience. (Kuniavsky, 2003).
As a designer, its always tempting to plunge straight into designing a beautiful product, certain that we are confident in our abilities. However, some focus on user research at the early stages can result in a successful, desirable and useable product. As well as allowing the designer to understand and recognise its audience, it also allows for continual evaluation throughout the development stage.
Methodologies
In UX research it is important to get to grips with how users differ to one another, and often this requires an understanding of some psychological elements. The two main methods are Qualitative and Quantitative research (or sometimes a combination of these).
The most basic qualitative research is an interview. This could be one to one with a single user, or a focus group. This is the easiest way to ask the right questions and to get direct, relevant answers. This is particularly useful if the interviewee is using or testing a product. The researcher can observe the users and reflect upon their actions and decisions.
A qualitative researcher for product innovation will focus on the words of a single subject or a few subjects and will often observe the client at the worksite using the products or services that are targeted for improvement. (Schirr, 2013)
Quantitative methods allow the researcher to collect numbers from the user that are very useful for statistical analysis. For example, when working as a fashion designer I would always compile and analyse best seller reports from the previous seasons sales. This is a form of quantitative research and allowed me to focus when designing new ranges by understanding sales patterns and shopper habits. As well as giving me confidence in particular styles, it also provided confirmation when certain styles or silhouettes were not so popular and should not be revisited.
In UX design, the easiest form method of gathering quantitative research is through a well-designed questionnaire. By well-designed, I mean the questions must be considered so that our answers are quantifiable. We want to know how much, how long and how many.
Research Ethics
Controversial experiments are projects involving human participants that lead to a questioning of the ethical design and implementation of the project. (Allen, 2017)
I have never really had to consider user research ethics in my previous career though I have a basic understanding of the topic and appreciate the moral guidelines that make research methods ethical or unethical. The most obvious case of unethical user research in recent years is the Stanford Prison Experiment. This was an experiment in the 70’s and 80’s to test the physical and psychological effects on human participants when put under certain pressures and often extreme duress.
Ethics Checklist
It is very important before carrying out user research to reference a check list to ensure ethical and moral standards are met. It is common, and advised, that this is carried before research commences and allows the researcher to identify any risks and avoid them. Risks are commonly divided into Low, Medium and High. Low risks refer to any situation that might be encountered in everyday life. Medium risk can potentially cause harm or distress but there are possibilities to reduce or remove the severity of this. Any research involving individuals or groups (such as user-testing or accessing private or confidential information about a participant) comes under this category. This also covers any research involving animals. High risk does not allow for mitigation and often requires a very tailored approach and ongoing surveillance when planning this research.
Challenge Activity
We have been tasked with examining three scenarios and to assess them as Low, Medium or High Risk whilst assessing them against the Falmouth University Integrity and Ethics policy.
In Scenario 1 a researcher plans to interview a group of eight artists for her thesis. She has offered a letter of introduction and received written consent from the participants. She allows the interviewee to withdraw comments from the transcripts and approve the interview record.
References
Kuniavsky, Mike, 2003. ‘Observing the User Experience: A Practitioner's Guide to User Research’. [Online] Available at <https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=ZqAl1AsglfIC&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=Observing+the+User+Experience:+A+Practitioner%27s+Guide+to+User+Research&ots=fGVFKYtM3J&sig=zCmY1ZG_Kydi8bnRr1BkSg8or7g&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=Observing%20the%20User%20Experience%3A%20A%20Practitioner's%20Guide%20to%20User%20Research&f=false> Accessed on (10th August)
Schirr, GR, 2013. ‘User research for product innovation: Qualitative methods’ in Khan, Kenneth B, Evans Kay, S, Slotegraaf, R. J, Uban, S (ed.) The PDMA handbook of new product development. [Online] Available at <https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/9781118466421.ch14> Accessed on (10 August 2012)
Allen, Mike, 2017. ‘Controversial Experiments’ in Allen, Mike (ed.) The SAGE Encyclopedia of Communication Research Methods [Online} Available at <https://methods.sagepub.com/reference/the-sage-encyclopedia-of-communication-research-methods/i3345.xml> Accessed on (10 August 2021)