Research

1
Research

• Les 4
• Liesbeth Huybrechts
• Sanne Jansen

2
Synthesize the Research into User Requirements

• synthesize data into form that can be used by
  product development team
• through use of personas
• The Inmates are Running the Asylum (Cooper,
  1999)
• and About Face 2.0. (Cooper, 2003).

3
Personas

• scenarios, profiles created to inspire and
  guide design
• visual, textual descriptions, but ideally result
  of studying real people
• heavily used by advertisers 1980, 1990
• personas are narrow descriptions
• less effective with diverse audience
• best for homogenous audiences or niche markets

4
Personas

• identify users needs, used to develop,
  validate, prioritize new or proposed features
• creation of Needs versus Functions Chart
• Combination summary of market and design
  research, personas, needs vs. Functions Chart
• gt final User Requirements Report

5
How to create Personas

• 5 steps
• choose primary and secondary personas
• Avoid common pitfalls
• prepare for objections
• conduct a persona workshop
• complete the personas

6
Create Personas

• archetypical Users with specific goals, needs
  based on real market and design research.
• Include
• name
• photograph
• demographic characteristics
• technographic characteristics
• behavioral characteristics
• barriers and/or challenges
• specific goals and needs

7
ultimate goal of personas

• identify specific user goals and needs
• so they can be aligned with
• business needs
• technical goals
• to create an agreed upon prioritized list of
  features and functions
• common understanding of whom product is being
  designed for
• !! prevents project team from making decisions on
  personal preferences and biases

8
Choose primary and secondary personas

• Cooper advises 1 to 3 primary and 2 to 3
  secondary personas
• narrow number of personas by Market Segment
  Matrix
• rarely persona from each segment, sometimes
  multiple from each segment
• secondary personas
• particular role rather than market segment
• e.g. segment classroom teacher (product
  e-learning software), sec role students because
  their needs may be important too

9
Avoid common pitfalls

• dont mix up business and user goals
• business-defined goal
• user needs easy way to get to personalized
  marketing messages
• user-driven goal
• user wants to be alerted when the best price
  comes available

10
Prepare for objections

• In a business context, but also in your own
  presentation of work!
• Marketing already did this
• (not focussed enough on costumer behaviors)
• We have a lot of experts here so we know what our
  users want
• (experts can be included in stakeholder
  interviews)
• Everyone is a user
• (even large companys can prioritize users)

11
Prepare for objections

• This feels silly. Its just creative writing
  exercise based on made-up data
• (real data)
• I did these before and they just werent useful
• (pitfalls)
• Theres just not enough time
• design research saves time!

12
Conduct a persona workshop

• collaborative workshop with one representative
  from each area
• engineering, content, design, marketing,
  executive team
• workshop is process by which personas emerge
  means as important as end

13
Conduct a persona workshop, TIPS

• Evaluate personas before, during, after workshop
• Do presentation of Persona Development Process
  before Persona Workshop
• Explain process and reason for using Personas
• Set expectations for upcoming workshop
• make relevant research documents and background
  articles available.
• All team members who agree to participate must
  be familiar with previously conducted market and
  design research
• so they can make informed recommendations.

14
Conduct a persona workshop, TIPS

• Create posters with salient market research data
  for workshop participants to easily refer to
• if you have quotes from user interviews, enlarge
  them on the walls for inspiration
• seed the personas before meeting so that the
  group can get traction immediately

15
Complete the personas

• final deliverable
• often persona menu
• one-page document containing summary view of all
  personas
• This includes
• Name
• Photograph
• Key demographics
• Key technographics
• Primary goals, needs
• persona menu should be included with design
  documentation and present with design sessions,
  critiques
• Informs decision making.

16
Personas adidas

• Gearhead -- the hard-core, nonteen runner who
  needs high-performance shoes
• Core Letterman -- the true-blue, white suburban
  high-school athlete. (Description from the
  internal Adidas guidelines ''age 16-24'' ''I
  don't like people who think they're too cool.'')
• Contemporary Letterman -- the high-school athlete
  who, ''still cares about the ladies and hooking
  up.'
• Aficionado -- the kid, probably African-American,
  who likes brand-new, 100-plus basketball shoes
• Popgirl -- the teeny-bopper who scours the mall
  for Skechers
• Value Addict -- the shopper at Kohl's and Target,
  probably middle-aged and fairly well off
• A-Diva -- '''Sex and the City' goes to the gym.'
• Fastidious Eclectus -- the ''SoHo architect,''
  Liedtke says, who craves hip, distinctive
  sneakers. (Adidas guidelines ''age 15-35'' ''I
  think weirdness and confidence are sexy.'')

17
Create a Needs vs. Functions Chart

• Marketing requirements document (MRD) includes
  prioritized outline of features and functions
• but not often maps needs and priorities
• analyze Persona needs chart and add column for
  features and functions
• place outline number of each feature and function
  in the appropriate row to map it to users needs
  that it meets
• helps crossfunctional team understand
  relationship between marketing goals, business
  needs and user needs

18
Create a Needs vs. Functions Chart

• Needs vs Function Chart
• gives team a formal model to decide how to adress
  those needs that are not met by a
  feature/function
• or what to do with features/functions that do not
  meet a user need
• with this last step data
• from all points in the organisation
• and from all relevant user perspectives are
  integrated

19
Prioritize Persona Needs

• in relation to features, functions
• personas have unique and distinct goals, but
  often common needs
• step 1 create Persona needs Chart
• identify which personas each need
• (some are shared by all, some are unique to one
  persona)
• step 2 sort the list so needs are shared by most
  personas are shown at the top
• sorting personas and needs in other ways will
  help you see patterns
• and understand their similarities and differences

20
Case using MBTI for personas

• Using other research for creating personas
• http//www.lmff.com.au

21
Myers-Briggs Type IndicatorMBTI
22
Introduction to Myers-BriggsPersonality Type
Indicator

• Carl Jung developed a framework
• to describe basic individual preferences
• and explain some similarities and differences
  between people.
• Two basic assumptions of his framework
• Behaviour is predictable
• People are born with behaviour preferences

23
What are preferences?

• how we would choose if given free reign
• Preferences affect what we pay attention to
  around us
• Preferences affect how we perceive the actions of
  others

24
Gaining insight into personality

• Reduces your defensiveness when involved in a
  disagreement
• Increases your openness to feedback (clues) from
  what is going on around you
• Improves your ability to see others more
  accurately
• Appreciating differences in yourself helps you
  appreciate differences in others
• Improves your ability to choose realistic goals

25
Origins of the MBTI

• Isabel Myers and Katherine Briggs expanded on
  Jungs work
• by developing an instrument to help people
  identify preferences
• MBTI is
• A tried and tested framework to help us
  understand human behaviour
• Not a test!
• Based on a sample of nearly 5 million respondents
  and over 50 years of research

26
People express preferences in four independent
areas

27
Preferences

• Interaction preference
• Extraversion vs. Introversion
• Information Gathering Preference
• Sensing vs. intuition
• Decision-Making Preference
• Thinking vs. Feeling
• Life Style Preference
• Judging vs. Perceiving

28
CAUTION

• Words used to describe preferences in psychology
  do not mean the same thing as they do in everyday
  life.

29
The MBTI instrument

• measures personality preferences on four
  different scales
• Extraversion (E) - Introversion (I), Sensing (S)
  - Intuition (N)
• Thinking (T) - Feeling (F)
• Judging (J) - Perceiving (P).
• Results from the indicator are delivered in a
  four letter type.

30
Determining one's Myers-Briggs type

• complicated by life-long learning experiences
• classic question " Am I this way because I
  learned it or is this just the way I am?"??
• drawn equally to opposing choices?
• In such cases try to think back to how you were
  before the age of 12 or even younger
• ? by the time we are 3 years old, the core of our
  cognitive organization is well-fixed, although
  the brain continues to allow some plasticity
  until puberty
• After the onset of puberty, our adult learning
  begins to overlay our core personality - which is
  when the blending of nature and nurture becomes
  more evident.
• For some this "learning" serves to strengthen
  what is already there, but with others it
  produces multiple faces to personality

31
Take the test!

• http//www.personalitypathways.com/type_inventory.
  html

32
Extraversion (E)?

• outer world ? people ? action ? breadth
• energized by active involvement in events
• they like to be immersed in a breadth of
  activities
• most excited when they are around people
• often have an energized effect on those around
  them
• like to move into action and to make things
  happen
• usually feel very at home in the world
• often find their understanding of a problem
  becomes clearer if
• they can talk out loud about it
• hear what others have to say

33
People who prefer extraversion may

• "go-getters" or "people-persons
• feel comfortable with and like working in groups
• have a wide range of acquaintances and friends
• sometimes jump too quickly into activity and not
  allow enough time for reflection
• sometimes forgets to pause to clarify the ideas
  that give aim or meaning to their activities

34
Introversion (I)?

• ?inner world ? ideas ? reflection ? depth
• energized and excited when they are involved with
  the ideas, images, memories, and reactions that
  are a part of their inner world
• often prefer solitary activities
• or spending time with one or two others with whom
  they feel an affinity
• often have a calming effect on those around them
• Take time to reflect on ideas that explain the
  outer world
• truly like the idea of something
• often better than the something itself, and ideas
  are almost solid things for them?

35
People who prefer introversion may

• be seen as calm and reserved
• feel comfortable being alone
• like solitary activities
• prefer fewer, more intense relationships
• sometimes spend too much time reflecting
• not move into action quickly enough
• sometimes forget to check with the outside world
  to see if their ideas really fit their experience

36
Sensing (S)

• facts ? details ? experience ? present
• immersed in the ongoing richness of sensory
  experience
• grounded in everyday physical reality
• concerned with what is actual, present, current,
  and real
• approach situations with an eye to the facts
• often develop a good memory for detail
• accurate in working with data
• remember facts or aspects of events that did not
  even seem relevant at the time they occurred
• often good at seeing the practical applications
  of ideas and things
• may learn best when they can first see the
  pragmatic side of what is being taught
• experience speaks louder than words or theory

37
People who prefer sensing may

• recall events as snapshots of what literally
  happened
• solve problems by working through things
  thoroughly for a precise understanding
• be pragmatic
• look to the "bottom line
• work from the facts to the big picture
• put experience first
• place less trust in words and symbols
• sometimes focus so much on the facts of the
  present or past that they miss new possibilities

38
Intuition (N)

• symbols ? pattern ? theory ? future
• immersed in their impressions of the meanings or
  patterns in their experiences
• understanding through insight gtlt hands-on
  experience
• concerned with what is possible and new
• orientation to the future
• often interested in the abstract and in theory
• enjoy activities where they can use symbols or be
  creative
• memory of things is often an impression of what
  they thought was the essence of an event
• gtlt a memory of the literal words or experiences
  associated with the event
• often like concepts in and of themselves
• even ones that do not have an immediate
  application, learn best when they have an
  impression of the overall idea first.

39
People who prefer intuition may

• recall events by what they read "between the
  lines" at the time
• solve problems through
• quick insight
• through making leaps
• be interested in doing things that are new and
  different
• work from the big picture to the facts
• place great trust in insights, symbols, and
  metaphors
• less in what is literally experienced
• sometimes focus so much on new possibilities that
  they miss the practicalities of bringing them
  into reality

40
Thinking (T) ?

• ?impersonal ? truth ? cool ? tough-minded
• concerned with determining the objective truth in
  a situation
• More impersonal in approach, believe they can
  make the best decisions by removing personal
  concerns that may lead to biased analyses and
  decision making
• act based on the truth in a situation,
• a truth or principle that is independent of what
  they or others might want to believe or wish was
  true.
• concerned with logical consistency and analysis
  of cause and effect
• can appear
• Analytical
• Cool
• tough-minded?

41
People who prefer thinking may

• have technical or scientific orientations
• be concerned with truth
• notice inconsistencies
• look for logical explanations or solutions to
  almost everything
• make decisions with their heads
• want to be fair
• believe telling the whole truth is more important
  than being tactful
• sometimes miss seeing or valuing the "people"
  part of situations
• can be experienced as
• too task-oriented
• Uncaring
• indifferent

42
Feeling (F) ?

• personal ? value ? warm ? tenderhearted
• concerned with whether decisions and actions are
  worthwhile
• More personal in approach
• believe they can make the best decisions
• by weighing what people care about and the
  points-of-view of persons involved in a situation
• concerned with personal values
• places high value on relatedness between people
• often concerned with establishing or maintaining
  harmony in their relationships
• often appear caring, warm, and tactful
• !! in type language, feeling does not mean being
  "emotional" rather, it is a way of reasoning?

43
People who prefer feeling may

• have people or communications orientations be
  concerned with harmony and be aware when it is
  missing
• look for what is important to others and express
  concern for others
• make decisions with their hearts
• want to be compassionate
• believe being tactful is more important than
  telling the "cold" truth
• sometimes miss seeing or communicating about the
  "hard truth" of situations
• be experienced by others as too idealistic, soft
  or indirect

44
Judging (J)

• structured ? decided ? organized ? scheduled
• prefer a planned or orderly way of life
• like to have things settled and organized
• feel more comfortable when decisions are made
• like to bring life under control
• want to make decisions to bring things in their
  outer life to closure
• this only describes how their outer life looks
• Inside they may feel flexible and open to new
  information (which they are)
• in type language, judging means
• "preferring to make decisions" gtlt "judgmental"

45
People who prefer judging may

• like to make decisions, or at least like to have
  things decided
• look task oriented
• like to make lists of things to do
• like to get their work done before playing
• plan work to avoid rushing just before deadline
• sometimes make decisions too quickly without
  enough information
• sometimes focus so much on the goal or plan that
  they miss the need to change directions at times

46
Perceiving (P)

• ?flexible ? open ? adaptable ? spontaneous
• prefer a flexible and spontaneous way of life
• like to understand and adapt to the world
• like to stay open to new experiences
• want to continue to take in new information
• this only describes the outer life
• Inside they may feel very planful or decisive
• in type language perceiving means
• "preferring to take in information"
• gtlt "perceptive" in the sense of having quick and
  accurate perceptions about people and events?

47
People who prefer perceiving may

• like staying open to respond to whatever happens
• look more loose and casual
• like to keep laid-out plans to a minimum
• like to approach work as play or mix work and
  play
• work in burst of energy
• enjoy rushing just before deadlines
• sometimes stay open to new information so long
  that they miss making decisions
• sometimes focus so much on adapting to the moment
  that they do not settle on a direction or plan

48
Planner Inspector ISTJ

• Theme is planning and monitoring, ensuring
  predictable quality
• Thorough, systematic and careful
• See discrepancies, omissions, and pitfalls
• Talents administrating and regulating.
• Dependable, realistic, and sensible
• Want to conserve the resources of the
  organization, group, family or culture and
  persevere toward that goal
• Thrive on planning ahead and being prepared
• Like helping others through their roles
• as parent, supervisor, teammate, and community
  volunteer

49
Protector Supporter ISFJ

• Theme is protecting and caretaking, making sure
  their charges are safe from harm
• Talents making sure everything is taken care of
  so others can succeed and accomplish their goals
• Desiring to serve individual needs, often work
  long hours
• Quietly friendly, respectful, unassuming. Thrive
  on serving quietly without fanfare.
• Devoted to doing whatever is necessary to ensure
  shelter and safety, warning about pitfalls and
  dangers and supporting along the way.

50
Foreseer Developer INFJ

• Theme is foresight. Use their insights to deal
  with complexity in issues and people, often with
  a strong sense of "knowing" before others know
  themselves
• Talents lie in developing and guiding people
• Trust their inspirations and visions, using them
  to help others
• Thrive on helping others resolve deep personal
  and ethical dilemmas
• Private and complex, they bring a quiet
  enthusiasm and industry to projects that are part
  of their vision.

51
Conceptualizer Director INTJ

• Theme is strategizing, envisioning, and
  masterminding
• Talents lie in defining goals, creating detailed
  plans, and outlining contingencies
• Devise strategy, give structure, establish
  complex plans to reach distant goals dictated by
  a strong vision of what is needed in the long run
• Thrive on putting theories to work
• open to any and all ideas that can be integrated
  into the complex systems they seek to understand
• Drive themselves hard to master what is needed to
  make progress toward goals.

52
Analyzer Operator ISTP

• Theme is action-driven problem solving
• Talents lie in
• operating all kinds of tools and instruments
• using frameworks for solving problems
• Keen observers of the environment
• they are a storehouse of data and facts relevant
  to analyzing and solving problems
• Thrive on challenging situations
• having the freedom to craft clever solutions
• do whatever it takes to fix things and make them
  work
• Take pride in their style and virtuosity
• which they seem to effortlessly acquire

53
Composer Producer ISFP

• Theme is composing, using whatever is at hand to
  get a harmonious, aesthetic result.
• Talents lie in combining, varying and
  improvising, frequently in the arts but also in
  business and elsewhere.
• With their senses keenly tuned in they become
  totally absorbed in the action of the moment,
  finding just what fits the situation or the
  composition
• Thrive on having the freedom to vary what they do
  until they get just the right effect
• Take action to help others and demonstrate values
• Kind and sensitive to the suffering of others

54
Harmonizer Clarifier INFP

• Theme is advocacy and integrity
• Talents lie in helping people clarify issues,
  values, and identity
• Support anything that allows the unfolding of the
  person
• Encourage growth and development with quiet
  enthusiasm
• Loyal advocates and champions, caring deeply
  about their causes and a few special people
• Interested in contemplating life's mysteries,
  virtues, and vices in their search for wholeness
• Thrive on healing conflicts, within and between,
  and taking people to the center of themselves.

55
Designer Theorizer INTP

• Theme is designing and configuring
• Talents lie in grasping the underlying principles
  of something and defining its essential qualities
• Seek to define precisely and bring coherence to
  systems based on the pattern of organization that
  is naturally there
• Easily notice inconsistencies
• Enjoy elegant theories and models for their own
  sake and for use in solving technical and human
  problems.Interested in theorizing, analyzing, and
  learning
• Thrive on exploring, understanding, and
  explaining how the world works.

56
Promoter Executor ESTP

• Theme is promoting.
• Talents lie in persuading others and expediting
  to make things happen
• Have an engaging, winning style that others are
  drawn to
• Adept at picking up on minimal nonverbal cues
• Anticipate the actions and reactions of others
  and thus win their confidence
• Like the excitement and challenge of negotiating,
  selling, making deals, arbitrating
• and in general, achieving the impossible
• Thrive on action and the freedom to use all
  resources at hand to get desired outcomes.

57
Motivator Presenter ESFP

• Theme is performance
• Warm, charming, and witty
• Want to impact and help others, to evoke their
  enjoyment, and to stimulate them to act
• Want to make a difference and do something
  meaningful
• Often masterful at showmanship, entertaining,
  motivating, and presenting
• Thrive on social interaction, joyful living, and
  the challenge of the unknown
• Like helping people get what they want and need,
  facilitating them to get results

58
Discoverer Advocate ENFP

• Theme is inspiration, both of themselves and
  others
• Talents lie in grasping profound significance,
  revealing truths, and motivating others
• Very perspective of others' hidden motives and
  purposes
• Interested in everything about individual and
  their stories as long as they are genuine
• Contagious enthusiasm for "causes" that further
  good
• develop latent potential and the same zeal for
  discovering dishonesty and inauthenticity
• Frequently moved to enthusiastically communicate
  their "message."

59
Explorer Inventor ENTP

• Theme is inventing, finding ingenious solutions
  to people and technical problems
• Talents lie in developing ideas into functional
  and innovative applications that are the first of
  their kind
• Thrive on finding new ways to use theories to
  make systems more efficient and people better off
• Hunger for new projects
• Have faith in their ability to instantly come up
  with new approaches that will work
• Engineers of human relationships and systems as
  well as in the more scientific and technological
  domains.

60
Implementor Supervisor ESTJ

• Theme is supervising, with an eye to the
  traditions and regulations of the group
• Responsible, hardworking, and efficient
• Interested in ensuring that standards are met,
  resources conserved, and consequences delivered
• Talents lie in bringing order, structure, and
  completion
• Want to keep order so the organization, group,
  family, or culture will be preserved
• Thrive on organizing and following through with
  commitments
• teaching others how to be successful

61
Facilitator Caretaker ESFJ

• Theme is providing, ensuring that physical needs
  are met
• Talents lie in supporting others and supplying
  them with what they need
• Genuinely concerned about the welfare of others,
  making sure they are comfortable and involved
• Use their sociability to nurture established
  institutions
• Warm, considerate, thoughtful, friendly
• Want to please and maintain harmonious
  relationships
• Thrive on helping others and bringing people
  together.

62
Envisioner Mentor ENFJ

• Theme is mentoring, leading people to achieve
  their potential and become more of who they are
• Talents lie in empathizing with profound
  interpersonal insight and in influencing others
  to learn, grow and develop
• Lead using their exceptional communication
  skills, enthusiasm, and warmth to gain
  cooperation toward meeting the ideals they hold
  for the individual or the organization
• Catalysts who draw out the best in others. Thrive
  on empathic connections
• Frequently called on to help others with personal
  problems.

63
Strategist Mobilizer ENTJ

• Theme is directing and mobilizing
• Talents lie in
• developing policy, establishing plans,
  coordinating and sequencing events, and
  implementing strategy
• Excel at directing others in reaching the goals
  dictated by their strong vision of the
  organization
• Thrive on marshaling forces to get plans into
  action
• Natural organization builders and almost always
  find themselves taking charge in ineffective
  situations
• Enjoy creating efficiently structured systems and
  setting priorities to achieve goals

64
list of famous MBTI Types

• ISTJ?Harry Truman?Queen Elizabeth II?
• ISFJ?Jimmy Stewart?Mother Theresa?
• ESTJ?Colin Powell?Queen Elizabeth I ?
• ESFJ?George Washington?Dolley Madison?
• ISFP?Johnny Carson?Barbara Streisand?
• ISTP?Clint Eastwood?Amelia Earhart?
• ESFP?Elvis Presley?Elizabeth Taylor?
• ESTP?Franklin Roosevelt?Madonna?
• INFP?Albert Schweitzer?Anne Lindbergh?
• INFJ?Mohandas Gandhi?Eleanor Roosevelt?
• ENFP?Carl Rogers?Molly Brown?
• ENFJ?Mikhael Gorbachev?Margaret Mead?
• INTP?Albert Einstein?Marie Curie?
• INTJ?Dwight D. Eisenhower?Ayn Rand?
• ENTP?Walt Disney?Catherine II?
• ENTJ?Bill Gates?Margaret Thatcher

65
Form

• Section introduction Design (As) Research. Anne
  Burdick p. 82
• Speculation, Serendipity and Studio Anybody. Lisa
  Grocott p. 83
• Toward a Definition of the Decorational. Denise
  Gonzalez Crisp p. 94
• Demo Design Writing. Anne Burdick p. 101
• Sensory Anomalies. Michael Naimark p. 109
• Spontaneous Cinema as Design Practice. Rachel
  Strickland p. 118
• Game Forms for New Outcomes. Emma Westecott p.
  129
• Strategy, Tactics and Heuristics for Research.
  Rob Tow p. 135

66
Section Two Introduction.

• Design (As) Research.
• Anne Burdick

67
Design (As) Research

• Design requires a space
• - the research lab -
• for design risk-taking, speculation and
  discovery, for applications and for expanding
  knowledge of design itself
• this chapter
• sampling of concerns that drive this kind of
  investigations
• deals with complex issues of representation as
  defined through form
• difference with user-testing and human-centred
  research

68
Design (As) Research

• use the act and material of design as means of
  investigation
• generate new information through making
• projects in this section exist primarly in
  contexts outside mass market
• academia, literature, corporate research culture,
  documentary film, High Design and Art
• this community exist necessarily outside concerns
  of popular culture and marketplace
• hothouses for the difficult, the unresolved, the
  complex, the unconventional

69
Speculation, Serendipity and Studio Anybody

• Lisa Grocott

70
Search for design that resides in the realm of
possibility (Dilnott, 1998, p. 24)

• identification of the distinctive quality of
  discovery in art and design
• surpass reworking the familiar and explore and
  discover the unfamiliar
• that experience is theorized by Terrence
  Rosenberg by critiquing the way a straight line
  of intent defines a narrow focal channel for
  speculation
• instead advocating a poetic research method with
  non-linear links seeks alternative paths to those
  predicted form the outset (Rosenberg, 2000, p. 5)
• this discovery-led practice can herald the
  distinction between simple invention and true
  innovation

71
Studio Anybody

• Grocott established Studio Anybody
• graphic design consultancy where value of
  speculative research and reality of corporate
  environment where not divorced
• space between academy and user by research
  through activity of designing
• the professional designer deploys studio-based
  research to actively investigate the activity of
  designing
• Goal
• graphical community of practice values
  innovative, creative design and invests in
  research and extends to research through design
• this case illustrates that tacit understanding
  about creative speculation can inform and enhance
  tangible knowledge about design practice

72
Contents

• In what ways can a professional design studio
  foster a speculative culture?p. 84
• What role can speculation play within workplace
  education?p. 85
• Could critical speculation be the foundation for
  a business strategy?p. 87
• To what ends can play be good business practice?
  p. 87
• Is speculation time central to the contribution
  and merit of any designed artifact? p. 89
• To what extent can a discovery-led design process
  be deployed in commercial practice? p. 91

73
How can a professional design studio foster a
speculative culture?

• Desire to develop, implement and reflect upon a
  critically enhanced practice model that
  accomodated a discovery-led process
• By cyclical, action research where the process of
  designing the artifact constituted the research
  methodology (Seagro and Dunne, 1999)
• research study intended to explore
• a particular and subtle configuration of
  inter-related and inter-dependent design
  activities
• that sought to naturalize the professional
  relationship between speculative research and
  commercial activity

74
How can a professional design studio foster a
speculative culture?

• First move development of space for speculation
  by initiating a stream of design projects
  authored and funded by the studio
• pure, client-free space of studio-initiated
  projects helps to elucidate in what ways and to
  which extent the design process directly informs
  the artefacts we create
• original business model hoped that the
  rhizomatic, poetic nature of the speculative
  stream would generate a reservoir of ideas that
  could be drawn on by the commissioned client
  stream (Rosenberg, 2000)

75
Client-led Presentation Process for Commissioned
Projects

• The dotted section of a client-led process
  represents the limited space for speculation
  within a predominantly predetermined, reductive
  design process.

76
Discovery-led Process for Speculative Projects

• The dotted section of a design-led process
  represents the possibilities afforded within the
  space for speculation in this poetic, iterative
  design process.

77
What role can speculation play within workplace
education?

• Designers initiating own speculative projects is
  not new
• underground zines to internationally distributed
  publications give examples of designers creating
  a client-free space

78
What role can speculation play within workplace
education?

• More challenging finding critical speculation
  that would fall within the research notion of
  scholarship, where outcomes are critiqued and
  disseminated within the relevant community
• therefore research questions and methodology
  framed in association with Grocotts other
  workplace PMIT University
• educational context for research would situate
  ongoing analysis and reflection within community
  of scholarship
• formal research culture of academy asserted that
  professional research be more then introspective
  speculation and contributes to the greater
  community of practice

79
What role can speculation play within workplace
education?

• image by Lisa Grocott at Studio Anybody AGDA
  awards 2002
• Studios initial research study framed by
  big-picture question
• what happens when discovery-led research becomes
  an integral component of professional graphic
  design-practice?

80
Critical Speculation

• Could critical Speculation be the foundation of a
  business strategy?
• In studio-initiated, client-free projects
• Use of speculative stream of experimental
  projects conceived to power the creative process
  and formal language behind commissioned client
  projects
• First few years the studio disseminated their
  work in public and exhibition places
• Experience phase helped to
• learn to know new software
• Negotiate new collaborations
• Refine experimental form
• Collectively develop body of work that forms
  basis of conceptual leads they still return to
  today

81
To what ends can play be good business practice?

• Projects informed commissioned work
• the public projects inadvertently operating as a
  new business strategy.
• Example La Lala La
• Relation to Mooks Clothing Co
• Explored foiled romantic love through a world of
  pop culture in an exhibition in 1999
• How reading of music and movies emotionally
  responds to the state of your love life
• Cassette tapes behind glass etc...
• detail from La lala la studio-initiated public
  project 1999

82
To what ends can play be good business practice?

• Mooks Clothing Co, the streetwear brand saw the
  exhibition, liked the conceptual threads and
  asked the studio to work out a campaign for them
• detail from Mooks Clothing Co. fall / winter
  catalogue 2000

83
To what ends can play be good business practice?
84
Speculation time

• What would enhance the design process and
  outcomes further
• greater authority for the designers?
• or a tighter collaboration with the client?
• Not mutually exclusive
• Negotiate an inclusive relationship with clients
  that supports a democratic, propositional style
  of the design the studio creates

85
Speculation time

• www.experimenta.org
• Design literate director of experimenta was a
  long-time client of the studio and therefore
  their first guinea pig
• Design for exhibition was experiment in how to
  negotiate and assert a new kind of client
  collaboration that legitimates speculation within
  the commercial projects
• Central decision
• abandon convention of showing the client a range
  of options
• liberating the designers form the outset to
  pursue ideas in which they collectively saw merit

86
Speculation time

• Second decision
• dismission of client presentation model that
  reduced design process to series of formally
  approved decisions at each stage of project
• Alternative regular meetings that are seen as
  critiques, discursive culture where ideas are
  openly rejected, recanted or revisited as the
  project evolved
• collection of promotional material for
  Experimentas Waste exhibition 2001

87
Speculation time

• Experimenta
• Result was concept for the exhibition Waste
• Recycling formal ideas tested in an earlier
  studio project
• By allowing the studio to work on the same
  critical terms as the artists
• gt challenge and expansion of the audience's
  perception of the role that graphic design can
  play
• Was obvious that a commercial design process
  could sustain both a designers' creativity and
  engage the client's audience
• detail from He thought, He felt Something
  studio-initiated poster 2001

88
Commercial practice

• To what extent can a discovery-led design process
  be deployed in commercial practice?
• Phase three
• ability to intuitively and analytically
  articulate to our clients the nature of the pure
  design process the studio-initiated projects had
  privileged us to experience
• This opportunity came along with the arts program
  for the Melbourne Fashion Festival, when one day
  after the final design had been approved
• but before production, the studio joked amongst
  each other about an alternative idea they should
  have proposed

89
Commercial practice

• detail from work-in-progress Melbourne Fashion
  Festival arts program 2003
• Festival director endorsed a beautiful, safe
  design intentionally restrained to take on the
  theme Excess and Exuberance
• Studio's new idea controversially illustrate the
  excessive comsumer hype and marketing budgets
  that drive the fashion industry

90
Commercial practice

• last-minute design for Melbourne Fashion Festival
  arts program 2003
• Critique of the ever-increasing power afforded on
  sponsors in the communication material the studio
  produced for the festival
• The client immediately valued the cultural
  commentary of the unfamiliar design and
  recognized the enhanced communication of the
  last-minute idea

91
Conclusion

• This overview of the first steps of the studio in
  researching the tension between commercial
  practice, creative process and designed artifact
  might convince you of collective value of
  research through design
• The studio now series of specific, short-term
  projects in diverse areas such as exploring a
  discursive form of graphic activism
• The reflections presented in this chapter
  acknowledge the situation-specific, unique nature
  of every design situation
• However the studio considers many of the
  strategies and observations documented scalable
  to larger companies and transferable to other
  design disciplines
• Designing is all about possibilities and should
  not be reduced to a 12-step program