Theme 5 - Design Research

A media technology research is often aimed at creating a new utility/software or a new feature of an already existing system. It needs to be evaluated by testing functions, and user perception. Questions that need to be answered are: is it feasible, useful, understandable, does it bring added value or “want-factor”? When doing testing and evaluation, it is also important to remember that the experience can be influenced by a resistance to new concepts amongst the users and that new technology often in the beginning is used as trying to resemble the familiar old technologies.

Design research is a very iterative process. It starts as a design concept, then a prototype is constructed, which is tested on functionality and characteristics, and then a better design concept emerges, the prototype is updated and new tests are done, and then a revised design concept is introduced etc. 

The prototype is very useful when it comes to evaluating the new design. Imagine creating new software without doing any coding at all, it would be hard for the users to give their input on those features. It is often not possible to create a fully functional device or prototype, especially in early studies, or it might not even be clear exactly how the new device should look like. The prototype is designed to be handled by the users in real life situations, and it helps them get a feel of the real product. 

An example from a school I heard about which had introduced a new laptop program and were about to offer all students a brand new individual laptop. The school decided to give all middle- and elementary school students a book of similar size and weight as the computer they were about to receive. The students were all expected to carry around this book (read prototype) at all times for a week before actually being handed their brand new and expensive laptops, paid for by the school. This way the students could learn how to handle the laptop in various situations (recess, lunchrooms etc).

The characteristics of the prototype should aim to help the users to understand the main features of the finished product. 

The example in the study of Réhman, S., Sun, J., Liu, L., & Li, H. (2008), regarding experiencing a football game through a mobile phone, the important characteristics were to show the size, shape and weight of the finished product and the main feature being the built-in vibrator. In this case it was not necessary to be able to make a phone call on the prototype mobile phone. 

In the study of Fernaeus, Y. & Jacobsson, M. (2009) the prototypes used was accessories and clothes with a built RFID tags (a tiny radio frequency ID-system) which altered the behavior of the dinosaur, vacuum-robot and the GlowBots.  By switching these accessories you could change the behavior of the robot (no programming involved – at least for the user..).  

The limitations of prototypes are that they are generally not fully functioning, they can be expensive to produce (small volumes), and they might turn out not to be sufficient for the study. It is likely that they need to be modified and improved over and over again as the design matures.

Design research can be presented in a flow chart with variables and their dependents. It can be communicated as a list of requirements, goals, design decisions and limitations. It can be presented through a display, trial and test-run of the prototype. It seems to me as a well-functioning prototype is an important tool for presentation and selling your idea/design, and therefore a great investment in the study.   

My question for the lecture is: I assume that design research is an iterative process – design solution – production of some kind of prototype  – testing of prototype - new design solution – new prototype – new testing – new design solution etc. When and on what grounds do you determine that your design is ready for a user/field study?

References:

Réhman, S., Sun, J., Liu, L., & Li, H. (2008). Turn Your Mobile Into the Ball: Rendering Live Football Game Using Vibration. IEEE Transactions on Multimedia, 10(6), 1022-1033.

Fernaeus, Y. & Jacobsson, M. (2009). Comics, Robots, Fashion and Programming: outlining the concept of actDresses. In Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Tangible and Embedded Interaction. New York: ACM. 

Website: Complete Beginner’s Guide to Design Research, by UX Booth http://www.uxbooth.com/articles/complete-beginners-guide-to-design-research/, copyright 2008-2013, published on June 1^st, 2012, last updated (no date), retrieved on Dec 5, 2013