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Definitios summarized from the pages of:
Design Research: Methods and Perspectives, Ed. Brenda Laurel, MIT Press, 2003Strategy: Design Research
The following categories of design research are charted in the opening pages of editor Laurel's collection of essays. Each designer llisted is identified as employing one or more of these categories in their work.
EXPERIMENTAL -- Like science, this type of design research begins with a hypothesis, and the designer uses various combinations of the following methods to test the hypothesis and arrive at a conclusion.
QUALITATIVE -- Commonly thought of as unscientific and naive, but the field has grown since the '80's. Christopher Ireland breaks it down into Focus Groups, Ethnography, and Participatory methods, briefly discussed below.
Focus groups of any size are best for "generating ideas and/or expand understanding without needing to reach consensus." People can then be chosen to attend "breakout groups" after the session, or these groups can be initiated immediately: 1-on-1 Interviews, Dyads, Triads, Party Groups and Online Discussion Groups are used to focus on individuals and their thoughts and feelings as they are expressed privately, such as in a 1-on-1 interview, or their responses as tailored to the other participants in the group. For instance, Dyads are typically composed of friends, and thus tap into the power of peer review, whereas the Triad typically use people who are connected in a more happenstance manner, such as three shoppers from vastly different income strata (the example he uses in the book is of three engineers from different-sized companies. I imagine the example I gave would not be a very productive session as economic status might make the participants too anxious to be candid, or they would be too candid, resulting in aggressive interaction.) Party groups are best used to interrogate consumers, not business people. The moderator videotapes not only the interactions between friends, but also the living conditions of the host, which invariably indicates the guests' corresponding situations. Humerously, he notes that these groups can be very unproductive if "excess alchohol, children, or household emergencies" interfere. Online Discussion Groups are "still in their infancy, and plagued with problems." Most notably [they] favor fast typists.
The term ethnography entered the design discussion in the mid-1980's. It grew from Anthropology, and has gained respectability as standards to measure its effectiveness as a design research method have been formulated. Using the heuristic (defined) of "culture," or the "practices, artifacts, sensibilities and ideas that inform our everyday lives," designers collect information from people. Field Ethnography, Digital Ethnography, Photo Ethnography, "Real World" enactments, Ethnofuturism, and the creation of Personae's are various forms that Ethnography as a design research application has taken. Field Ethnography is the most traditional and takes the most time. Persons or groups are observed from 1 hour to several weeks and result in broad and basic information about the targeted group. Digital Ethnography is basically the same thing, but digital tools are used in place of the traditional field researcher's notebook. Photo Ethnography is the converse of the first two. In this situation, the individual studied is given the documentation equipment. This type of research is especially helpful for gathering information about the times in a person's life that a researcher would not be welcome (think bathroom, or a family car trip.) Ethnofuturism, a young field, sounds complicated, but it is simply the first three modes of design research ethnography, coupled with an analysis of major cultural trends. "Real World" ethnographic enactments are, like MTV's popular show, a situation where a technology company will outfit a home, and gather information on the general behaviorial changes attributable to the tested technology. Personae's are "scenarios or profiles" compiled to guide designers, and best suited to smaller markets, where the targeted consumers are very similar to each other. The AARP campaign designers probably make use of Personaes.
"With all forms of participatory design research, the challenge is to keep people's input fresh and representative. The temptation to turn consumers into designers is hard to resist but that's a quick way to doom this type of qualitative research." There are currently two kind of participatory design research: A developmental panel, and home placement. The developmental panel is a group of people who've undergone a thorough ethnographic survey, and are given the designs, along with materials to indicate their preferred taste. These materials can be anything from a pen and paper to a bulletin board with rearrangable shapes. In home placement was perfected by corporations dealing in food and beverage products The potential consumer has had no previous experience with the product. Consequently, this research method provides the designer with data on how an average individual will react to their product.
QUANTITATIVE -- the numbers, it's all in those slippery numbers. Downside: It's costly to gather them (although qualitative costs are rising as the practice becomes more refined.)
SPECULATIVE -- In short, "client free." Clients have timelines. The speculative approach really indulges in the verb form of the word "design," which Lisa Gracot (p.83) describes as the "process of creating designs, the slow burning hours of contemplation, from the heady rush of possible ideas, to the focused micro world of refinement."
EXPERIENTIAL -- or "Experience Design" is summed up by Nathan Schedroff (p.155) as "conceptual stage" work used to "understand user needs such fulfillment of desire, pleasure, and enhanced capability, as well as business needs such as viability, sustainability, and (usually) profitability." He breaks down this potentially huge category into three methods: Taxonomies (naming, categorizing...), Dreams (subconscious mechanisms,) and Games (split-second creativity) as it relates to the "field of human-computer interaction."
PERFORMATIVE -- Brenda Laurel majored in theatre. "Informance" as she calls it, is a powerful design tool. By combining the physiological stimulation [for the audience] of technique acting, with the subtext-conscious improvisation of method acting, designers can "perform" their subject--thereby constraining their designs to meet human needs, and not just aesthetic or economic criteria. p.52 & 53 have an example of a student's design for a soft serve ice cream machine. She eliminates the dehumanized "hunching" that the worker repetatively engages in during the day, in order to fill the cup or cone correctly, as well as eliminating the customer's view of the clerk's backside during these moments. Her solution has the machine's installed overhead. The customer can choose the flavor by reading the name on the machiine, the clerk can maintain an upright (read: dignified) posture when filling the order. Laurel is careful to note that she doesn't mind being dehumanized or "fishified" for pleasure--such as the gear donned for snorkeling, but that daily, required interactions between humans demands "Informance" in the design process.
DISCOVERY LED–POETIC--
FORMAL/STRUCTURAL --
PROCEDURAL --