Client Presentation

Client presentation stood out to me. It is something that I've heard designers having troubles with in the past. Not only do you have to make your concept presentation enticing and good looking to the client, you also have to make it clear. Setting the expectation to your client for that stage of your concept is important because not every client is as familiar with the iterative process of design. Some may think the initial concept you are presenting is your final product. This can cause confusion and problems.

The art of researching

This was an interesting article about the art behind design research

http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2011/05/the-art-of-design-research-and-why-it-matters/239561/

Framing

In the video by Jon Kolko he spoke about frames being how we see something based on our personal experience. He alluded to the fact that in the future this is one thing that can't really be outsourced as it is in reality us. The value is in the researcher. It is an interesting point and a great motivator to gain as much learning as possible because all of those experiences contribute to your ability to synthesize research 

Kim Reflection

Upon reflecting on Kim's presentation, I realized that I need to stress the importantance of effectively communicating information. As Kim pointed out, this doesn't just involve having a lot of information or performing a million tests. Information must be given in a concise manner, as to not bore the receiver. Creating visually appealing data sets and presentation styles is just important as the information itself! It was good to be able to hear this from someone as experienced as Kim and to be able to take a look into what she does for a living.

I can apply this to my project in many different ways but I think that the most important is graphically communicating my ideas effectively. I need to focus on my use of graphics and hierarchy and how they affect the readability of what I am presenting.

Gathering Research

Kim's talk way very intriguing to listen to, hearing about her sort of transformation into the world of design, and how she didn't even think of ending up where she is now. It really showed me a lot about information gathering and then how to filter it down into the most useful items for the client. I was very interested that most of her clients would always underappreciate her work earlier on in her career. Instead of giving up, she simply changed the way that it was presented to the client. She ended up simplifying the data she had recieved and rearranging it into a more comprehendible state. Many for these tactics can also be applied to my own research, using them to better understand how to manage data when I gather it.

Triangulation of research data was one of the methods I found interesting and useful. validating what people and the numbers are saying helps you get a better perspective on the topic and helps you form new connections with in the data you have. this also helps clients and the audience accept the data as valid. I thought it was interesting that even at the higher levels everything boils down to presentation. even though Kim had so many degrees people were still unwilling to trust her processes or her information until it was presented in a highly aesthetic way. this presentation also helped me gain a better understanding of how to present the important information concisely. excited to have this extra back round for the next round of the project.

Communicating Synthesis

I found Kim's presentation on Thursday quite interesting, and of all the topics that she spoke on synthesis really stuck out to me. Not only the process of synthesizing raw information, but how you communicate that synthesis to an outside viewer or client. As she said, clients can often have a hard time seeing the value in deep research. If you can clearly show the steps from gathered data to an end goal, It isn't difficult to see the importance of synthesis. This will also be useful to our class work because if we are able to effectively communicate our synthesis, the design decisions we made should become much more clear both to ourselves and others.

Your client is human too

In reflecting on Kim's great presentation, I have come to appreciate the importance of getting a holistic and realistic view of the world for which we are designing. A research expert, Kim recognizes the realistic utility of each tool her team employs in research.

There is a sort of irony in doing research on humans for humans, which Kim highlighted in her talk. Just as getting people to answer a survey can prove difficult, so it is in working with the client himself. Often, the client can be even more difficult to work with! People are people, wherever they are in the design process. That said, I was most interested in Kim's analysis on creating visually appealing data sets. Because CEOs too are human, they want information given in a concise and beautiful manner. This is true of any data that needs to be conveyed. I am working on improving how I communicate my research and conclusions so that anyone, even a CEO, can understand it.

Ergonomux Speaker Analysis

Over all I though the actual idea of the Ergonomux company was different. They dont seem like a typical design firm but they are able to use the entire design principal to create a new method of how something is done and then come up with a solution. The one key element that is difficult for me currently is organization of the data collected. With our project that we are working on getting the important data to your cliental can be tricky because there is so much data but what is the most important to them? Synthesizing is the step necessary to put everything together to create a whole, meaning taking the biggest elements of each section of the data collect and combining them to generate the solution for the big idea.

Always Aesthetic

I thought it was interesting that Kim brought up the method that everything should for the most part be beautiful when presented to a client.  It makes complete sense that a person would want information to be presented to them in a clear and concise way, but that was something that was not at the forefront of my mind in considering design in the professional world outside of academia.  This concept seems like a no-brainer now that it has been presented to me, but intuitively I wanted to think that it would be easy for someone to understand my concept in a meeting if they were an executive and had a big stake in the project.  It seems that we can get caught up in the perspective of a designer during school, through critiques, since we are presenting to fellow designers almost exclusively.  It is important to remain grounded as we realize that often times our clients will not be designers and will lack the "vision" that we take for granted when working in a world of almost exclusively design oriented minds.  To this end I think that I can apply this to my project as well as my future design work that my deliverables should all be as polished as possible, and that I need to consider the fact that what I may understand from a designers perspective may not necessarily translate very well to the layman, to whom I am likely presenting my work to.

Kim, John Kolko and Abduction

Kim spoke expansively on John Kolko and his ideas about adductive thinking. It is incredibly important for us, as designers, to use our research in order to think expansively. This is one info graphic that shows the various design research techniques and their usefulness.

Artifact Gathering

I enjoyed Kim's talk, her enthusiasm for design research is actually quit inspiring. I most related to her discussion on Artifact Gathering. I feel as though this is the most comfortable form of design research for most students. I must say that I notice most student begin their design research with artifact gathering and a web search of current products. I think that having your hands on a a product is one of the most insightful design research method I have used thus far.

Abduction

Since Kim came in and spoke with us I have been thinking a whole lot about abduction. Abduction is a method of design synthesis wherein we filter raw, hard data through our own personal experience to make insights for design problems. I have already, without realizing it, been synthesizing my research through abduction, since I began designing. Abduction requires the researcher to have some significant level of confidence in his/her interpretation of the world through their experiences, and the data that is paired with this experience helps to validate insights for the researcher and the client. As I keep working to build a new shoe sole, I have to trust my own experience to justify my aesthetics and much of my design, while the data I have collected has given me the constraints and direction I need to get moving confidently toward the best solution to the problem I have picked out.

Of Kim's entire talk, her mention of Triangulation was super new to me and pretty fascinating. I have, in my design process, either just trusted my research was appropriate and correct or subconsciously crosschecked what I had to make sure it was accurate. Kim introduced this topic, which is now a method I will no doubt apply in my current and future design endeavors.

Means of Validation: Triangulation

One of the practices discussed by Kim I found to be potentially very useful in future endeavors was Triangulation as a means of Validation. I have always question the validity of data sets produced without strictly scientific methodologies, they are often subject to bias on many fronts and utilizing them for anything seems like massaging the data to me at least in most cases.

For these reasons triangulation is amazing. It is a method in which you pull two or more (ideally three) different data sources that seem to be saying the same thing and use them to support any time of claim you will make about the nature of the problem as well as shores up any doubts you have on acting on such grounds.

Client Competency

Kim Christensen: Client Competency
One of the many topics that Kim discussed was client evaluation. Within that evaluation was client competency, which is basically just understanding whether or not what you are trying to get across to a client/designing for a client, is getting across. I found this very interesting because I had never thought to do such an evaluation. Most of the time of the time when I design something that I think is cool, I assume that the "client" will find it cool. Moving forward this is an effective method that I would like really use. Thanks Kim!

Visual presentation of research

The evolution of Kim's presentation style was interesting. Early in her career, she presented clients with dense research papers. Despite the Value of her research clients were unlikely to read the research in such a dense format. To address this, Kim and her team have transitioned to a more visual presentation style which makes the research much more approachable. This new presentation style also adds to the credibility and professionalism to her company.

This is the most difficult part of the research process for me. It is very challenging to condense complex topics into a format which is both eye catching and can be digested quickly.

Artifact Analysis

Artifact Analysis really sticks out to me. It is a research method I've seen used for design in outdoor products before. It is a method that is commonly used and relied on to determine competition in the area. It helps to realize what doesn't work in a design, and can help show designers new opportunities for their design.

Tools

Another thing that I took away from Kim's lecture was the use of tools when conducting research for design. "Tools" for research was a foreign topic to me before this class. I thought research tools were looking up articles and journals on the computer. Beyond the tools and methods we have learned about in class, Kim suggested some new tools, or methods to be used: Behavior Mapping, Experience  Mapping, and Market Analysis. I knew about minor aspects of some of these, but Kim helped to broaden my understanding and the use for them.

Triangulation

I really enjoyed Kim's lecture last Thursday. One of the elements that stood out to me the most was using triangulation to validate. I tend to struggle with weather or not material I have researched really help support my argument. If you can draw a link between pieces of research it can validate weather or not the information have has is correct.

Ergonomux: Artifact Anaylsis

I personally like to do artifact analysis. It helps me see the end goal and how a product exists in the physical world. Seeing a finish product also solves a lot of problems I might have in my own concept (off the shelf components, branding, material choice).

2 X 2

Kim Christensen, broke down a few different examples of methods of Data Synthesis from her own experiences as well as the work of John Kolko. One such method I found particularly intriguing is the 2 x 2 method.

2 x 2

The purpose of data synthesis is to ascertain new information from data you have already collected. What more direct way of doing that then examining a data set for its unmeasured properties. In the 2 x 2 method you set up a series of Cartesian planes, with two perpendicular axis, with two separate values that the data can sorted by tied to each of the axis. Then plot the same data set across multiple 2 x 2 charts. By examining your data set in terms of so many different variables you are able to both develop a greater understanding of what your data set means as well as clarify your priorities as you move forward. It can also be beneficial to create a 2 x 2 with stake holders according to John Kolko, since it can bring them into the process. 

Internal and External Users

One of the parts I found most interesting about the presentation was the difference between internal and external users. Most products seem like they're designed for one person or a few select people. I think I can conduct some interviews within my target demographic and generate some specifications that will apply to a broader range of users.

Finding a Design Balance

In this Arc'Teryx video, we follow a designer through his process as he talks about his design philosophies. He says some interesting things that I think pertain directly to design research and specifically design synthesis. In the Jon Kolko talk I posted on Thursday, he talks about design synthesis as an essential, however often overlooked, step in the design process. Synthesis, as he says, is taking the things we've learned from our research and filtering them through our own personal experience to form insights. In this video, the designer talks about how his personal experience and natural environment inform his design decisions.

A huge part of planning and researching for in design is the product. Function first, and then simplicity. During the stages of research and discovery, maintaining a mindset of simplicity and function will help inform the things you take from your research during design synthesis. If you don't plan to make a simple product, and remind yourself of the importance of simplicity throughout all the planning stages of the design process, how can you design simple solutions? "Design is a mindset."

Kim Christensen Lecture

Kim Had a-lot of good insight on their process and different methods they use to gather the needed info to provide a successful deliverable. Trying to identify what could be used toward my project, I realized that artifact gathering is going to be essential. Understanding the current child carriers and the user interaction will give valuable insight to what I need to consider.

JON KOLKO TALK

WATCH THIS JON KOLKO TALK HERE

HERE'S 20 MINUTES ON DESIGN SYNTHESIS FOR YOUR MMD RESEARCH.

Social Design Research

This was an interesting read on Design Research methods for social issues.

http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/kb/design.php

Common Design Research Methods

An interesting government support of using Design Research

http://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/governments/open-government/ux-toolbox/design-research/design-research-methods

Good examples of design research info-graphics

As designers, we have limited time to tell our story. Info-graphics are a tool I am still learning, but I am sure they will help me quickly and efficiently communicate with shareholders, designers and clients in my future jobs. 

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The Art of Design Research (and Why It Matters)

Lauren posted this article, which linked me here, to an article which explains the difference between scientific research and the softer art of design research. Design research is not just  fact finding but an exercise
in empathy.

How to do the interview.

IDEO made a nice little guide to help with interviewing people when the time comes. http://www.designkit.org/methods#filter

Color Theory for your numerous infographics!

http://daddu.net/the-power-of-colors/ Its got some real interesting points on how colors make you feel, and act according to the designer's wishes.

Quick Inspiration

Steps to Creation: Research

This video sort of gave me a kick of inspiration earlier when starting project 2. It's quick, but it is visually enticing and fun to watch. Great for inspiration.

Brand Momentum

Brand Momentum Research 2012 (Video)

Found this on vimeo when looking for design stuff. This is just a teaser for a larger design research project they are doing. This video is neat as it provided some effective looking infographics while animating them. Something I am interested in doing. 

video: https://vimeo.com/34500822

The Art of Design Research

http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2011/05/the-art-of-design-research-and-why-it-matters/239561/

What is Design Research?

Interesting article

http://reboot.org/2012/02/19/design-research-what-is-it-and-why-do-it/

Systems Thinking

Here is a well thought out video breaking down what systems thinking is and why it is important to understanding and interpreting the world around us, especially for designers. 

I think this is really well done and covers all the bases without being to complex or two simple.

Systems Thinking: A little Idea about a Big Idea  < Link

Design is Not Research, Research is Design

DEMYSTIFYING “DESIGN RESEARCH” < Link

An awesome academic article examining the divergence in "Design Research" in academia versus the design industry, which goes further to examine the dichotomy between research and design. Read up.  

Response to Cameron Hooyer To Scale: The Solar System post

Interesting video and concept to think about when it comes to scale. The whole concept is based on a size to distance ratio of all the planets and what they would look like actually orbiting each other.

Response to Kathy Trans Graphics to Show Design Research Data

Kathy's blog post was one of the post that interest me the most because it pertains to our project that we are currently working on. Looking up Anna Vital, she designs these info graphics professionally and has won awards for her work and follows somewhat of the same process we follow to communicate these poster properly.

COOL VID: To Scale: The Solar System

Here's a good example of taking a step back to look at something. New insight and a fresh understanding of ideas and concepts can show themselves when you zoom out.

https://vimeo.com/139407849

NY Times Labs: The Listening Table

Developed by The New York Times Research and Development group, the Listening Table is a table that hears and understands the conversations happening around it. Crazy, right?

In the context of design research, this table is a masterpiece. It was clearly inspired, designed and refined based on extensive research, particularly human factors. Furthermore, this table could be revolutionary in gathering data from focus groups or interviews, as it not only records what is being said, but in what context.

Research Tool: Install Your Product in IKEA

So, genius idea here. These guys wanted to know if their product would sell to the masses...so they dropped it in front of their target market (but not at Target). Check out the dope vid below. Also - props to Ikea for being so laid back about the whole deal...maybe I'll do this myself.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=175&v=oVjOMP7ziKA

HIP HOP AND DESIGN WHAAAAT

So this dude took the travels that hip hop artists speak of in their lyrics and mapped them out 3-dimensionally. Using a light and time exposure setting he was able to convey this idea and declaration of travel in a whole new way. Its a cool exploration of having information presented in a new and innovative way.

Scope that ish:
http://www.core77.com/posts/26384/Tahir-Hemphills-Light-Painting-Robot-Visualizes-Rap-Musics-Geographic-References

The First 40 Miles: Hiking and Backpacking Podcast

Listen to The First 40 Miles Podcast

I'll admit it: I'm a podcast nerd. So, I probably find this more interesting than the average person. However, I think podcasts can be great sources of inspiration and informal research. On this podcast, products are reviewed, trends are discussed and real-life backpackers are offering their opinions and tips. And, you can listen to it on your walk to Jim's class Tuesday morning.

Recommended episode: 043 "Trends in Backpacking" on September 8, 2015.

Graphics to Show Design Research Data

Here's some inspiration for graphics everyone can potentially use in their posters. Anna talks more in-depth about each graphic in her article. 

OUTDOOR FOUNDATION 2015 TOPLINE REPORT

http://www.outdoorfoundation.org/research.participation.2015.topline.html

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

GO TO THIS LINK TO DOWNLOAD THE REPORT!
Also there are lots of other reports on the outdoor industry written by the Outdoor Foundation that you can find on their website.

"Nearly half of all Americans, 48.4 percent, participated in at least one outdoor activity in 2014. This equates to 141.4 million participants, who went on a collective 11.8 billion outdoor outings. These findings are part of the Outdoor Foundation's 2015 Outdoor Recreation Participation Topline Report, which provides an overview of American participation trends in outdoor recreation with a focus on youth, young adults and the future of the outdoors.

"Overall, outdoor participation dropped .8 percent since 2013 and, by a small margin, reached the lowest levels since the report began in 2006. Extreme weather and an unusually cold winter are likely major contributors to the decline. While the typically popular gateway activities of running and biking lost participants in 2014, the indoor versions of these activities - running on the treadmill and using the stationary bike - added participants."

THE ARGUMENT FOR PERSONAS

Personas are fictional people created to aide in the design process. "A persona is a way to model, summarize and communicate research about people who have been observed or researched in some way. A persona is depicted as a specific person but is not a real individual; rather, it is synthesized from observations of many people."

Apparently lots of people don't like using personas or even believe they don't help. I am a self-proclaimed world-class people watcher, so it makes plenty of sense for me to use them as I gather my research.

What are the best resources for customer journey mapping?

This article has a wealth of information about tools to use while making experience maps.

https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-best-resources-for-customer-journey-mapping

Experience Map Process

I found this really neat site that walks you through the process of creating a customer experience map.

http://uxmastery.com/how-to-create-a-customer-journey-map/

A leaner design research process

An interesting read on the importance of keeping research lean and clean to make it usable.

https://www.lullabot.com/articles/8-tools-for-a-leaner-design-research-process

IDEO Digital Design Tools

Here are some of the tools developed by IDEO for digital design

https://labs.ideo.com/2014/09/19/digital-tools-for-design-research/

Apple's Top Secret Product Development Process

An article explaining some of Apple's design processes. Take everything you read here with a grain of salt, but I think the idea they've implemented of design being the core value is interesting.http://thenextweb.com/apple/2012/01/24/this-is-how-apples-top-secret-product-development-process-works/

Nike's High-Tech Design Research

For my blog posts this week, I decided to look at specific companies or brands and find out some of their processes in doing research for human centered design. Here's NIKE. Make sure to watch the video, that explains the process a bit more.http://www.solidsmack.com/design/science-meets-art-inside-nikes-high-tech-product-design-research-lab/h

 http://pinterest.com/pin/317926054923125331/?s=3&m=gmail

I liked the simple layout of this short infographic. I think it brings up a lot of good thing to think about for those of us that want to start our own design services.

http://pinterest.com/pin/317926054923207147/?s=3&m=gmail

I'm sure most of us know plenty about 3d printing, but I found this to be a good introduction and really liked the display 

Human Centered Design with David Kelly

<iframe src="https://embed-ssl.ted.com/talks/david_kelley_on_human_centered_design.html" width="640" height="360" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen></iframe>

This is a great ted talk from Ideo founder, David Kelly, about many of the aspects of human centered design and the effects it has on the world. Keep in mind the video is from 2002, so a lot of the technology on display looks pretty clunky, but it's a great talk nevertheless.

Interview with an Outdoor Gear Designer

Here is an extensive interview with user-centered outdoor gear designer Scott McGuire. It's a pretty lengthy interview where he goes through the ins and outs of his entire design process, and I think it should be especially helpful for anyone currently in the camping studio.

Good Design Makes Us Happy

Don Norman talks about design and emotions. He discusses a few examples of not so great products that sell because it invokes positive emotion.

IKEA Design Research

Quick article about IKEA's design research that goes into their products.

IKEA Research Team Presents Findings For First Time in U.S.

Ask an in-house designer: why the Chia Co's execs also design the packaging

http://www.aiga.org//in-house-designer-chia-co-packaging-design/

The designers of Chia Pod attributed the success of their product largely to their thorough research methodology. This research included traditional market research and observation of user interactions.

Your Guide to Online Research and Testing Tools

http://boxesandarrows.com/your-guide-to-online-research-and-testing-tools/
This article helps design professionals make appropriate choices of remote research tools. When used appropriately these web based tools can cheaply gather useful data from a wide range of users.

Why Is Researched Design Important?

This article is in many ways trying to sell design to the reader, yet we as the reader are already sold as designers ourselves.  The relevancy then I think comes from the way the article explains how and why researched design is critical.  It outlines some aspects that may be missed when enough research has not been done, and what is actually achieved through the benefits of design research for a project.  Check out the article Here

Life Experience Leads Design Perspective

As designers it is important to draw on all of your past life experience in approaching the design process.  It is this perspective that gives us direction and makes the work that we do that much more meaningful.  To this end we must ever strive to broaden our horizons and experience all that we can in order to develop as individuals as well as designers.  With that I leave the following as inspiration to follow passions, whatever they may be, so as to develop a bounty of life experience to draw upon in work as a designer and otherwise.

The Science of good design: A Dangerous Idea.

This guy obviously didn't take design research from Jim.

Article: Archived Atlantic Article

"As design has become more accepted in the mainstream business world, it has adopted many of the conventions of business, including scientism. But designers embrace scientism at their own peril. This way of thinking may help designers gain acceptance in the short term, but it ultimately cheapens the most important dimension of their work: the human dimension, including things like judgment, taste, and creativity."

In this archived blog post from Atlantic Magazine, the author advises designers to be wary of valuing design research too highly. 

Two Infographics

Designer Stereotypes

I thought that this infographic was funny.

How to: Infographics

Designing Inforgraphics!

Even though some of this was knowledge we as designers know (or should know), this was useful in augmenting my knowledge. I saved this for later as it provided me with some awesome visual inspiration.

Origins of Design Research (Marketing Research)

An article from the AIGA website on the origins of market research:

"Questioning consumers about their lives and choices first began back in 1790 with the first United States census, which was initiated primarily to determine voting demographics. It wasn't until 1920 when Procter & Gamble executives went door-to-door asking American housewives for their opinions on new products and packaging that the modern age of market research really began. But it was in 1930 that the discipline truly took shape when social scientists A.C. Nielsen and George Gallup started quantitative testing and surveying. In 1950 the first qualitative testing began by getting a very targeted audience of consumers with a similar set of needs or concerns to understand their motivation, purchase behavior and attitude development within a particular frame of reference. These pioneering market researchers used psychology, anthropology, creativity and sociology to study a newly curious topic: why people buy the stuff that they buy. It is not unfair to say that all modern advertising sprang from this groundbreaking work."

Article:

Design Meets Research

I found the origins of modern market research touched on by the article interesting, some of the approaches shared were touched upon in our last lecture (ethnographic, focus groups, etc) 

Why Design Research Matters

The Art of Design Research 

(and why it matters)

I thought it was cool that an article about design research was in such well known publication. It was really cool how they pushed the importance of designing around human interaction and how important design research is to understanding that. 

Read the article here: http://goo.gl/Fqk0kA

Okay now THIS is cool. And somewhat cheap.

Its a bike tent used for bikepacking, it uses the frame of the bike at the poles, effectively making it much smaller and lighter to bike with as compared to a normal tent.


http://www.topeak.com/products/Tent/Bikamper

C.H.I.P! The world's first nine dollar computer.

One of the coolest Kickstarter projects in a while. Awesome idea and really great applications, I'm a supporter!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1598272670/chip-the-worlds-first-9-computer

Ten Good Design Tips

Click around on this site for a minute!
http://www.tedresearch.net/teds-ten/

Porque No Los Dos!?

Many people who live in small spaces struggle with not having a place to dine. You can often find them leaning over their coffee table while trying to scoop up soup into their mouths.

In asking people in small spaces questions about what they want, designers have discovered that people really enjoy the convenience and comfort of a coffee table but would also love to have a larger table, but there just isn't enough space. Well, why not have both?!

http://www.core77.com/posts/40284/Designs-for-Small-Spaces-Transformable-Coffee-Tables

Article: Beginners guide to design research

http://www.uxbooth.com/articles/complete-beginners-guide-to-design-research/

This is a good watch, check it out!

Okay. It's kinda an awkwardly designed site. As ironic as that may be, An Introduction to the History of Graphic Design is a cool little resource devoted to giving quick info about the history of graphic design, including terminology and different movements.

Google Logo Design

Apparently, designers were involved when redesigning Google's logo, as evidenced here. It's a really cool look into the design process of one of the biggest brands in the world.

Article: Interviewing Humans

Interviewing humans for research can be stressful and often unproductive if you don't know how to do it right it. Since we are all beginners (Taylor said it here first) we could use some great tips from this article.

Marriott Library Find: Consumer Reports Magazine

Directly in front of the Art/Architecture Library (Where the awesome materials library is housed) are many issues of the Consumer Reports Magazine.  Though they don't generally cover outdoor products they do cover a myriad of topics that interest users (therefore designers).

Photo: Taken with my iPhone in the library

Density Design: Graphic Solutions Social Phenomena

Density Design is a research lab that strives to graphically represent social and urban experiences. If you check out their website you can see some really well done graphics. http://www.densitydesign.org/about/

5 Steps for gathering user based research

Some of the steps listed in this article seem a little familiar. Although I don't believe these 5 steps are exactly what we shoot for in design research. I was actually curious, when we begin design research should be stay away from making a hypothesis. http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2013/09/5-step-process-conducting-user-research/

Initial Research for Logo Design

http://www.graphics.com/article-old/logo-design-conducting-preliminary-research
This is a fantastic article on what to consider before starting to create a logo. Whenever I design a logo, I do kind of a rough skeleton of this research, but I don't consider all of the details that this article mentions. I think following these rules will drastically improve any logos I create in the future.

AIGA Graphic Design Research

This is a really interesting page that is centered around graphic design research, but still focused on the user. It discusses things like eye tracking, which we went over recently in Human Factors and seems like an under utilized tool. http://www.aiga.org/design-meets-research/

Toyota investing $50 Million to MIT and Stanford

Toyota is investing in Sanford, MIT to get a better understanding of automative driving. The goal is a get a jump in the game of having self assisted and self driving vehicles with the result of minimal flaws as possible. So far do automotive company has been able to complete a fully functional self driving car.
 http://www.design-engineering.com/general/toyota-investing-in-stanford-mit-research-centres-to-help-automate-driving-136870/

Science Through Research Design

Heres an article on how research design ( overall design process) actually reiterates and corrects the problems of scientific research. It applies the design process to conclude trust worthy concluding information rather than just collecting data. The method of our process throughly covers a problem top to bottom, where as most scientific research will will take a direct approach.  

http://blogs.biomedcentral.com/on-health/2015/09/10/avoiding-bad-science-better-research-design/

Interesting Scholarly Article

http://edr.sagepub.com/content/32/1/21.short

Beginners Guide to Design Research

http://www.uxbooth.com/articles/complete-beginners-guide-to-design-research/

Design Research Methods of context

Here is a great article that develops a frame of context as we enter the design research phase of a class. http://designdialogues.com/design-research-techniques-for-transforming-the-context/

Case Studies

This site goes along with our book from IDEO and looks super useful. It features case studies, methods, and mindsets. http://www.designkit.org/mindsets

Beginner's guide to research

This is a good site with nice graphics and great information on introductory design research. Super grokkable. http://www.uxbooth.com/articles/complete-beginners-guide-to-design-research/

The Design Research Society

This society has many resources for people and are actively working to further design research scholarship

http://www.designresearchsociety.org/joomla/index.php

The Design Process

An awesome video on  the design process and why it is so important.

http://99u.com/videos/7119/yves-bhar-why-designers-should-be-in-love-with-the-process

Beginner?

This website is all about giving those who are new to design research a crash course into the whole ordeal. And you know what? I just so happen to be a beginner at design research. One of you may be, too. You're welcome.

5 Smart Rules for Designing Wearables That Make Sense

5 Smart Rules for Designing Wearables That Make Sense

Authored by Wired, this article highlights 5 "rules" from Fjord, the London-based interaction design firm. They are based on human factors/ergonomic principles. Clearly, Fjord and other firms in the field are doing their homework. Plus, the graphics (like the one above) are pretty sweet, right?

Planes or Volcanos:

Planes or Volcanos: 

This infographic was to stylistically elegant to pass up, I think that it offers plenty to consider as we continuing our work on infographics. Although this isn't directly dealing with structure or process, and is able to utilize the visualization of statistical figures (unlike our hand drawn infographics we are making in class). But its inspiring none the less.

So whats happing here is the visual representation of carbon emissions in metric tons of both the Volcanic Eruption in Iceland that happened in 2010, as well as the European Air traffic it displaced. 

A link to the original Blog post.... 

Information is Beatiful

Visualization of Data: Information is Beautiful

Visualization of Data:

Below is link to a TED talk by David McCandless a British-Information journalist and information designer. He runs the blog Information is Beautiful  which is full of design porn for you to look at, when you need inspiration. 

"Data is the new Oil. Data is the new Soil." 

In the video he breaks down the use of data, and more particularly the manipulation and comparison of data in order to visually and beautifully convey patterns and ideas to the viewer of data sets. 

I really liked this info-graphic I have not seen many that use multidimensional graphics

Research Poster

Here is a pretty sweet poster. I think it is a little cluttered, but it communicates a lot of information successfully. My favorite section of content on this poster is the analysis of context and needs.

Design for Mobile

These kinds of lists usually don't strike any chords for me, but I was grateful for this one. It has some interesting points, and a lot of good reminders for those who want to design apps and other mobile and web based products. Also check out the related links near the bottom for some more extra reading! http://www.sitepoint.com/7-best-practices-designing-mobile-user-experience/

Designing a Brand Identity

I'm really liking this blog. Even just as a resource, I've seen some really cool and useful stuff, so thanks to y'all. Here's a nifty resource and quick tips for designing a brand identity. Definitely more graphics-focused but I think useful for all of us. Take a gander. https://creativemarket.com/blog/2013/07/23/designing-a-brand-identity

KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE

No one reading this blog is a stranger to the term "end user." I can't imagine anyone in MDD has any problem recognizing that there is a person at the other end of every design, business, product, or action anyone takes. It is this intrinsic empathy that probably has driven us to this program. This article from Forbes sheds a little more light onto the subject; specifically, Why having a keen understanding of your audience is so important, and a little bit about how to get acquainted.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jaysondemers/2014/09/03/why-knowing-your-audience-is-the-key-to-success/

Social Media Listening

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/simon-young/5-social-media-listening-_b_5317531.html

The link above is a Huffington Post article showcasing 5 successful social media listening tools.

Social media has become the heart and soul (or at least the purveyor of heart and soul) of American Culture and global business. Using social media to get a more clear understanding about how something is being perceived is an invaluable practice when doing research. Getting to know your user and your audience, learning who the audience is and what they like, is easily done with a little research into social media.

Yo, this is going to be useful...

Design Kit: Methods

Not only is this a beautifully designed website, but it's super useful too! Honestly, the website itself is a great infographic, very easy to follow. This may have been kind of a weak blog post, but I still found it very useful so I had to share. 

Cheers.

www.designkit.org/methods

Ask your kids, ask your wife, and ask your husbands cause Typeform is questioning everyone out here!

Typeform! It's a super cool way to make simple, quick, and beautiful surveys. Obviously Surveys are an awesome way to do research through end user evaluations. surveys provide us with invaluable information about how people feel/react to certain experiences.


http://www.typeform.com/

In the Hands of God

In the Hands of God: Research Dynamics Agrarian Societies

What I found really interesting about this article was that it involved research in a remote area. Much of what you need to find out about societies that are in such remote areas you couldn't find on the internet, but then again... what is the internet? I found the authors method of interviewing locals very appropiate. Not only would have a lot of people there be distracting in almost any setting, but it causes somewhat of a shock to people if they come from a small secluded town such as the one in the picture. 

Here's the article: http://goo.gl/fzZIx1

Get Designspired

Similar to how we warm up for drawing by covering a sheet of paper in straight lines and ellipses, I like to visit this website on occasion to get my creative juices flowing and see some awesome graphic design that's currently going on. Check it out.

Colors......Everywhere!

Ever see something out in your daily life and just love the colors? As I'm sure many of you are familiar with, Adobe has their whole line of Mobile Apps which includes one in particular that happens to be a favorite of mine. The name is Adobe Color, it is an application that helps create unique color pallets from pictures that you either have stored on your phone, or see out in public. This app has proven to be one of my most useful tools for gathering and researching color pallets for use in my projects. If you haven't used it before and own a smart phone I highly suggest you give it a shot!

http://www.adobe.com/products/color.html

Staplers Yo!

So, staplers. Keep these papers together, please. Like the chair, the stapler is a commonly designed tool that can really show a designer's style and capability. This article shows a good development of staplers over time and how they've been designed around what people want and more importantly what they need.

Have a peek: http://www.core77.com/posts/40250/Staplers-Old-Favorites-and-Newer-Approaches

Macbook Pro design process

A short video describing some of the basics behind the Macbook pro design.

Online User Research Tools

Here's a  nice little list of online tools used to conduct research. I'm unsure if these align with Jim's definition of tools but I've found them to be quite useful.

I was unaware of all the different types of online research tools that are available to use, and so easy to as boot! The text analysis tool could save tons of time for research - maybe useful in the future!

Have a look: https://www.gov.uk/service-manual/user-centred-design/user-research/user-research-tools.html

Digital Research Tools

In this article by Ideo I found a lot of options that can be used digitally when performing design research that are a lot more specific than just "the internet".  Many of these tools may not necessarily be relevant to those of us while we are still in school since they can be subscription based or require payment, but they might be options moving forward and have free trials etc that could be relevant.  The tools range from form builders to digital forms of presentation.  If you're looking for some perspective as to what kind of digital tools might be available check it out in this Digital Tools Article.

Elito Method How To

In Universal Methods of Design, I came across an in depth technique of organizing research data: The Elito Method. So next time you're working with someone who demands hard evidence, you can whip this spreadsheet up and show them who's boss.

Cultural Probing

Inside Your Users’ Minds: The Cultural Probe is an interesting article about getting user feedback. Even though the article is slightly outdated (whopping eight years ago), we could use the same strategies and find modern ways to collect the data. Or just have people go old fashion with handwritten diaries or dictaphones (I think it means voice recorder in British).

Why Human-Centered Design Matters

http://www.wired.com/insights/2013/12/human-centered-design-matters/

http://www.usability.gov/what-and-why/user-research.html

Lots of different research methods centered around usability.

City Architecture Design for School Effect on Children's Learning

Buckingham County in Virginia created a school (k-5) thats Architecture would influence the way kids learn and make choices. The ergonomics of the school was structured around how physical activities and do it your self centers could increase the overallschools academics. 

http://www.dogonews.com/2015/9/5/can-a-smart-school-design-inspire-students-to-become-more-active-and-make-healthier-food-choices

Autodesk Research Project Dreamcatcher

This is a our design process wrapped up into this one computer program. All you have to do is input your wants and needs for a design and the computer will generate concept design and suggestions for you. http://www.deskeng.com/virtual_desktop/?p=10839

Personas: MailChimp's Approach

New MailChimp: User Persona Research

How MailChimp, the well-known email marketing company, used research to develop personas in preparation for its redesign in 2013. On top of that, they developed a great way to communicate those personas to the rest of the company.

If you haven't seen this, check it out!!!

Not sure exactly how I feel about this article, but definitely gives you something to think about.

"I’m not against making things easy to use. Ease of use encourages somebody to pick up your product. But the promise of mastery ensures that they will never want to put it down."

http://www.wired.com/2015/02/on-the-joy-of-mastery/

UX Booth

I found this really neat site that is all about design research and user experience. I think it would be a great resource to follow because they discuss real life design issues of today that we all encounter.

"The UX Booth is a publication by and for the user experience community. Our readership consists mostly of beginning-to-intermediate user experience and interaction designers, but anyone interested in making the web a better place to be is welcome. If you’re interested, join us and discuss best practices and trending topics, or share your experiences."

http://www.uxbooth.com/

Instrument, Validity, Reliability

I found this article on the use of research instruments and testing the validity of the data that is collected.

https://researchrundowns.wordpress.com/quantitative-methods/instrument-validity-reliability/