Design Research in a Non-Linear World

The research process is no longer linear. The widespread and decentralized availability of data, and the ability of a new generation of Design Researchers to manage and utilize this content, has lead to a new way of conducting research. Those of us entering the profession today are part of the generation known as Digital Natives, born from approximately 1980 to 2000 — a generation that came of age immersed in information and user-generated content. We see the boundaries between disciplines as fluid and we adopt processes grounded in diverse disciplines, from anthropology and sociology to design and business. Spurred by its newest practitioners, design research has evolved to take on a holistic approach that exploits the convergence of the equally important analog and digital worlds and examines the way in which this interplay can influence how we conduct research. Like the content itself, the way people continuously process, gather, analyze and communicate information has also adapted. It is dynamic, ever-changing, agile, and never finished. Traditional social science research processes still play a very critical role in how we conduct research. We are not changing the intention of research, but re-framing the way it's being done by harnessing today's ubiquitous data, tools and social behaviors. This paper addresses the evolving tools and techniques that Digital Natives bring to the discipline and what this shift means for traditional processes in design, strategy and business. We outline strategies for exploiting an abundance of content, dealing with ambiguity to create meaning, and taking advantage of the ongoing multi-directional conversation that technology enables. (By: Erin Mariel Mays and Cynthia Kossayan from Stuart Karten Design)

Category:

Education

Tags:

• 2011

[AWOLdesigner]

Great overview into the chaos of the research process by two obviously rising stars. I particularly like the analogy of the Digital Native's ability to process multiple threads of information, compared with the need of a good researcher to have the same mindset during the creative process. The takeaway for non-Natives like me (hey I grew up on Atari but these days that's analog) is to keep an open, curious, inquisitive frame of mind in order to tie together the complex web of threads...