What they didn’t know they needed
Research traditionally uncovers known complaints and desires in terms of what
people will tell you. However it is via contextual or ethnographic observation
that you can witness “real world” behaviors, influences, scenarios,
technologies, and actors all of which help you get the sense for what will
truly delight someone or alleviate frustration.
Noticing where people spend their time doing things they “have to” and
don’t “want to” will lead to inspiration of what would make their life
more convenient and less frustrating. An observation of what people want to do,
enjoy doing, or look forward to doing, will lead to inspiration around what
will make them shout from the rooftops in glee.
In this presentation we will discuss how research inspires design and how
reality inspires creativity.
If you simply ask users about what would make life better, you will rarely get
meaningful answers. They are just not good at envisioning revolutionary
solutions. It is really easy trap to fall into during a traditional usability
test to ask “what would the ideal experience be for you?” Unfortunately, if
you base your design on those responses, you won’t get a breakthrough.
Instead of relying on divine intervention for new ideas, we will focus on
activities such as Laddering, Game play, Storytelling and Triading that can
help expose opportunities for radical innovation and designing products that
people can’t live without.
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