Design Research and Strategy
Lies are an important source of design insight. Design research ought to embrace lies as potential sources of creative inspiration. Lies are indicators of a gap between what we are and what we think we ought to be. Well-designed products soften and assuage the effects of this gap.
The other day, one interviewee asked me, near [...]
Categories: Blog · anthropology · culture · design · ethnography · home · innovation · interaction design · market research · qualitative research · sociology
I was recently invited to speak at Ottawa’s Social Media Breakfast. The organizers, Simon Chen, Rob Lane and Ryan Anderson, asked me specifically to bring a sociologist’s understanding to social media. Below is my presentation. For the full version, with the notes, visit the full slideshare version.
My essential argument for the presentation was that we [...]
Categories: Blog · bourdieu · design · facebook · goffman · home · interaction design · market research · social capital · social media · social networks · sociology · technology design · user experience
For those of you who caught my Ignite TO presentation, here are the slides. For those of you who missed it, below is a text summary that goes with the slides.
I’d like to give thanks to my teacher and friend, Dr. Karen Anderson, whose scholarly work underpins many of the ideas in this presentation.
Slide 1:
This [...]
Categories: design · facebook · goffman · interaction design · sociology · technology design · user experience
“But how many people did you talk to?” If you’ve ever done qualitative research, you’ve heard that question at least once. And the first time? You were flummoxed. In 3 short minutes, you can be assured that will never happen again.
Folks, qualitative research does not worry about numbers of people; it worries about deep understanding. [...]
Categories: Popular · Research Methods · anthropology · culture · design · ethnography · home · interaction design · product design · qualitative research · quantitative research · sample size · sociology · technology design · user experience
My article on understanding organizational culture is now up on the interaction design site, Johnny Holland. The post provides an overview of key factors in organizational culture and how these factors affect an organization’s culture. It’s specifically intended to help designers understand their clients’ business culture and to avoid the all-too-common trap of “missing the [...]
Categories: anthropology · culture · facebook · interaction design · product design · qualitative research · sociology · technology design