Methodology
I have been wondering what methodology to use for my paper and approached this week’s readings in an attempt to answer this question. However, I was slightly disappointed. I had assumed that there would be distinctive methods that I could choose from and then apply to my topic. As I think of it now, the methods were distinctive, perhaps I had assumed to read about the taken-for-granted methods such as questionnaires, focus groups etc.
This week’s explain in detail the different approaches that can be used in design research. I find that most of them overlap with each other because each author lays emphasis on certain common grounds such as immersion, iteration, questioning and requestioning the findings and marriage of qualitative and quantitative practices.
As I read this week’s reading, I tried to analyze my topic through them and it gave several insights in to what I could do; the most important -to map my target audience or users. My topic- how can cell phones be an effective form of learning is expansive in the sense that it can be implied to students from high schools to graduate schools and each of this demographic has a unique way to approach cell phones. So for me, it becomes important to identify my demographic. Because of this, I found Darrel Rhea, ‘Bringing Clarity to the “Fuzzy Front End”’ very helpful.
Sean Donahue’s ‘Enabling Design’ was very encouraging. It focuses on the usability of design in social contexts, to serve a cause.
Eric Zimmerman’s article “Creating a Culture of Design Research” explains how designers can brainstorm for ideas and build a research library that can enable good design research. In ‘Interdisciplinary Design Research’ Patrick Svensson, emphasizes on looking beyond one’s usual territory.
In one of the articles (I cannot recollect which one), the author writes how killing one’s project can sometime be the right thing to do. In one of our last readings, Rob Tow says the same when he writes, ‘shoot your own dog.’
This week’s explain in detail the different approaches that can be used in design research. I find that most of them overlap with each other because each author lays emphasis on certain common grounds such as immersion, iteration, questioning and requestioning the findings and marriage of qualitative and quantitative practices.
