The Art of Design Research (and Why It Matters)

Measuring behavior and understanding the reasons for that behavior are key requirements for any design pursuit, whether that is designing a new product, or creating the marketing for that new product. This article in The Atlantic gives four benefits for design research:

Recently, my colleague Ben McAllister contributed a piece to this section called "The 'Science' of Good Design: A Dangerous Idea." In it he cautioned against a simplistic view of research as it applies to the design process because it's often synonymous with science—a discipline known for providing "hard truths" about the world. This leads people to believe (sometimes falsely) that "the research" will do the same for business. I am a researcher and a designer, and his article does raise a worthwhile question: "What is research good for, and how can we use it for the purpose of design?"

Designers thrive when they have a working concept of what makes people tick, a context that allows them to shape their ideas by considering what people covet and use, and somewhere to focus all their creative energy. Research can provide the fuel for new ideas. To Ben's point, design research isn't a scientific endeavor aimed at finding truths. Our clients typically can't afford the large sample sets and extended time frames necessary for such a "scientific" process.

And sometimes design teams don't have the patience to see the value in dragging out a study in an effort to make it scientifically or statistically significant. We're just not wired that way; we prefer to make and experiment and then analyze later. So what is research good for?

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

Videotaping the DEMCMCAH

Families, like organisms, adapt over time to the environment they exist within. My Grandparents' family behaved in very different ways to how my family behaved when I was growing up, and my own family has also evolved in how it behaves and operates. While this seems like a "so what" observation, there is not much research out there that confirms or disproves that idea. So this article in the NY Times seems timely.

At a conference here this month, more than 70 social scientists gathered to bring to a close one of the most unusual, and oddly voyeuristic, anthropological studies ever conceived. From 2002 to 2005, before reality TV ruled the earth, researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, laboriously recruited 32 local families, videotaping nearly every waking, at-home moment during a week — including the Jacket Standoff.

Filmmakers have turned a lens on the minutiae of unscripted domestic life before, perhaps most famously in “The Osbournes” on MTV and the 1970s PBS program “An American Family.”

But the U.C.L.A. project was an attempt to capture a relatively new sociological species: the dual-earner, multiple-child, middle-class American household. The investigators have just finished working through the 1,540 hours of videotape, coding and categorizing every hug, every tantrum, every soul-draining search for a missing soccer cleat.

“This is the richest, most detailed, most complete database of middle-class family living in the world,” said Thomas S. Weisner, a professor of anthropology at U.C.L.A. who was not involved in the research. “What it does is hold up a mirror to people. They laugh. They cringe. It shows us life as it is actually lived.”

How to put your brand into the garbage in one easy step

When companies mess up, social media can amplify that mess by orders of magnitude.

Maintaining brand standards all the way to the literal curb is probably one of the hardest things to accomplish. The best planning and execution deteriorates quickly on the ground when once invisible mistakes get broadcast through the web.

Lisbon Airport Surprises Holiday Travelers

We've written about some of the brand horrors suffered by the airline industry. Here's one to show the positive side. Albeit that it's staged by an airport, but let's face it, much of the experience of air travel is firmly in the airport and less so in the air.

New MadeleinePeyroux.com website launched

Rounder/Decca Records pop/jazz/blues recording artist Madeleine Peyroux is a long-time client of Emergentcy. We manage her digital and social media strategy and maintain the various websites and social media pages that connect to her world-wide audience.

We recently collaborated with Madeleine on a remake of her official website and a new design to highlight the back-to-basics musical approach to her latest CD Bare Bones.

The site launched last night and both artist and fan reaction have been gratifying.

Visit the site at http://www.madeleinepeyroux.com

Paradyme Shift Trickles Down To USPS

This Washington Post article describes how personal and business internet usage is having severe impacts to the status quo operations of the U.S. Postal Service, with one visible result being the removal of the ubiquitous blue mail collection boxes from communities around the country.

The seeds of what we now know as the internet were sown in the mid-'60s to early '70s, and twenty years later became the first commercial online services and products we, the public, could purchase and use. Now, nearly another twenty years have past, and the impacts to traditional services and media are well documented. Music, movies, gaming, newspapers, reservations, banking, retailing, and communications have all been transformed by this paradyme shift. Of course, the post office would feel it, too.

Neither snow nor rain not heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.

Perhaps not, but maybe the internet will.

Dorothy and Andrew Yankanich moved into their $18,000 brick rambler in Wheaton in 1966 and soon began what would become a daily ritual: Walking across the street to the squat blue mailbox and dropping off bills, birthday cards, letters, catalogue orders and whatever else needed to be sent on its way. For 43 years, in rain and shine, through the raising of seven children, the friendly box they could see through their front window's lace curtains was always there.

Until, one day at lunchtime a week or so ago, it wasn't. Yankanich, 82, watched as postal workers hacked at the rusted bolts and hauled the box away for good.

The full article is here

Community Arts and Social Media

This post on Mashable lists exemplar case studies of community arts organizations using social media to great effect.

As more diverse organizations dive into web marketing, for-profit organizations can learn well from their indie counterparts about experimentation and innovation online. A few notable community and arts groups have been inventive in their use of social media and truly collaborative in their outreach in ways that even the most seasoned corporate marketer can appreciate.

Among the arts and community organizations using social media thoughtfully and in big ways (which aren’t necessarily representative of their limited budgets) are independent artists and companies in photography, film, modern art, radio and craft. They’ve capitalized on the audiovisual nature of the Web to showcase the storytelling and community-building aspects of their work, and the results are worth a pass-along.

http://mashable.com/2009/07/08/community-arts-organizations/

Music Labels Reach Online Royalty Deal

A New York Times article on Tuesday's agreement between Music Labels and SoundExchange and online broadcasters:

Webcasters with significant advertising revenue, like Pandora or Slacker, will pay the greater of 25 percent of revenue or a fee each time a listener hears a song, starting at .08 cent for songs streamed in 2006 and increasing to .14 cent in 2015. Pandora had $19 million in revenue last year and expects that to rise to $40 million this year.

Small sites with less than $1.25 million in revenue, like AccuRadio, Digitally Imported and RadioIO, will pay 12 to 14 percent of it in royalties. All stations will be required to pay an annual minimum fee of $25,000, which they can apply to their royalty payments.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/08/technology/internet/08radio.html?hp

United Breaks Guitars

Bad brand experiences can sometimes inspire customers... to take revenge. Here's a great example of how social media and video services can turn an individuals bad experience into a mass shared bad experience.



UPDATES:

http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/United-Breaks-Guitars-a-Smash-Hit-on-YouTube.html?yhp=1

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-biz-united-breaks-guitars-video-ual-july8,0,4414385.story

And finally, THIS UPDATE:

http://www.newsday.com/business/ny-bzguit0715,0,7779013.story

Product Design Case Study: U2 & Barco

Our team is working on a communications design product development project for one of our large, progressive clients. I found these three short, related videos that perfectly illustrate how innovative product design ideally works:

1) Establish creative/business need,
2) Understand objectives (especially your end customer) and limitations (especially related to ongoing, sustainable operations),
3) Closely collaborate between creative, business, technical, and implementation teams, and
4) Realize results