This week reading

I really enjoyed reading this week. I found most of it very istructional and easy to use, it almost can be used as a guide to do research. It starts with the beginning of the research process. I really liked the portion when the author provided the tips for the research. One of them is: never go into user research to prove a point, and never to create goals to seek to justify a position or reinforce a perspective." I found it to be very useful tip. When I started thinking about my own research, what i think happened to me right away was - I created categories, pre-determined categories. It looked ok for me, a person who is taught at a different department with quant perspective: you cannot even start a study without knowing exatctly what your categories are. I would be honed down by a professor if I suggest something like: I will come with the categories as I do the research.

So, being new to the field research- that was my first and major mistake. I was trying to start research to prove something what I already know. Now I understand - it does not really make sense to do this kind of research. Because what is the point in provign your own point and not in finding what other people really think.

Another thing which I really liked is the idea of user profile. If you have any bad experience with customs (who usually do customer profiling and it is a negative term). In fields research, it can be very helpful. You not only have all demographics, but also abilities, needs and desires of your ideal users. The best part, I guess, is actually creating a story or narrative about your ideal user. That really helps you visualize the user and maybe feel thier shoes, and hopefully understand the user better. I think this model can be applied to almost any product we create. Print products, for example, you create a borchure for an aircompany. For you as a designer it would be great to actually have a profile of your user, who is the customer, age, occupation, etc.

I am sure that when you have an image infront of you (in your thoughts) it really helps you concentrate better, and think more down to earth, i.e. in less abstract terms and ideas.

So, in general, I can see how we can use this in our own everyday work and careers.