Pre-seminar thoughts on the literature

My reaction to the literature is that the authors approach to describing design theory, how to approach research and it’s data is rather linear and/or precise. A reason may be that it would become to abstract or messy to describe the methods in how I think they are usually used – in a mix. However the book touches on the subject some times and describes that many designers relies on experience and expertise when approaching design challenges.

But even when taking the genius design-approach you still need to know your user and how they behave. Especially when approaching a design project where you take on a completely new problem and experience means less.

My opinion is that most approaches and research methods are good. But what really matters is when one is better than the other. Different projects demand different data. Sometimes you need to understand how people behave in a specific environment and sometimes it’s more important to know how they would like to behave.  But I think the most important thing is to test for different things at different times. Maybe you should research the behavior first and come up with a prototype and then research how users behave when the use your product? I think most project uses the circular process flow.

http://isotec.com.pk/srv_1.html

When taking the role of a designer the most important thing to ask yourself is what approach speaks to me? How should I visualize my data so it becomes understandable to me? What is it about this particular project that I do not understand? My discussion topic is how you visualize data in a team where every member prefers a different visualization. Is there better visualizations for different problems or is it a personal preference?

I was particularly interested in using the concept of personas because it’s something I haven’t tried before. We could use it to map the different types of visitors the museum has and what their different needs are.