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LabCreaciónII SER [email protected]
Adrián Larripa

RESEARCH METHODS
#DESKRESEARCH

PREPARATORY RESEARCH
Your own preparation before you start your actual research or field work.

Preparatory research (or simply “prep research”) often includes digging deeper into the client’s perspec-
tive of what the research problem is, their context, perceptions, internal conflicts, or interplays that may
emerge during the project, and so on.

Initial internal interviews in the organization are always very enlightening and provide a good starting
point. Digging deeper also helps recognize whether stakeholders are aligned in their vision and understan-
ding of the problem or need that the research is seeking to address.

1. DEFINE THE RESEARCH QUESTION

2. CONDUCT YOUR PREP RESEARCH

3. SUMMARIZE AND VISUALIZE

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GRADO EN DISEÑO IOS
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LabCreaciónII SER [email protected]
Adrián Larripa

RESEARCH METHODS
#DESKRESEARCH

SECONDAY RESEARCH
The collection, synthesis, and summary of existing research.

Desk research should always be the starting point of a research process, simply to avoid reinventing the
wheel and to stand on the shoulders of giants when you start your primary research.

Also simply called “desk research” uses only existing secondary data – information collected for other
projects or purposes. Secondary data can be both qualitative and quantitative, including market research
reports, trend analyses, customer data, academic research, and so on.

1. DEFINE R.QUESTION OR TOPIC 4. SCREENING SEARCH

2. IDENTIFY SOURCES 5 DIG DEEPER

3. EVALUATE RELIABILITY 6. SUMMARIZE

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GRADO EN DISEÑO IOS
VIC
LabCreaciónII SER [email protected]
Adrián Larripa

RESEARCH METHODS
#ONLINE ETHNOGRAPHIC

ONLINE ETHNOGRAPHY
An approach to investigate how people interact with one another in ­online ­communities, also known as vir-
tual or cyber ethnography.

Often online ethnographies include a mix of methods, such as contextual i­nterviews ­conducted online with
screen sharing or in-depth retrospective interviews with other ­community members.

Online ethnographies can focus on many different aspects, such as social i­nteractions within an online
community or the ­differences in self-perception of people when they are online in comparison to their self-­
perception in real life.

1. DEFINE A SPECIFIC RESEARCH QUESTION

2. PLAN AND PREPARE - How will you document you research (screenshots, screencasts, field notes...)

3. CONDUCT AUTOETHNOGRAPHY: First Level (what you see and hear) vs Second Level (feel).

4. FOLLOW UP and write down learnings asap. Index and write summary.
GRADO EN DISEÑO IOS
VIC
LabCreaciónII SER [email protected]
Adrián Larripa

RESEARCH METHODS
#SELF ETHNOGRAPHIC

AUTO ETHNOGRAPHY
Researchers explore a particular experience themselves and ­self-document this ­using field notes, audio re-
cordings, videos, and photographs; also called ­self-ethnography/documentation.

Autoethnography is often one of the first research methods undertaken as it helps researchers to interpret
behaviors they will see when they observe participants. Also, it helps researchers to conduct interviews
more easily and comprehensively when they already have a rough understanding of the subject matter.

1. DEFINE A SPECIFIC RESEARCH QUESTION

2. PLAN AND PREPARE - covert vs over, legal, doc.

3. CONDUCT AUTOETHNOGRAPHY

4. FOLLOW UP and write down learnings asap.

Index and write summary,

VARIANTS

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.
GRADO EN DISEÑO IOS
VIC
LabCreaciónII SER [email protected]
Adrián Larripa

RESEARCH METHODS
#COCREATIVEWORKSHOP

COCREATING JOURNEY MAPS

Using the know-how of a group of invited participants to create one or more journey maps or service blue-
prints.

In a co-creative journey mapping workshop, invite participants who have solid knowledge about the expe-
rience you are mapping.

Think about inviting workshop participants with either a shared perspective (such as customers of a parti-
cular target group) or from differing perspectives (such as customers of various target groups or customers
and employees). Clearly communicate the scope of the journey map, such as a high-level journey map vs. a
more detailed journey map focusing on one specific situation within a high-level journey map.

1. DEFINE THE MAIN ACTOR AND JOURNEY SCOPE

2. PLAN AND PREPARE: . Write a facilitation agenda and establish facilitation guidelines to create a safe
space through warm-ups and so on.

3. IDENTIFY STAGES AND STEPS: Let the workshop participants start with the rough stages of a jour-
ney map, such as “inspiration, planning, booking, experience, sharing” for a holiday. Now fill up the stages
with the persona’s story.

4. ADD PERSPECTIVES: Such as a storyboard, an emotional journey, channels, involved stakeholders, a

dramatic arc, backstage processes, “What if?” scenarios, etc.

5. DISCUSS AND MERGE: Give participants some time to reflect. Discuss similarities and differences be-
tween the journey maps of the different subgroups. Let the group merge the different maps into one map (or
several), but make notes on different opinions and insights – they might be useful for you later.
GRADO EN DISEÑO IOS
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LabCreaciónII SER [email protected]
Adrián Larripa

RESEARCH METHODS
#COCREATIVEWORKSHOP

The outcomes of co-creative workshops are mostly assumption-based personas, journey maps, or system
maps. These outcomes should be understood as tools in development and can be very valuable for a team as
a common starting point to design their research process, or to evaluate and enhance their collected data.

Over time, assumption-based personas, journey maps, and system maps should develop into research-based
tools with improved rigor and significance.

COCREATING PERSONAS
The quality of the results of any co-creative workshop depends on the knowledge of the workshop parti-
cipants. In this case, it will depend on how much participants know about the group of people you want to
exemplify with personas.
If a marketing team without prior qualitative research and without deep knowledge of the daily lives of cus-
tomers conduct a co-creative workshop on personas, the outcomes tend to represent their ideal customers.

1. PLAN AND PREPARE / WELCOME AND SPLIT

2. CREATE INITIAL PERSONAS: Have each group create 3–5 personas of their most common customers.
Additionally, they can create some extreme customer personas (their most stressful customer, their dream
customer).
3. PRESENT AND CLUSTER: Have each group present their personas and stick them on a wall. Cluster
similar personas together right away. Ask the group to elaborate on such personas and try to find out which
details actually made them recognize the underlying customers each particular persona represents.

4. DISCUSS AND MERGE Let the group choose the most common personas. Ask the participants if the
chosen personas represent the diversity of gender, age, and other quantitative factors you know about your
customers. If not, modify some of the personas to match these factors.

5. VISUALIZE AND VALIDATE + 6. ITERATE + 7. FOLLOW-UP

GRADO EN DISEÑO IOS
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LabCreaciónII SER [email protected]
Adrián Larripa

RESEARCH METHODS
#COCREATIVEWORKSHOP

COCREATING SYSTEM MAPS

Using the know-how of a group of invited participants to create system maps.

Define a specific perspective (e.g., from a customer’s or an employee’s perspective) for each workshop and
invite participants with a sound knowledge of the ecosystem either from a shared perspective (such as cus-
tomers for a customer’s perspective) or from differing perspectives (such as various internal departments if
you want to map the internal stakeholder system).

It helps to have a clear scope (e.g., a specific situation within a journey map) as well as the situational con-
text if applicable (e.g., weekdays during daytime). This will help workshop participants to get on the same
page.

1. PLAN AND PREPARE

2. CREATE A FIRST VERSION:

Create a first version of a system map per team. The facilitator should check that all teams have a common
focus and are following the same instructions, such as:

Catalog the actors or stakeholders that are (potentially) part of the ecosystem you want to visualize. Use a
list or sticky notes to write down or sketch the actors or stakeholders.

Arrange the actors/stakeholders on the map according to the prioritization. If you use one sticky note per
stakeholder, you can simply move the sticky notes around.

3. TEST DIFFERENT SCENARIOS WITHIN THE ECOSYSTEM: Split the group again and let them test
different scenarios within the created stakeholder map.

4. PRESENT AND COMPARE: Have each group present their system maps. Hang the different versions
on a wall beside each other to compare them with the whole team.
GRADO EN DISEÑO IOS
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LabCreaciónII SER [email protected]
Adrián Larripa

RESEARCH METHODS
#PARTICIPANTOAPPROACHES

PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION
Researchers immerse themselves in the lives of research participants.

With this approach, the people who are being observed know that researchers are present and that they
are currently being observed in situations that are relevant to the research question.

There’s a fluid transition between participant observation and contextual interviews.

Try to balance out biases like the observer effect by cross-checking with other (non-participant) methods.

During participant observations it is important to observe not only what people are doing, by interpreting
their body language and gestures, but also what people are not doing.

1. DEFINE R.QUESTION OR TOPIC

2. IDENTIFY PARTICIPANTS: Select participants but also when and where.

3. PLAN AND PREPARE: Plan you approach to participants, expectations, how to start and end, time.

4. CONDUCT OBSERVATIONS: Participants behave differently when they feel observed and more when
filmed or photographed. Its crucial to establish trust.

5. FOLLOW UP: For each participant write a short summary with key findings.

VARIANTS

1. A DAY IN A LIFE 3. SHADOWING

2. WORK - ALONG
GRADO EN DISEÑO IOS
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LabCreaciónII SER [email protected]
Adrián Larripa

RESEARCH METHODS
#PARTICIPANTOAPPROACHES

CONTEXTUAL INTERVIEWS
Interviews conducted with customers, employees, or any other relevant stakeholders in a situational context
relevant to the research question; also known as contextual inquiry.

Contextual interviews are used to understand a certain group of people better: to understand their needs,
emotions, expectations, and environment (useful for personas), but also to reveal formal and informal
networks and hidden agendas of specific actors (useful for system maps). Besides, such interviews help to
understand particular experiences as interviewees can demonstrate actions in detail and in context (useful
for journey maps).

It is often easier for people to articulate pains and gains when they refer to concrete examples than when
describing an experience in more general terms.

1. DEFINE R.QUESTION OR TOPIC

2. IDENTIFY INTERVIEWEES

3. PLAN AND PREPARE: Guidelines should be semi-structured. Plan how you ll document the interv.

4. CONDUCT OBSERVATIONS: Use the situational context and ask interviewees to demonstrate specific
activities or artifacts they are talking about; saying “show me” .

5. FOLLOW UP: Write down learnings asap. Index and write summary.
GRADO EN DISEÑO IOS
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LabCreaciónII SER [email protected]
Adrián Larripa

RESEARCH METHODS
#PARTICIPANTOAPPROACHES
IN-DEPTH INTERVIEWS
A qualitative research technique of conducting intensive individual interviews.

In-depth interviews can be conducted in a structured, semi-structured, or unstructured manner.

The interview questions should be structured in a “funnel” manner, starting with general and broad ques-
tions to get the participant comfortable with the interview and talking and to build rapport, then gently
becoming more specific and detailed on subjects related to the research question.

Can be based on more general templates, such as an empathy map following the interview topics of “Think
& Feel,” “Hear,” “See,” “Say & Do,” “Pain,” and “Gain” to collect data for personas.

These interviews can be supported by creating boundary objects.

1. DEFINE R.QUESTION OR TOPIC

2. IDENTIFY INTERVIEWEES

3. PLAN AND PREPARE: Guidelines should be semi-structured. Plan how you ll document the interv.

4. CONDUCT OBSERVATIONS: During the interview, ask open and non-leading questions. Consider
using specific interview techniques, such as the Five Whys, to reveal underlying motivations.

5. FOLLOW UP: For each interview, write a short summary that includes your key findings as well as raw
data to exemplify these, such as quotes, photos, or videos.
GRADO EN DISEÑO IOS
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LabCreaciónII SER [email protected]
Adrián Larripa

RESEARCH METHODS
#PARTICIPANTOAPPROACHES
FOCUS GROUP
A classic qualitative interview research method in which a researcher invites a group of people and asks them
questions on specific products, services, goods, concepts, problems, prototypes, advertisements, etc.

They strive to understand the perceptions, opinions, ideas, or attitudes toward a given topic. Focus groups
are mostly carried out in a rather informal setting, like a meeting room or a special room where researchers
observe the situation in a non-participant manner through a one-way mirror, or via live video coverage in
another room. The aim is that participants feel free to discuss the given topics from their own perspective.

Researchers often ask only an initial question and then observe the group discussion and dynamics. Some-
times a researcher acts as a moderator, guiding the group through a set of questions. They have only limi-
ted applicability in service design. They are not useful when we need to understand existing experiences in
context as they are done in a lab setting without a situational context.

1. DEFINE R.QUESTION OR TOPIC

2. RECRUITING INTERVIEWEES: Consider including internal experts or external agencies for participant
recruitment.

3. PLAN AND PREPARE: Find a comfortable venue and decide how you’ll record the focus group. Prefer
unobtrusive recording methods to ensure a comfortable environment, and in case of sensitive or stigmatized
topics use only audio recording.

4. CONDUCT OBSERVATIONS: The moderator should stay neutral and empathic, and prevent individual
participants from dominating the conversation. Try to engage the quiet ones. The length of a focus group is
typically 1.5–2 hours.

5. FOLLOW UP: Write up your individual key learnings right after the focus group and compare them
within your team (you might have external observers besides the moderators). Compare the key findings of
your different focus group. Do they match, and can you identify patterns? If you see differences try to find
out why,
GRADO EN DISEÑO IOS
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LabCreaciónII SER [email protected]
Adrián Larripa

RESEARCH METHODS
#NONPARTICIPANTOAPPROACHES
CULTURAL PROBES
Selected research participants collect packages of information based on specific tasks given by researchers.

With this approach, researchers prepare and send a package to participants which can include a set of
instructions, a notebook, and a single-use camera. Nowadays, cultural probes are often also done virtually
using online diary platforms or mobile ethnography apps.

Cultural probes are often used to get the most intimate insights from participants without the need to
have a researcher physically present. They help researchers to understand and overcome cultural bounda-
ries and bring diverse perspectives into a design process.

Cultural probes are often a mix of various approaches like autoethnography, diary studies, and mobile eth-
nography, and are often combined with in-depth interviews to review the collected data retrospectively.
 GRADO EN DISEÑO IOS
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LabCreaciónII SER [email protected]
Adrián Larripa

RESEARCH METHODS
#NONPARTICIPANTOAPPROACHES
MOBILE ETHNOGRAPHY
A mobile ethnography project might include 10, 100, or even 1,000 participants documenting their experien-
ces with a brand, product, service, event, or similar.

Participants are included as active researchers self-documenting their own experiences as a kind of diary
study on their own phones. Participants document their experiences, but researchers can review, synthe-
size, and analyze the collected data. In some cases, researchers can get in touch with participants through
push notifications for ongoing guidance, tasks, or to ask for more details on reported experiences.

1. SPECIFY RESEARCH QUESTION: What you want to do with your findings, and what sample size you’ll
probably need.
2. IDENTIFY INTERVIEWEES

3. PLAN AND PREPARE: Check if there are any legal restrictions for taking photos or videos and if you
need to set up a consent and/or confidentiality agreement for your participants.
4. DATA COLLECTION : Use the situational context and ask interviewees to demonstrate specific activi-
ties or artifacts they are talking about; saying “show me” .

5. FOLLOW UP: Go through the collected data and try to find patterns across the reported journey
maps (both positive and negative). If possible, conduct debrief interviews with participants to probe further
on key issues that arise.

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GRADO EN DISEÑO IOS
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LabCreaciónII SER [email protected]
Adrián Larripa

RESEARCH METHODS
#NONPARTICIPANTOAPPROACHES
NP - OBSERVATION
Researchers collect data by observing behavior without actively interacting with the participants.

In contrast to participant observation, researchers take a more distant role in non-participant approaches
and do not interact with the research subjects; they behave like a “fly on the wall.”

OFTEN, NON-PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION IS USED TO LEVEL OUT RESEARCHER BIASES IN OTHER ME-
THODS AND TO REVEAL DIFFERENCES BETWEEN WHAT PEOPLE SAY AND WHAT THEY ACTUALLY DO.

This can be combined with other methods, like in-depth interviews to debrief afterwards.

Covert non-participant observation minimizes the risk of people being affected by the presence of a resear-
cher.

During non-participant observations, it is important to observe not only what people are doing (for exam-
ple, by interpreting their body language and gestures), but also what people are not doing (perhaps igno-
ring instructions or refraining from asking for help or assistance).
Besides obvious qualitative research, such as observing body language, gestures, flow, usage of space or artifacts, interac-
tions, and the like, researchers can also do some quantitative research, such as counting (a) how many customers within the hour pass
by a shop, (b) how many of these come into the shop, and (c) how many of these start interacting with employees.
GRADO EN DISEÑO IOS
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LabCreaciónII SER [email protected]
Adrián Larripa

RESEARCH METHODS:
METHODS OF DATA VISUALIZATION, SYNTHESIS,
AND ANALYSIS

JOBS-TO-BE-DONE (JTBD)
Summarizing the bigger picture of what customers want to achieve when they use certain services or physi-
cal/digital products.

The “job to be done” describes what a product helps the customer to achieve. Looking for the JTBD is a
method to move away from the current solution and create a new frame of reference for a different future
solution. The JTBD framework includes a social, a functional, and an emotional dimension.

A JTBD insight based on this framework is quite similar to a key insight – the main difference is that a key
insight focuses on the restriction/friction/problem, whereas a JTBD focuses more on the larger picture of
the situational context and motivation based on what customers really want to achieve.

“When I am commuting to work by car,

I want to eat something that I can get
quickly and that doesn’t distract me
from driving,
so that I can work until lunch without
feeling hungry.”

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GRADO EN DISEÑO IOS
VIC
LabCreaciónII SER [email protected]
Adrián Larripa
RESEARCH METHODS:
METHODS OF DATA VISUALIZATION, SYNTHESIS,
AND ANALYSIS

COMPILNG RESEARCH REPORTS

Aggregating the research process, methods, research data, data visualizations, and insights.
Reports are often a required deliverable.

Research reports can have many forms, from written reports to more visual collections of photos and vi-
deos.

‍Research process: Present your research process in an accessible way. Highlight what you’ve done to
ensure decent data quality.

Key insights/main findings: Start with your key insights as a kind of executive report.
What are the most crucial points you want to bring across? Build your key insights on all types of data
and support your insights by cross-referencing the different types of datasets you have.
Does your qualitative data match the quantitative data? If so, what does it mean?
What type of information, from the prep research and secondary research, can you incorporate here?
Was it confirmed by the fieldwork or not?

Raw data: Including raw data (first-level constructs) increases the credibility of your research. Add
quotes, photos, audio and video recordings, artifacts, as well as statistics and metrics to your report to
support your insights. If possible, include information on method, data, and researcher.

Visualizations: If possible, include visualizations like personas, journey maps, or system maps to visually
summarize your research findings in a way that is appealing and easy to understand.

1. Prepare: 2. Write research report 3. Peer-review and iterate

Have your research process, your re- Should start with your research process. Invite other researchers to peer-review
search data, as well as different visuali- Who was involved? Which methods did your report. Use their feedback to itera-
zations (personas, journey maps, system you use to collect data, when, and whe- tively improve your report from various
maps) and insights (key insights, JTBD, re? When did you start to synthesize and perspectives. Think about the target
user stories) at hand. Think who you analyze the data? How many iterations audience of your report and invite peo-
could invite to peer-review your report. ple from that audience or like-minded
did you do? Add a summary of your key
people to review it.
findings and key visualizations, add raw
data as evidence, and use indices to show
that there’s much more data that these are
based on.