Research and design success

Design Management Journal, Summer 2001 by Dodd, Kerry

The Oral-B CrossAction toothbrush sets the threshold for high performance, high margin design. Mirro's Allegro cookware simplifies food preparation and changes how people think about pots and pans. Kerry Dodd recounts these and other product development stories to reinforce the point that research does, indeed, make a difference. It informs design in ways that enhance user satisfaction, brand loyalty, and product success.

When properly done, design research provides a scientific process of elimination to the point at which the successfull design manifests itself and product success virtually unfolds as destiny. The process consists of qualitative and quantitative research that continues to focus the design direction until it is clearly articulated. Design research creates an understanding of which product qualities will meet the perceptive, physical, emotional, and behavioral needs of a target market.

Qualitative studies use one-on-one interviews, direct observation, and video surveillance to understand consumer perceptions, patterns of behavior, and emotional responses. They may also include ethnography and product anthropology studies designed to understand consumer attitudes, beliefs, and culture. Data from qualitative studies describe consumer perceptions of value and offer insight into price tolerance and possible competitive advantages. Consumer experience profiling and lifestyle research determines market perception and acceptance of new products, and detailed research defines styles, colors, materials, textures, and other design elements that evoke positive reactions in the customers mind.

Quantitative studies provide an algorithm to predict design outcomes. Numeric values gauge response and determine patterns. We are all familiar with surveys and the numeric measurement they provide. The recently released 2000 census data, for instance, is now being used by various companies and industries, as well as the federal government, to understand the populations they serve. Another example of quantitative measure is ergonomic studies that measure physical speed, strength, force, and abilities.

When market needs are precisely met, the result is a successful product. Once in the marketplace, these research-driven products achieve outstanding sales results because consumer response has been tested and proven throughout development. Design research streamlines the design process by eliminating mistakes earlier in development and is thus an essential tool for predicting a successful outcome. With a successful product and acceptable price point established, the burden of success shifts to the other facets of marketing: promotion and distribution. Here again, appropriate research can establish direction.

How research evolves into design

Creating a highly successful product requires integrating researchers, designers, engineers, and marketers throughout the product development process. Involving design researchers and designers in the earliest stages of product development allows the design to be guided by the research and evolve naturally rather than through the usual process of generating a concept, developing a product, and applying design aesthetics. It's the difference between an integrated approach and a sequential one. The integrated product development approach is powerful because all the knowledgeable parties are involved at the beginning, when there is the greatest potential for true innovation and the best opportunity to avoid failure downstream. Quantitative and qualitative.

The essential research mix

Qualitative and quantitative research methods support each other to bring the target consumer into sharp focus. A comprehensive research matrix using both types of research reveals the motivations, perceptions, and behaviors of the consumer.

A combination of questionnaires, surveys, one-on-one interviews, discussion groups, concept building, video research, and direct observation provides quantitative and qualitative data. Questionnaires provide broad coverage for a large quantitative database. For qualitative detail, covert techniques, such as surveillance, shadowing, and direct and video observation, capture what people really do-their behaviors, how they interface with products, and how they respond. Interviews provide insight into their perceptions and emotions; prodding and prompting can reveal important details that might be missed by either observational research or questionnaires.

The numbers and analysis of quantitative research answer the "what" questions and prompt the "how" and "why" questions better answered by qualitative research. Product designs generated from this kind of comprehensive research closely match the needs and desires of the target market represented by the study sample. The maxim, "Find a need and fill it," becomes the template for success.

Specific forms of design research

Various research methodologies define particular sets of perceptive, physical, emotional, or behavioral needs. Design, rather than being solely formed by consumer survey results and a designer's vision, must emanate from an anthropological understanding of the consumer's physical, cultural, linguistic, and archeological needs. The choice of research methodologies depends on the product being developed. Depending on the product and the target market, the design research may include contextual, ergonomic, perception, ethnography, kinesiology, product anthropology, phenomenological, and lifestyle studies. The more techniques, the better. In this way, the limitations of one technique are countered by the strengths of another. The goal is to understand consumer actions and thought processes that lead to product purchase, product acceptance, and product use (or disuse).