Capturing & Understanding Human Experiences:

Catch & Release is a workshop taking you through the process of developing a user-centered design research study: from developing a methodology to gathering and analyzing qualitative insights. Through collaboration with inter-disciplinary teams, Interaction Designers and Industrial Designers will learn and work together and through a shared experience, gain a better understanding of one another’s perspectives.

When: This coming Saturday, September 19th, 9:00am to noon
Breakfast is included.

Where: Lextant (The Smith Brother’s Hardware Building) 580 North Fourth Street, Suite 610 Columbus 43215

Please RSVP for the event by emailing
$15 IxDA & IDSA members, $20 non-members, $10 students
Payment: cash or check (at the door)

Design Research Workshop

The Michigan chapter of IDSA, with support provided by Stryker, Dow Corning, SolidThinking, Altair and Kendall College, is proud to make available a Design Research Workshop – Capturing & Understanding Human Experiences – an interactive review of the latest generative research tools and methods to help people articulate and express their latent wants, needs and desires.  These techniques are being used by leading companies not only to help stimulate customer-generated innovation and ensure the creation of appropriate products and services, but also to help align internal teams and accelerate development time frames. In October 2007, Business Week reported that during the period from 2000 to 2005, “companies that focused on customer experience outperformed the S&P 500 by 10 to 1.”

What-
The event will be facilitated by Lextant - the internationally recognized Design Research and User Experience Design firm whose clients include Microsoft, Samsung, General Electric, Motorola, Johnson & Johnson, Nationwide Insurance, Whirlpool, and Procter & Gamble. 

When-
The event will be held twice – first in Troy on October 13 and then the following evening in Grand Rapids on October 14. Join us for snacks and beverages beginning at 5:00 PM with the workshop starting at 6:00. Don’t miss this great opportunity to connect with the Michigan design community and participate in this informative event!

Where-
The East side event will be held at Altair headquarters. 1820 E. Big Beaver Rd Troy, MI 48083.  RSVP

The West side event will be held at Kendall College of Art and Design in downtown GR.  17 Fountain St. NW Grand Rapids, MI 49503. RSVP

FREE-
Both events are free to IDSA members and students, but seating is limited so please RSVP which event you’d like to attend. Join us to learn how you can help your company capture your customers desired experiences. 

Kendra Shimmell is conducting a hands-on workshop entitled Capturing & Understanding Human Experiences that will take you through the process of developing a user-centered, design research study- selecting and developing appropriate methodologies, data gathering techniques, analyzing findings, synthesizing and translating insights. 

Lextant will be teaming with IxDA Columbus and will present the workshop at Lextant, hosted by Kendra Shimmell and gang.  It’s gonna rock, so don’t miss it! 

Sept. 19th 9am to 12pm at Lextant

Then our own Marty Gage will be speaking at IDSA’s Project Infusion Conference coming up on Sept. 23-26th Miami, Florida. 

Good stuff.  If you’d like us to come to your home town and give ya the goods on great design and human experiences, don’t hesitate to pick up that phone and call us ( 614.228.9711 ), ask for Jim and we’ll get ya the hook up.

Chris Rockwell: The mind of design from The PEP Talks on Vimeo.

Being curious and creative, seeing patterns, and envisioning the future. These are just some of the skills needed you need to determine what makes good design. Chris Rockwell talks about how successful design is rooted in understanding people’s experiences. 

One of the trends I’ve been following lately is the mechanics of game design.  Odds are you’ve played a game or two in your lifetime, admit it.  People of my demographic know games well, we’ve grown up with consoles and online gaming.  Our media is filled with its influence and innovation.  Currently, game play is being studied on multiple fronts to better understand the human interaction in virtual worlds.  Interaction is just the start, the real meaty data is all the behavioral and social aspects.

My special guest for this episode is Nick Yee a research scientist at the Palo Alto Research Center.  Nick has been pursuing his passion for understanding virtual worlds, specifically massively multi-player games for nearly his entire academic career.  He’s conducted numerous research studies, authored a dozen or more papers, and recently completed his PhD.

One project in particular, the Daedalus Project, caught my eye about two years ago.  The premise was fascinating and massively important- these people that play online games (like World of Warcraft), what do we know about them?  Who are they demographically? What are their motivations inside these online worlds, why do they go there, play there, create what often seems like “work” there?  Nick Yee and his colleagues have surveyed over 40,000 participants in online games like World of Warcraft.  Go back and look at that number again… FORTY THOUSAND.  Nice. 

This episode of Design Forty is one of the most juiciest slices of research interview commentary you’ll ever listen to.  Nick not only has the facts, he’s exploring the far reaches of these virtual worlds.  He’s sitting on the ground work that every game company on the planet should be studying and have in their pocket when it comes to understanding all the required game mechanics to make engagement for humans work in a virtual world. 

There’s a reason why games like EverQuest were called EverCRACK by its own fan base.  Addiction, engagement, satisfaction, achievement, reward, competition, [insert human behavioral/social aspect here] and odds are Nick has stumbled across it.  These learnings reach far beyond just games.  They can be applied to brands, products and services. 

There’s been few times I wanted to stretch beyond the 40 minute rule on this show, and talking with Nick was one of them. 

Tune in and enjoy. 

Strategic Targets: Establishing clear targets for the research can be tough - often manufacturers do not know their key customers (suppliers/service providers). It is best to thoroughly understand current business strategies up front.

Customer Relationships: Delicate relationships may exist between a manufacturer’s sales force and their customer. Careful handling of these relationships is key to a successful research project.

Recruiting: Recruiting respondents for B2B is significantly more intensive and challenging than an end consumer recruit. It is less likely that business participants have the availability to devote time to a research effort, or have the permission/desire to participate in a research effort. Because this is the case, creative recruiting techniques and relaxed screening criteria are sometimes required.

Compensation: Typically businesses being recruited look for benefit for their participation, and often times are not allowed to accept monetary/gift compensation. Showing insight into their current process or end consumer at no cost to them is often enough of a benefit to encourage participation.

Confidentiality: Confidentiality becomes paramount when gathering information from competing businesses. Businesses need to be assured that their company information/processes will not be shared with competitors.

Methodology: B2B methodologies need to be flexible and prioritized. Business participants often need to cut the time short, therefore it is necessary to know which data points are priorities.

The number one key to a successful B2B research endeavor is to set expectations with the client early and often. Challenges aside, if this research is done correctly, the manufacturer, their customer, and the end consumer can benefit greatly. It is worth the effort and we look forward to seeing what 2009 will mean for B2B research!

Listen to the Design Forty call on recruiting for B2B research here:

Online surveys, like those reported on, are just one hammer researchers have, but its likely that because of their flexibility, ease, and reach they’ve been used to hit too many nails. We’re at a point where technology has provided new and powerful ways to give the participant the control and freedom to appropriately express themselves and document their experiences and desires. We’re able to apply the principles or participatory research with available technology. People can now document themselves via audio, photo, or video recording, as well as do so when mobile or as needed, not fixed to a computer or their home. These tools create compelling experiences for the participant and provide rich, compelling data for the researcher. You don’t have to throw away your old hammer, but you should check out getting a couple new ones!