Workshop #12: Research toolbox: Exploring innovation opportunities, emotion and desirability by Miriam Walker

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Research toolbox:
Exploring innovation
opportunities, emotion  
and desirability
Miriam Walker 9 September 2016 
@miriamswalker

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Commerical in Conﬁdence
2
Intros

9:30
Purpose of exploratory research

9:50
Transforming through research

10:10
Choosing research methods

10:20
Break

10:45
Personal journey maps

10:55
Magic thing

11:30
Microsoft Product Reaction Cards

12:00
Wrap up

12:10

Agenda

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3
Introduction
Your name"

Your role"
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What you’d like to
learn today

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Understand the role of
exploratory research 

Introduction
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Understand the
potential of research to
transform
 
Learn to apply three
research methods:
•  Personal journey maps
•  Magic Thing
•  Microsoft Product
Reaction Cards

Get better at choosing
research methods for
exploration 

What you’ll learn!

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Purpose of exploratory
research

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British Design
Council: Double
Diamond!

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Digital Arts Network
(Auckland)
Discover Design Implement Measure
Measured 
Outcome
Business 
Objective

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Exploration helps us ﬁnd  
opportunities by:
•  Understanding users
•  Environments
•  Business goals and technology

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Types of research

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Transforming through research"

What don’t you !
know, that you !
don’t know?!

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Evaluation helps us  
 
select and iterate to:
•  Choose the best ideas
•  Reﬁne and improve design
•  Find problems
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Types of research

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Measurement helps us:
•  Understand what changed because of our
design
•  Identify areas for further improvement
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Types of research

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What research methods "
have you used?

Two minutes to write down as many  
research methods as you’ve used  
(one per Post It)

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What don’t you know that "
you don’t know?

Which of your research methods are  
best at ﬁnding the things that  
you don’t know to ask?

Stick your research method  
 
Post-Its on the wall

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Transforming through
research

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Coach and train new
researchers

Demonstrate your
methods to a colleague

Show the value by sharing
outcomes and insights

Get product managers and
business owners to observe

Provide input for business
strategy and purpose

Explore opportunities,
not just pain points
Create a user centred culture and organisation

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Hearts and !
minds!

In small groups, 10 minutes to
share your experiences:

1.  How have you shared your
research?
2.  Who did you involve?
3.  What were your goals by
involving them?
4.  What was the impact?

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Choosing exploratory
research methods

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Dian Fossey
An Anthropologist
who researched
Gorillas
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-30313306
Choosing exploratory research methods

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The pinnacle of qualitative
research?
•  What questions was Dian "
trying to answer?
•  What methods did she use?
•  What were the strengths
and weaknesses of her
methods?


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Scientists seek a "
universal truth

By Rich Gold- approx 2001?

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Scientiﬁc research often
starts with a belief (the
hypothesis)

E.g. chocolate helps people to sleep

The holy grail of science "
research is proof

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An experiment is designed
to gather data to test the
hypothesis (the
methodology).
E.g. For 30 nights, students eat 100g dark
choc at 9pm and rate their sleep /10 at
8am.
research is proof

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We try to avoid bias from
participants and
researchers.
E.g. Give 100g identical fake choc on half
the nights. Each student has both fake and
real chocolate (on diﬀerent nights).
research is proof

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We run statistics to test
whether we have
supported or disproved the
hypothesis.
E.g. Wilcoxon Signed Ranks test indicates
that sleeping after chocolate was
signiﬁcantly better than with fake
chocolate Z = 21 p=0.027.
research is proof

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But we can’t conclusively
prove the hypothesis over
an alternative explanation.
E.g. Chocolate only increases students’
sleep OR our result applies only to
Whittakers
research is proof

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Scientific research often starts with a belief (the
hypothesis)

An experiment is designed to gather data to test the
hypothesis (the methodology).

We try to avoid bias from participants and
researchers.

We run statistics to test whether we have supported
or disproved the hypothesis.

But we can’t conclusively prove the hypothesis over
an alternative explanation.

E.g. chocolate helps people to sleep

 
E.g. For 30 nights, students eat 100g dark choc at
9pm and rate their sleep /10 at 8am.

E.g. Give 100g identical fake choc on half the
nights. Each student has both fake and real
chocolate (on different nights).

E.g. Wilcoxon Signed Ranks test indicates that
sleeping after chocolate was significantly better
than with fake chocolate Z = 21 p=0.027.

E.g. chocolate only increases students’ sleep OR
our result applies only to Whittakers

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Setting research goals 
:

•  What do we want to know?
•  What are the opportunities?
•  Who are our target users?
•  What behaviours, attitudes, environments and
products do we want to understand?
•  What do we already know or have?
•  Who are our competitors?
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Exploratory research
questions

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Practicalities

What research methods do you choose most often?

Why do you choose those methods?

What are the constraints that apply most often in your work?

10 minute group discussion.
Please appoint a spokesperson to share your key points.

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Research goals 
 

•  What do we want to know?
•  What are the opportunities?
•  Who are our target users?
•  What behaviours, attitudes, environments and
products do we want to understand?
•  What do we already know or have?
•  Who are our competitors?
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Exploratory research "
planning questions

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Digital Arts Network often ﬁnd  
ourselves running usability  
testing and interviews.

These are generally 1:1 sessions

Why?
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Why are 1:1 methods "
and usability testing "
so popular?

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•  Explore details of something  
in the past
•  Avoid assumptions about what
happens/ed
•  Understand emotions about current
experiences
•  Increase empathy and understanding
from researchers
•  Find new opportunities for  
design / pain points
•  Generate ideas
•  Encourage positive and  
negative feedback

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Why expand our "
techniques?

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10 minute break

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Personal Journey Maps

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Deciding to visit New Zealand

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Identify areas for improvement, based on
pain points with a current experience. 

Explore experiences that take place over
time (e.g. medical conditions from
symptoms, through diagnosis and
treatment)
Explore strong emotions
Understand where the user interacts with
multiple touch-points. 

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Why map the journey "
of an individual?

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Start with real stories and experiences
Avoid creating journey maps that are
aggregations of idealised user behaviour
and experiences
Exploring both positive and negative
experiences.

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How we map the
journey

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1.  Provide the prompt “Tell me about your
experience of …"
2.  Ask your participant to describe the
steps
3.  Write one step per Post-It and add to
the timeline
4.  Probe gently with “how did that feel” for
painpoints and move the Post-Its up
and down
5.  Probe for more details on key touch-
points and steps – add more Post-Its
into the timeline
6.  Use additional prompts “What
happened next?” ”What did you do?”
“What did you use?” “What did you
see?” “Who did you talk to ?” “Who
was with you?” “What did you say?”

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The Process

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•  A user recounts a real experience from
their lives
•  The user talks the researcher through
each step
•  Add actions and interactions
(touchpoints) at every step
•  Add emotions and pain points - probe
and prompt gently
•  Identify pain points and areas for
improvement
•  Discuss any obvious ideas for
improvement (but don’t expect to solve
everything in the session)
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Mapping the journey "
together

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Prompts:

Where did you start?
What happened?
What happened next?
Where did you start?
What happened?
What happened next?

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Map of visiting the airport

In groups of ﬁve people, the person
who visited the airport most recently
is your research participant. 
 
Story: Tell me about the last time you
visited the airport.

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Personal Journey Maps to:  

•  Explore details of something 
in the past
•  Understand emotions
•  Increase empathy and understanding
from researchers
•  Find new opportunities and problems
•  Avoid assumptions about  
what happens/ed

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Why would we use
Personal Journey
Maps?

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Magic Thing

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“Imagine you had a magic thing that
could [solve your problems / make your
life better / manage your health / achieve
your goals / make travel more enjoyable /
help you save money] …”

Make a prototype! Sketch, act, construct.

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Use, imagine or create "
a magic thing

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•  What happens?
•  What does your magic thing do?
•  Why does that help you?
•  What happens next?
•  How does your magic thing change
your life?
•  How often would you do this? When?
•  Where would you do it?
•  How important is this to you?
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Probes for each usage
scenario

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•  Problems, pain points and opportunities
•  Ideas for solutions (though this is more
about understanding the opportunity for
innovation than solving a problem)
•  You will be able to probe on why, when
and how the problem happens
•  Where and when a product or service
might be used
•  Ideas for using a new technology (e.g.
this technique was used to explore
mobile connected devices – in the 1990s)
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What will you learn

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But magic thing is not so useful for
understanding:
•  How usage will evolve over time
•  The eﬀect of advertising or other
marketing on expectations of how
something will be used

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What will you learn

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Ideas for clients (or create  
your own)
a)  Client A helps families hire nannies
b)  Client B creates products for endurance
triathletes
c)  Client C specialises in adventure travel
for people in wheelchairs

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Activity: Plan a Magic
Thing activity

In pairs, you have 10 minutes to
• Pick a client
• Decide what you want to learn
• Decide who to recruit
• Write your Magic Thing instructions

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To deepen the scenario and add realism,
ask participants to:
•  Make a model of their magic thing
(playdough, popsicle sticks,
pipecleaners) or sketch a picture and
explain it
•  Give it a name
•  Tell you “What is the ﬁrst thing you see
when you open it up?”
•  Prompt with “What else does it do?”
•  Ask “How has it made your life better?”
•  Perhaps act or roleplay with the the
interviewer

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Extending Magic
Thing

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Outside an interview:
•  Use magic thing in a group, for role-
playing with others. To explore social and
group usage.
•  Ask participants to carry their magic thing
for several days and keep a note of how
they use it - to explore mobility, time and
real life needs. Some researchers have
observed magic thing usage over several
days.

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Extending Magic
Thing

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Magic Thing to understand:
•  Pain points
•  Expectations
•  Explore opportunities for design
•  (Sometimes) generate ideas
•  Explore opportunities

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Why would we use "
Magic Thing?

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Microsoft Product
Reaction Cards

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We want to know if a product or service
is desirable. But:
•  There is no single characteristic or
behaviour that makes products desirable
(E.g. are we aiming for clean and easy-to-
use OR engaging and inspiring)
•  Qualitative feedback is hard to
summarise and compare across
participants and products
•  Negative feedback can be hard to elicit
from participants – people want to please
•  Comparing the product team’s goal with
users’ experiences can feel like conﬂict

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Why is desirability
hard to measure?

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The complete set of 118 Product Reaction Cards
Accessible Creative Fast Meaningful Slow
Advanced Customizable Flexible Motivating Sophisticated
Annoying Cutting edge Fragile Not Secure Stable
Appealing Dated Fresh Not Valuable Sterile
Approachable Desirable Friendly Novel Stimulating
Attractive Difficult Frustrating Old Straight Forward
Boring Disconnected Fun Optimistic Stressful
Business-like Disruptive Gets in the way Ordinary Time-consuming
Busy Distracting Hard to Use Organized Time-Saving
Calm Dull Helpful Overbearing Too Technical
Clean Easy to use High quality Overwhelming Trustworthy
Clear Effective Impersonal Patronizing Unapproachable
Collaborative Efficient Impressive Personal Unattractive
Comfortable Effortless Incomprehensible Poor quality Uncontrollable
Compatible Empowering Inconsistent Powerful Unconventional
Compelling Energetic Ineffective Predictable Understandable
Complex Engaging Innovative Professional Undesirable
Comprehensive Entertaining Inspiring Relevant Unpredictable
Confident Enthusiastic Integrated Reliable Unrefined
Confusing Essential Intimidating Responsive Usable
Connected Exceptional Intuitive Rigid Useful
Consistent Exciting Inviting Satisfying Valuable
Controllable Expected Irrelevant Secure
Convenient Familiar Low Maintenance Simplistic

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Ask:
•  How does using this product made you
feel?
•  How does this service made you feel?
•  How would you like to feel when using
this product?
•  How would we like users of this product
to feel about the product?
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Prompts

Invite participants to  
pick 5 words

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The only word that’s ever misﬁred  
is Simplistic 

Google search dictionary: “treating
complex issues and problems as if they
were much simpler than they really are.”
 
The meaning is negative
But ”simplistic” is often misinterpreted as
a fancy word for “simple”. So people
think it’s positive.

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A caution –
“Simplistic” "
is confusing

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Beware the word
cloud

Word clouds are misleading and not helpful
for summarising qualitative data
Phrases get split and lose meaning or
context e.g. “Not helpful” or “Easy to use”
“don’t like”
Some words have diﬀerent meanings in
diﬀerent contexts

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1.  Form product teams
2.  Each team has a secret product. Shhhh!
3.  Open your teams’ secret product
envelope.
4.  Each person picks the ﬁve words that
would make you love this product
5.  Combine your words - vote using
coloured dots
6.  – which words got the most votes for
your product?
7.  Fill in your product poster (ﬁve minutes)
Report back: “My ideal [product] is (word
1, word 2, word 3, word 4)
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Activity: Describe
desirability for your
secret product

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Two minutes to guess
the products
"
Put post-it notes with
your guess next to the
poster

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Product Reaction "
Card usage
Use Microsoft Product Reaction  
Cards to:
•  Understand the feeling you are trying to
create
•  Test or demonstrate a prototype or
product with users
•  Compare products (e.g. against
competitor’s products)
•  Talk to current customers

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Wrap up

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Wrap up
Responding to "
briefs
In groups, review your brief:
•  What questions do you want to answer?
•  What risks do you see in this project?
•  What research methods could you apply?

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Wrap up
Why did we learn
these techniques?
Personal Journey Maps to:
•  Explore the past
•  Understand emotions
•  Increase empathy
•  Find new opportunities
•  Avoid assumptions

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Wrap up
Why did we learn
these techniques?
Magic Thing to understand:
•  Pain points
•  Explore opportunities for design
•  (Sometimes) generate ideas

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ClosWrap upe
Why did we learn
these techniques?
Microsoft Product Reaction Cards:
•  Elicit the desired and actual experience
qualitatively
•  Get positive and negative feedback
•  Allow comparison between participants
and products
•  Make it easy to summarise qualitative
data

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Wrap up
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What worked well?

What could be improved?

Session feedback

Workshop #12: Research toolbox: Exploring innovation opportunities, emotion and desirability by Miriam Walker

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Workshop #12: Research toolbox: Exploring innovation opportunities, emotion and desirability by Miriam Walker