Design research

  • Skill

Name

Design research

Description

Studies how people encounter, use, and experience communication, products, spaces, and services. In contrast to market research—which relies on what people say in surveys and interviews and requires statistically significant results—design research guides design decisions through firsthand observation of what people actually do. Increasingly, technology also allows design researchers to examine the “faces, places, and traces” of user behavior in the analysis of digital data. Practice-focused research addresses how design is planned, produced, and distributed.

Types