HD·F2·10 Advanced
Design Research Methods
User research, ethnography, and primary data collection.
Design decisions made without research are guesses dressed as expertise. This course builds foundational research literacy: qualitative and quantitative methods, interviews, contextual inquiry, surveys, usability testing, and how to synthesise and communicate findings responsibly.
In Development
This course's full module content is being written. The outline below is final, subscribe for updates when it publishes.
LEARNING OUTCOMES
- 01 Explain why research literacy is foundational to design credibility
- 02 Distinguish qualitative and quantitative research methods and when each applies
- 03 Conduct a user interview that surfaces genuine insight
- 04 Apply contextual inquiry and ethnographic observation methods
- 05 Design and interpret surveys appropriately for a design question
- 06 Synthesise research findings and communicate them responsibly to stakeholders
- Confidence is not evidence
- Research literacy is a credibility asset, not a delay
- You don't need to be a researcher to use research methods responsibly
- Qualitative methods generate hypotheses; quantitative methods test them
- Neither method type is inherently more rigorous
- Mixing methods triangulates findings more reliably than either alone
- Ask about past behaviour, not hypothetical future behaviour
- Open questions surface more than leading ones
- Silence after a question often produces the most honest answer
- Behaviour observed beats behaviour recalled
- Workarounds reveal where a design already fails silently
- Context shapes behaviour more than users usually realise
- Question wording biases responses more than most designers expect
- Surveys measure stated preference, not necessarily actual behaviour
- Large sample size does not fix a badly worded question
- Five participants typically surface most usability issues
- Think-aloud protocols reveal reasoning, not just outcomes
- Test tasks, not opinions about the design
- Affinity mapping clusters raw notes into emergent themes
- Themes should be traceable back to specific evidence
- Synthesis is where research becomes insight
- Informed consent applies in commercial research too
- Anonymise and secure participant data by default
- Power imbalance between researcher and participant requires care
- Findings need a narrative, not just a data dump
- Tie every finding back to a decision it should influence
- Video and quotes persuade stakeholders more than statistics alone