Synopses & Reviews
"Universal Methods of Design is an immensely useful survey of research and design methods used by today's top practitioners, and will serve as a crucial reference for any designer grappling with really big problems. This book has a place on every designer's bookshelf, including yours!" —David Sherwin, Principal Designer at frog and author of Creative Workshop: 80 Challenges to Sharpen Your Design Skills
"Universal Methods of Design is a landmark method book for the field of design. This tidy text compiles and summarizes 100 of the most widely applicable and effective methods of design—research, analysis, and ideation—the methods that every graduate of a design program should know, and every professional designer should employ. Methods are concisely presented, accompanied by information about the origin of the technique, key research supporting the method, and visual examples. Want to know about Card Sorting, or the Elito Method? What about Think-Aloud Protocols? This book has them all and more in readily digestible form. The authors have taken away our excuse for not using the right method for the job, and in so doing have elevated its readers and the field of design. UMOD is an essential resource for designers of all levels and specializations, and should be one of the go-to reference tools found in every designer’s toolbox." —William Lidwell, author of Universal Principles of Design, Lecturer of Industrial Design, University of Houston
This comprehensive reference provides a thorough and critical presentation of 100 research methods, synthesis/analysis techniques, and research deliverables for human centered design, delivered in a concise and accessible format perfect for designers, educators, and students. Whether research is already an integral part of a practice or curriculum, or whether it has been unfortunately avoided due to perceived limitations of time, knowledge, or resources, Universal Methods of Design serves as an invaluable compendium of methods that can be easily referenced and utilized by cross-disciplinary teams in nearly any design project.
This essential guide:
- Dismantles the myth that user research methods are complicated, expensive, and time-consuming
- Creates a shared meaning for cross-disciplinary design teams
- Illustrates methods with compelling visualizations and case studies
- Characterizes each method at a glance
- Indicates when methods are best employed to help prioritize appropriate design research strategies
Universal Methods of Design distills each method down to its most powerful essence, in a format that will help design teams select and implement the most credible research methods best suited to their design culture within the constraints of their projects.
Synopsis
This comprehensive reference provides a thorough and critical presentation of 100 research methods, synthesis/analysis techniques, and research deliverables for human centered design, delivered in a concise and accessible format perfect for designers, educators, and students.
Universal Methods of Design serves as an invaluable compendium of methods that can be easily referenced and used by cross-disciplinary teams in nearly any design project.
Methods and techniques are organized alphabetically for ongoing, quick reference. Each method is presented in a two-page format. The left-hand page contains a concise description of the method, accompanied by references for further reading. On the right-hand page, images and cases studies for each method are presented visually. The relevant phases for design application are highlighted as numbered icons along the right side of the page, from phases 1 (planning) through 5 (launch and monitor).
Build more meaningful products with these methods and more: A/B Testing, Affinity Diagramming, Behavioral Mapping, Bodystorming, Contextual Design, Critical Incident Technique, Directed Storytelling, Flexible Modeling, Image Boards, Graffiti Walls, Heuristic Evaluation, Parallel Prototyping, Simulation Exercises, Touchstone Tours, and Weighted Matrix.
This essential guide:
- Dismantles the myth that user research methods are complicated, expensive, and time-consuming
- Creates a shared meaning for cross-disciplinary design teams
- Illustrates methods with compelling visualizations and case studies
- Characterizes each method at a glance
- Indicates when methods are best employed to help prioritize appropriate design research strategies
Universal Methods of Design is an essential resource for designers of all levels and specializations.
Synopsis
This book provides a thorough and critical presentation of 100 essential research methods and practices for design, delivered in a concise and accessible format perfect for design educators, practitioners, and design students alike. With Universal Methods of Design, you'll learn the methods and practices that they can use in order to understand and engage users in meaningful ways, and improve design outcomes in the process in an easy-to-use format.
About the Author
Bella Martin is a design practitioner and independent consultant in Atlanta, Georgia, where she brings her expertise for design research methods to companies who are new to user-centered design but eager to give their users a voice in the design process. She holds a Master of Design in Communication Planning and Information Design from Carnegie Mellon University, where she first began her ongoing work in visualizing user-centered research methods.Bruce Hanington is an associate professor, director of graduate studies, and former program chair of industrial design in the School of Design at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He has dedicated his teaching and research to methods and practices for human centered design, with an emphasis on design ethnography, participatory design, and the meaning of form in context. He has consulted on design projects with GE Appliance and Johnson and Johnson, and his work has been published in Design Issues, The Design Journal, and Interactions, with chapters in Designing Inclusive Futures and Design and Emotion: The Experience of Everyday Things.Bella Martin is a design practitioner and independent consultant in Atlanta, Georgia, where she brings her expertise for design research methods to companies who are new to user-centered design but eager to give their users a voice in the design process. She holds a Master of Design in Communication Planning and Information Design from Carnegie Mellon University, where she first began her ongoing work in visualizing user-centered research methods.
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION
01. A/B Testing
02. AEIOU
03. Affinity Diagramming
04. Artifact Analysis
05. Automated Remote Research
06. Behavioral Mapping
07. Bodystorming
08. Brainstorm Graphic Organizers
09. Business Origami
10. Card Sorting
11. Case Studies
12. Cognitive Mapping
13. Cognitive Walkthrough
14. Collage
15. Competitive Testing
16. Concept Mapping
17. Content Analysis
18. Content Inventory & Audit
19. Contextual Design
20. Contextual Inquiry
21. Creative Toolkits
22. Critical Incident Technique
23. Crowdsourcing
24. Cultural Probes
25. Customer Experience Audit
26. Design Charette
27. Design Ethnography
28. Design Workshops
29. Desirability Testing
30. Diary Studies
31. Directed Storytelling
32. Elito Method
33. Ergonomic Analysis
34. Evaluative Research
35. Evidence-based Design
36. Experience Prototyping
37. Experience Sampling Method
38. Experiments
39. Exploratory Research
40. Eyetracking
41. Flexible Modeling
42. Fly-on-the-Wall Observation
43. Focus Groups
44. Generative Research
45. Graffiti Walls
46. Heuristic Evaluation
47. Image Boards
48. Interviews
49. KJ Technique
50. Kano Analysis
51. Key Performance Indicators
52. Laddering
53. Literature Reviews
54. The Love Letter & the Breakup Letter
55. Mental Model Diagrams
56. Mind Mapping
57. Observation
58. Parallel Prototyping
59. Participant Observation
60. Participatory Action Research (PAR)
61. Participatory Design
62. Personal Inventories
63. Personas
64. Photo Studies
65. Picture Cards
66. Prototyping
67. Questionnaires
68. Rapid Iterative Testing & Evaluation (RITE)
69. Remote Moderated Research
70. Research Through Design
71. Role-playing
72. Scenario Description Swimlanes
73. Scenarios
74. Secondary Research
75. Semantic Differential
76. Shadowing
77. Simulation Exercises
78. Site Search Analytics
79. Speed Dating
80. Stakeholder Maps
81. Stakeholder Walkthrough
82. Storyboards
83. Surveys
84. Task Analysis
85. Territory Maps
86. Thematic Networks
87. Think-aloud Protocol
88. Time-aware Research
89. Touchstone Tours
90. Triading
91. Triangulation
92. Unobtrusive Measures
93. Usability Report
94. Usability Testing
95. User Journey Maps
96. Value Opportunity Analysis
97. Web Analytics
98. Weighted Matrix
99. Wizard of Oz
100. Word Clouds
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
ABOUT THE AUTHORS