Donald Schon says, “When we go about the spontaneous, intuitive performance of the actions of everyday life, we show ourselves to be knowledgeable in a special way. Often, we cannot say what it is that we know. When we try to describe it we find ourselves at a loss, or we produce descriptions that are obviously inappropriate. Our knowing is ordinarily tacit, implicit in our patterns of action and in our feel for the stuff with which we are dealing. It seems right to say that our knowing is our action.”
Where do I start…I was one of those weird people who was excited to do this assignment, possibly because “Research methods” class reassured me of my decision to be a User Experience Researcher. As a result, I wanted to use this opportunity to revise on my knowledge of each of the methods while identifying nuances and uniqueness in each of them. While the list of 34 methods overwhelmed a few, I was already looking for more to write about like Shaowen’s note taking tips, Trisha’s data analysis tip etc. Being my last assignment for the methods class, I wanted to make this notebook a masterpiece. While I underestimated the time that each method would take as well as the visualization, I thoroughly enjoyed the process. There was a moment when I was jumping in joy because the use of “Research methods” workbook made me so excited. While I am trying to reflect on what each method has taught me and what this assignment, as a process has taught me, please keep in mind that it might run too long to read.
Assignment announced!
COVID situation resulted in the final assignment being changed from a group project to an individual assignment. While I was going to miss my previous waste management project team, I was also partly excited as an individual assignment would mean my own style and my own approach. Also, being a perfectionist, I did have a sense of relief (I swear I am a good team worker,just that it is never enough for a perfectionist!)
The newly announced assignment was, to me, like my chance to reflect on each method that I have learnt and used during my research process. Since each of the method required a use case as an example, I let my imagination run wild while also planning on how to execute the final assignment.
Plans…new plans…newer plans:
Like any other assignment, I started jotting down my ideas and layout plans for the methods notebook. The initial plan was to follow the format resembling any other research methods book like “Universal Methods of Design (UMOD)”. However, I was clear on the idea of not using photographs but to use illustrations. As a part of the assignment I wanted to learn Flat design drawing (I tried!). My plans also involved including a page for the researcher(myself) including her tools and tips learnt from class. So, even before writing down description of each method, I had a tips message where I started adding pointers by the day. Few of them were:
As Behar says, “And so begins our work, our hardest work-to bring the ethnographic moment back, to resurrect it, to communicate the distance, which too quickly starts to feel like an abyss, between what we saw and heard and;our inability, finally, to do justice to it in our representations. Our field notes become palimpsests, useless unless plumbed for forgotten revelatory moments, unexpressed longings, and the wounds of regret. And so, even though we start by going public, we continue our labor through introspection”
New announcement about possible mediums for the notebook changed my plans a bit. In fact, the newer plan was more exciting and easier to be added as a part of my portfolio piece. I decided to use a website as my final medium for the assignment. Following that, I started looking for exemplars for layout inspiration, and finally jotted down the below layout ideas:
It was finally time to start writing down my understanding of each method.
Reflection in action:
My first step of the description process for each method, was to look for quotes that meaningfully describe the uniqueness and way of use, of each method. This involved a combination of revisiting lecture notes, readings as well as some external search. There were moments where I did not remember few methods. That was in fact a light bulb moment, of experiencing what exactly Schon’s quotes describe: when I was at loss of describing some specific methods, while I thought I clearly knew and can differentiate each of the methods.
The second step was to complete the methods worksheet, that would act as a revision while describing each of the methods. And that was the best decision I have ever taken! Because, the worksheet not only helped me revise my knowledge of each method, but by including key factors to consider (in the form of a separate row) I could focus on nuances of the method as well as each of its advantages and disadvantages.
Following the worksheet, I wrote down the description followed by the resources, procedure, use case and data analysis for each method (For design techniques, I included advantages and disadvantages of the method instead of writing about sense making data). Referring to the worksheet during this step was tremendously helpful.
Illustrations for each method was done after writing the method’s use case, making it easier to imagine the scenario. Although it was time consuming, it was a fun task and creating generic characters for researcher, participants etc. as well as creating vectors of regularly used objects and tools made illustrating easier.
Things I learnt:
My heartfelt thanks to Shaowen & Trisha for continuously guiding me and helping me learn and grown as a better researcher, a better person! After all research is primarily about being HUMAN!