Week 7: Ethics, Empathy and Analysis in Design Research

Workshop
(Liedtka & Ogilvie, Chs. 8 & 9)
Workshop Outline & Learning Objectives
• Introduction to research:
– Research approaches
– Data types
– Data sources
– Ethics
• Designing an ethical research project:
interviewing and observing
• Data analysis/concept development
• Assumption testing/co-creation
The Design Process…

• … broken down into design thinking tools that

can help us innovate

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Reminder…

• Research = “The systematic collection and

interpretation of information with a clear
purpose, to find things out” (Saunders et al.,
2009, p. 600)
– Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches
– Primary and Secondary Data
– Various sources of data: questionnaire survey,
interviews, observations, focus groups, documents,
videos, websites, statistics, reports, etc.
• Let’s look at them in a little more detail!

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Sources of Primary Data

• Questionnaire survey
– Self-administered *not often used in DT) or
administered by interviewer (more useful for DT)
– Structured questions
– Generally QUANT
– May have QUAL components

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 Sources of Primary Data
• Semi-structured interview
– ROUGH questions (or only
themes) will be asked
– Order and exact questions may
vary
– Enables exploring unexpected
avenues
– QUAL
– A key DT tool!
• Unstructured interview
– VERY lose, open ended
conversation
– QUAL
– Difficult to do
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Sources of Primary Data

• Focus group = “Group interview”

– Often used in DT, in combination with Brainstorming
– QUAL

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Sources of Primary Data

• Observations
– Observing, recording, describing, analysing and
interpreting people’s behaviour
– Can be QUAL, e.g. ‘watching your mother make
waffles’ (see video from Module 4)
– Can be QUANT, e.g. count how many people are
carrying too much stuff to the beach (see activity from
Module 4)
– A MAJOR tool in DT (Glen et al., 2015)

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http://compass.port.ac.uk/UoP/file/ef9dd79a-2a94-4795-be23-f75eb40c8a11/1/Documentary%20and%20Content%20Analysis_IMSLRN.zip/page_01.htm
CAUTION: Ethics!
• As university students, you are bound by the university’s
ethics regulations and requirements
• Carrying out research requires prior ethical approval from
the university’s ethics committee, UNLESS the research
is based PURELY on secondary, publicly available data
• This means:
– SOME of the Design Thinking tools we study cannot be utilised
for your project (assessment 2)
– They can, however, be used for future projects you may carry
out in employment/self-
– If you are unsure about the ethics of any tools you want to use,
ask your tutor FIRST!

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Activity: Ethics Group Discussion

• What is ethics?

• What ethical issues can you think of that are

relevant to this unit? To business as a whole?

• Why is it important to be ethical?

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Ethics in (design) research

• “Ethics refers to the appropriateness of your

behaviour in relation to the rights of those who
become the subject of your work, or are affected
by it” (Saunders et al., 2009, p. 184)

• “norms or standards of behaviour that guide

moral choices about our behaviour and our
relationships with others” (Cooper and Schindler,
2008, p. 34)

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Summary of Ethical Issues

• There are hidden slides in this Workshop

materials document - they contain more detail
• Ethical issues arise as soon as you do research
with people and/or access potentially
confidential company information
– Privacy, confidentiality, anonymity
– Voluntary participation; no deception
– Consent
– Data storage and destruction
– Non-harmful behaviour and reporting of findings

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Interviews for Design Thinking

• Semi-structured or unstructured  generates

mostly QUAL data
• Explore the interviewee’s (i.e. the user’s) problems,
emotions, views, motivations, thoughts.
• Use EMPATHY to really get to know THEIR
views/story, NOT to bias them with yours
– ‘Assume a Beginner’s Mind Set’ (do NOT make
assumptions – ask seemingly stupid questions)
– Probe, ask “why” and really LISTEN
• Crucial because: DT = user-focused

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Interview for Empathy

Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford. 2011. "bootcamp bootleg.“

Available at:
https://static1.squarespace.com/static/57c6b79629687fde090a0fdd/t/58890239db
29d6cc6c3338f7/1485374014340/METHODCARDS-v3-slim.pdf
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 DT Problem:
Interviewing Tips Difficulty of preparing for
assessed presentations at uni.
• Avoid personal bias; do not ask leading
questions
Avoid Better:
I find it very stressful to
prepare an assessed
presentation for uni. Isn’t it
stressful for you, too? How
could it be easier?

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Interviewing Tips
• Avoid personal bias; do not ask leading
questions
Avoid
I find it very stressful to
prepare an assessed
presentation for uni. Isn’t it
stressful for you, too? How
could it be easier?
Better:
Tell me about doing
assessed presentations.
How would you describe
your emotions and
attitudes?
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Interviewing Tips

• Drill down into specifics, e.g. specific moments,

specific experiences, etc.
Avoid Better:
How do you usually go
about preparing assessed
presentations?

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Interviewing Tips

• Drill down into specifics, e.g. specific moments,

specific experiences, etc.
Avoid Better:
How do you usually go Tell me about the last time
about preparing assessed you had to do an assessed
presentations? presentation.

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Interviewing Tips

• Get interviewees to tell you their story/their

journey
– “Imagine you have to prepare a presentation for next
week’s workshop. Walk me through what would
happen between now and then.”
• Try to get interviewees to tell you stories and
emotions
– “Can you please tell me about a time when you really
struggled to get a presentation done? What was that
like?”

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Interviewing Tips

• Focus on and deepen your understanding of

‘pain points’ that the interview discusses
– “You said it is difficult to start preparing for
assignments early on. What part of starting is
particularly challenging?”
• Use ‘probing’/’follow-up’ questions A LOT
(especially ‘why?’)
– Q: “Why do you leave starting a presentation until the
week before it is due?”
– A: “I worry that I will miss critical content from the
lecture material if I start too early.”
– Probing Q: “Why is that?”
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Interviewing Tips

• Keep questions OPEN

• Be agile and flexible in adjusting your questions
as the conversation progresses
• Pay attention to non-verbal cues – facial
expressions, gestures, tone of voice, body
movements, laughter, significant pauses, etc.
– This will require interpretation of the interviewee’s
behaviour
– Not all behaviour is relevant or useful for your DT
project

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Activity: Interviewing for Design Projects

• Goals:
– Practice interviewing for DT
– Learn about an experience from your user’s point of
view
– Attempt to interview WHILE observing the user
• Work in pairs: Choose who will be Person A and
who will be Person B
– Topic for Person A’s interview: Preparing for assessed
presentations
– Topic for Person B’s interview: Preparing for exams

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Activity: Interviewing for Design Projects

• 5-10 minutes: ON YOUR OWN, brainstorm

about 4-5 good interview questions for your topic
• 5-10 minutes: Person A interviews Person B and
takes notes:
• Response to each of your questions
• Probing Qs you have asked
• Observations of non-verbal cues
• 5-10 minutes: Person B interviews Person A and
takes notes
• Response to each of your questions
• Probing Qs you have asked
• Observations of non-verbal cues

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Reflection time

• How did it go?

• What worked and what didn’t?
• What would you do different next time? Why?

• Could you identify a problem that could become

the basis of your assessment 2?

This activity could be the content

of your blog this week! 32
Interviewing for MGMT20140

• You do NOT have ethical clearance from CQU to carry

out interviews for your assessment 2
• Do NOT approach strangers and ask them to be
interviewees!
• You may informally discuss your assessment 2 problem
with your tutor, classmates, friends and colleagues but it
must NOT be an interview
• Do NOT video/voice record your conversations with
people outside of your group (if you want to record your
group meetings, which will include discussion of your
problem, you may do so as part of this assessment IF all
members agree)

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Interviewing for MGMT20140

• Keep all conversations anonymous and

confidential
• Insights gained from conversations can become
part of the information you use to better
understand your chosen DT problem
• Unfortunately, this is a major issue in this unit as
it makes the otherwise authentic activities
somewhat less authentic – BUT: this gives you
an awesome opportunity to critique the activities
you have carried out and to reflect on them!

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 Researcher (designer) can play various roles in
observations:
Gain trust butResearcher takes part in activity Become a
don’t become member of
a member
Participant as Complete the group
observer participant Ethnography
Researcher’s Researcher’s
identity is identity is
revealed Observer as Complete concealed
participant observer
Be a researcher Consumer
but have some behaviour in
involvement stores
Researcher observes activity
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Ethics in observation

• Covert vs. overt?

• Public place vs. within an organisation?
• Can it be reasonably expected that you gain
consent from everybody you observe?
• Are you observing general behaviour from a
distance or are you shadowing someone very
closely?
• What about that person will you be reporting on?
http://www.ethicsguidebook.ac.uk/Observation-103

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Co-creation of insights

• Highly involved research

• Similar to ‘ethnographic research’ (Glen et al.,
2015)
• Customers are jointly creating insights and ideas
with the design team
• Ethical treatment of customers is crucial:
– Negotiating participation
– During the co-creation activities
– After the co-creation activities

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Principles for co-creation

• Enrol customers who care about you

• Diversity = security
• Create a no-selling zone
• Consider: would social issues have an effect on the data
you can obtain? Should you deal with each customer
individually?
• Present more than one concept
• Provide visual stimulus but keep it rough
• Help customers communicate visually
• Leave time for discussion
• Provide timely feedback

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Observing for MGMT20140

• You do NOT have ethical clearance from CQU to carry

out observations for your assessment 2
• Do NOT approach strangers and ask them to be
observed! Do NOT “sit and stare”
• You may ‘spot the obvious’ while going about your daily
routine – accidental observations are unavoidable
• Do NOT video/voice record other people’s behaviours
outside of your group (if you want to record your group
meetings, which will include group members’
behaviours, you may do so as part of this assessment
IF all members agree)

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Observing for MGMT20140

• Keep all accidental observations anonymous

and confidential
• Insights gained from accidental observations
can become part of the information you use to
develop your idea
• Unfortunately, this is a major issue in this unit as
it makes the otherwise authentic activities
somewhat less authentic – BUT: this gives you
an awesome opportunity to critique the activities
you have carried out and to reflect on them!

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Activity: Observing

• Watch this video

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-hapS2SPz
4&list=PL50OcFJOM8H0VAGiZfC_xWPl9ROqC
NdPs

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Activity: Observing again

• We will watch (without sound) a short video of

an everyday problem
• You are required to:
– Take notes and/or make sketches
– Spot the obvious
– Find problems that can be solved

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_kCZQtTcT8

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Analysis of (large amounts of) qualitative data

• Process of organising the large amount of rich

data into meaningful categories
• “examining, categorizing, tabulating, testing, or
otherwise recombining the evidence” in order to
be able to draw meaningful conclusions from the
data (Yin, 2003, p. 109)
• Aim: make sense of data/information; identify
patterns; draw conclusions
• We have already looked at one way of doing
this (mind mapping)

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Analysis of (large amounts of) qualitative data

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Concept development

• Choosing best ideas from previous DT tools

• Evaluating them using customer and business
criteria

• Core team, rather than diverse group, should be

involved here
• Carry out ‘combinatorial play:’
– Combine themes from earlier DT tools to create discrete
concepts
– The combination has to create compelling customer value
AND a viable business model

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Activity: Concept development - or creating a dessert

• Think about all the different ingredients you can

put into a dessert (be CREATIVE) – write them
down and then spread them out in front of you

• Can you arrange them into categories?

• Create different combinations of categories

and/or ingredients to make innovative desserts

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Concept development compared to data analysis

• Analysis of data: combine ‘chunks of data’ into

consistent THEMES
• Concept development: combine similar ideas
into consistent GROUPS/CATEGORIES
• How to choose groups/categories? According to
similarities within the ideas, as they make sense
to you/your team (subjective)
• Always consider: Is it possible to combine ideas
to make solutions work better?

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Assumption testing

• Articulation and testing of assumptions is crucial,

e.g.:
– “I assume my customers will value a certain feature of
my new product/service because I value it”
– “I assume my customers will value this because
everyone in the design team loved the idea”

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Assumption testing

• Challenge = articulating your assumptions

• A potential step-by-step guide:
1. The VDSD test:
• Is your concept Valuable to the customer, at a price that
works?
• Is it Doable, i.e. can you deliver it at a cost that works?
• Is it Scalable, i.e. can you build volume that makes it
worthwhile?
• Is it Defensible, i.e. can competitors copy it easily?
2. Make your assumptions for each of these EXPLICIT
3. Which assumptions are most critical to the
attractiveness of your concept?

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4. Identify data to test the most crucial assumptions
– Make use of ‘designated doubters’
– Establish: a) what you know (beware: beliefs ≠
facts); b) what you don’t know but can get; and
c) what you don’t know and can’t get
5. QUICKLY and CHEAPLY collect data in the b)
category, e.g. learning launch, survey some existing
customers …
– FIELD experiment or
– THOUGHT experiment
5. Analyse data, with particularly the disproving finding
in mind

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Activity: Assumption testing

• Use the concepts (desserts) you have come up

with earlier
• Consider some assumptions that you would
have to test if you were to try and launch this
dessert
• How could you test them?

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Reflection time

• How did it go?

• What worked and what didn’t?

• What would you do different next time?

• If you were to carry this out in an established

organisation, what challenges would you face?

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Preparation for next week

• Write your next blog entry – try to be reflective

and critical
• Read the recommended reading for week 8 and
explore the additional week 8 materials in
Moodle
• Keep working on your DT problem for the group
assignment

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References

• Yin, R.K. (2003a) Case Study Research: Design

and Methods. 3rd edn. London: SAGE
Publications Ltd.
• The Research Ethics Guidebook: a resource for
social scientists; available at:
http://www.ethicsguidebook.ac.uk/Observation-1
03

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