Reflection Theme 5

This week we've been discussing design research. This is one of my favorite research topics. That is because it offers such a wide range of options and methods, and (almost) always result in something practical that is easy to account for and easy to explain. I had Ylva Fernaeus as a teacher in another course (Interaction Design) and learned a lot about this kind of research during this. I also learned a lot during my job this summer, at Antrop here in Stockholm. What I think is an advantage of design research is that projects tend to be focused and easily evaluated. Especially if you work with design breifs, where you first design something for maybe a few days/a week and then show it to the customer, get feedback and do the same thing again. It's an iterative process, that lets you avoid many of the problems like high cost for a major change that you need to implement late etc. Working briefly and then low-fi prototype is an effective way of getting a lot of work done, without having to change anything major later.

What I found most interesting this week was the low-fi prototypes. I had encountered this way of designing before, but I really want to stress how effective I think it is. Both as a way to work, and also as a way of making sure a (for example, but not limited to) potential customer is satisfied. During this summer at my job we worked a lot with design, and we decided early together with our customer that we should have weekly meetings where we discussed how the work went. And this later turned out to be really important, since we could work focused for a week, then meet the customer and show our work and explain our ideas, get feedback, and then make the necessary (and as time went by; minor) changes. We saved many hours working like this for sure, and it is something I really recommend when working with design and research for a customer or other part.

As this is my last reflection I would just like to thank everybody for making this course swell. I really enjoyed being a part of group C, and I feel that my ability to write a good thesis has improved, although by how much is to early to tell.