Design Research Deep Dive 2023 Schedule
June 13-14, 2023
Virtual Event
Tuesday, June 13 (Day 1)
Emcee Kickoff
11:00-11:10am
Lauren Purkhiser, Ford Motor Company & Annelise Calzada, Alteryx
Design Research for Equitable Futures
11:10-11:50am
Nipuni Siyambalapitiya, XD Studio, Mauricio Mejía, Arizona State University, David Staley, Ohio State University, Radha Mistry, Arup
As the unintended consequences of technological products continue to surface, there has been an increased interest in design research practices that explore alternative futures that push beyond our present reality. Speculative design, design fiction, and futures design are among the practices that offer promise in generating futures that act as catalysts for public debate and discussion about the kind of futures people really want.
In this session, attendees will explore various future-focused design research practices and methods, including real-world case studies. The session will also discuss the potential for future-focused design research to aid in creating more equitable futures and how to incorporate these practices into research processes.
Key questions that will be explored include:
- What are some future-focused design research practices and how do they differ from mainstream design research practices?
- What are some examples of future-focused design research methods, and how are they put into practice?
- How can future-focused design research potentially aid in creating more equitable futures?
- How can we open our research practices to more future-focused methods? Where can someone start?
The audience will learn. . .
- What future-focused design research methods are
- How future-focused design research methods are put into practice
- What sources are available for further reference
Newell L&D Lab Live
11:50am-12:30pm
Chris Gurr & Laura Vennie, Newell Brands
Newell Brands, a consumer goods company with several market-leading brands, recognizes the importance of understanding childhood development and the three key drivers of play: Cognitive, Social, and Physical. To address this need, they created the Learning and Development (L&D) Lab, a new research facility with specialized knowledge in childhood development.
In this session, Laura Vennie, UX Director, and Chris Gurr, ID Director, will take the audience on a behind-the-scenes tour of the L&D Lab’s creation, from its conception to reality. They will discuss the context for the development choices made, including the adoption of qualitative and sensory testing technologies to capture children’s emotional responses.
The session will feature live cuts to the L&D Lab, showcasing the space being leveraged to research popular products such as Elmer’s Slime and Elmer’s Squishies. The audience will also gain insights into key takeaways and learnings for anyone looking to try a similar approach in their business.
The audience will learn:
- The context for the development choices made. The journey of the Lab from sketch to reality, and the ramp up of brand-new test methodologies for Newell Brands.
- The qualitative and sensory testing technologies that were adopted to capture children’s emotional responses.
- Key learnings and takeaways for anyone looking to try a similar approach in their business
How to Tell a Compelling Story with Generative Research
12:30-1:10pm
Lisa Calvert, Spencer Murrell, & Pily Támara, Lextant
Research deliverables provided at the fuzzy front end of the design thinking process, empathy phase, or generative research, can be difficult to apply. In this presentation, attendees will learn a simple three step process to effectively communicate and leverage their generative research findings.
The audience will learn. . .
- How to create a bridge between data and insights
- How to tell a clear story on one page
- How to make insights actionable
Break
Understanding Culturally Appropriate Design: Implications for Sustainable Design
The current approaches to sustainable product design mainly focus on environmental issues, and to a certain extent on social and economic aspects. Unfortunately, practitioners and academicians are unsure of how to deal with the cultural dimensions of sustainability. Engaging consumers in culturally appropriate consumption can ensure that those products have higher emotional attachment, longer lifespans and end up in landfills much later than other comparable products. The key to developing culturally appropriate products lies in understanding how objects acquire cultural meanings. The talk addresses the following questions: 1) How can designers engage in cultural dimensions of sustainable design? 2) How can designers develop culturally appropriate products? This talk will provide a methodological approach for integrating the material, behavioral, observable, and symbolic aspects of culture for developing culturally sustainable products.
The audience will learn…
- Cultural dimensions of sustainable design
- Different models related to product design that classify culture
- A methodological framework to integrate cultural dimensions into sustainable product design process
Managing and Leading Design Research
Discover unmet needs that change your business perspective and development process.
Revealing unmet consumer needs has become more important than ever, and design research plays a critical role: either as managing or leading part of an existing market or consumer research team, external partners, or as an integral deliverable of the design organization.
Although delivery of design research is an expertise in itself, the actual management of it should not be neglected. Well managed and led design research ensures that the solutions delivered by the design function drive impactful results for your organization.
The audience will learn. . .
- How can you ensure that the outcome of the design research is integrated within your business context and design process?
- How do other world-leading organizations go about managing and leading design research?
- How could design research drive innovation for your organization?
- How could you set up and manage design research activities?
Break
Operationalizing Best Practices in Human-Centered Design: Reflections, Insights, and Questions
2:30-3:10pm
Alisan Atvur, Novo Nordisk A/S
Alisan Atvur will share insights on how to apply eight years of User-Centered Design Operations improvements to inspire and optimize your company’s design research and innovation operations. Atvur will highlight four lessons learned from Novo Nordisk’s internal research findings and industry best practices in research and design, as well as a number of additional operational improvements in their Design and UX practice. Drawing inspiration from Novo Nordisk’s 2020 dmi:Design Value Award-winning case study and ensuing research, he will discuss key questions and strategic priorities to consider as your organization’s design research and innovation operations mature. Atvur will delve into the key questions that modern design leaders should consistently revisit now and in the future.
The audience will learn. . .
1. Four themes in constant practice improvement
2. Seven questions to consistently revisit in one’s design research practice
Emcee Closing Remarks
3:40pm
Lauren Purkhiser, Ford Motor Company & Annelise Calzada, Alteryx
Wednesday, June 14 (Day 2)
Emcee Kickoff
11:00-11:10am
Lauren Purkhiser, Ford Motor Company & Annelise Calzada, Alteryx
Tell Stories That Resonate
11:10-11:50am
Kevin Rapp, Kevin Rapp Consulting
In 2018, Root Insurance launched their first big video campaign with a unique, creative story. And…it flopped. It didn’t perform on conversion metrics. This was because the story was crafted for an ideal target customer, rather than Root’s actual customers.
In this session, Kevin will talk through the experience of using UX principles to find the right story for Root, helping them grow from a 100-employee startup to a 1,800-employee publicly traded company. The talk will include an in-depth look at the Clio-award winning campaign with NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace that earned over 3 billion impressions.
The audience will learn. . .
1. How to combine UX principles with storytelling to build impactful brands
2. How to learn the right lessons from data to refine brand stories
3. How to use story to deliver tangible business results
Growth Stage Innovation – A Discovery Rhythm
11:50am-12:30pm
Arianna Gianakopoulos, David Energy
This session explores the strategies for achieving a balance between the rapid pace of growth stage companies and the critical need for user research to identify product-market fit. Strong insights are key to informing how a startup’s big, innovative vision gets translated into meaningful features that drive growth. The methods used to establish these insights, though, often look different than the methods that might make sense for a mature organization looking to expand into a new segment or category. This session will leave you with practical approaches to keep discovery lean, while still giving you the confidence to make decisions and get things done.
The audience will learn. . .
- How to establish a discovery pulse for continuous learning
- How to democratize user research across cross-functional teams
- How to blend user research and intuition to make business decisions
Benefitting All With an Accessibility-First Approach: A Comcast Case Study
12:30-1:10pm
Grayson Byrd, IDSA & Krysta Harrison, Comcast
Last year, Comcast launched an industry first Large Button Voice Remote, designed for customers with mobility, dexterity, or vision needs that are traditionally unmet by standard issued remotes.
This effort saw research and design intertwined in a process often told but rarely practiced. This case study recounts the twists and turns along the way, showing how a one-off specialty remote evolved into a blueprint for product development with an accessibility-first approach that benefits all.
The audience will learn. . .
- How accessibility can be a true engine for innovation
- How collaboration supports practitioner growth and stakeholder buy in
- Why expanding and developing your research toolkit is critical to success
Break
Starting With the Goal in Mind
The goal of “good research” is to help inform and guide design and business decisions. However, often the design briefs from clients can lead design teams and their methodologies astray, leading to underwhelming and uninformative design findings and recommendations.
The goal of this session is to provide the audience with a new framework to anticipate what might be needed at the end of the project to better prepare for the beginning of the project. By better anticipating the needs of the various stakeholders at the “end” of the research, teams can best prepare the appropriate methodologies, design strategies and recommendations.
The audience will learn…
- A new framework to help guide and shape how they think about the “output” of their research. The framework will assist in ideating better questions that ultimately help to shape better design research methodologies.
- During the session participants will be shown a quick case study that illustrates the application of this framework on a project and how it impacted the outcome of the research.
- Participants will also be given an opportunity to work together through an example project brief to utilize the framework and build better questions and methodologies together.
- Participants will walk away with a new way to think about the outcome of their design research.
Co-Design: Community Centered Research & Engagement
What if we looked beyond the numbers and prioritized the lived experiences of individuals and communities in our research? This interactive workshop will explore how community-centered research and engagement can lead to more impactful and sustainable solutions.
Using a case study of co-designing solutions for greater food access, this session will showcase how researchers worked alongside community members to gain a deeper understanding of their needs and perspectives. Through fun and engaging techniques, attendees will learn how to incorporate a community-centered approach into their projects.
The audience will learn. . .
- The role of Community History in Research
- Community-centered research methods and their importance in ensuring community engagement and participation
- Fun, interactive, and engaging techniques that can be used to facilitate community members’ sharing of their vision and ideas.
Break
From Inspiration to Implementation: Getting Stakeholder Buy-In
You won’t want to miss our closing keynote speaker Kiki Redhead, Global CMF and Trend Manager for Sherwin-Williams Performance Coatings Group. She’ll bring you deep into her realm of trend research, sharing intriguing, thought-provoking and actionable practical tips to actualize your inspiration. You’ll walk away emboldened and excited for your next design project armed with the answers to Redhead’s “three hows.”
The audience will learn…
- How the Sherwin-Williams DesignHouse approaches research and trend forecasting
- How to implement design research and trends
- How to get buy-in on your ideas — from everyone
Emcee Closing Remarks
3:40pm
Lauren Purkhiser, Ford Motor Company & Annelise Calzada, Alteryx