Gathering Information

360° Research involves researching, discovering, exploring, and capturing data.

The goal is to find data that serves to inspire the team, and gain empathy for the user and people involved. In this way, their voices can be represented when design decisions are made.

Keep in mind that this phase consists of diverging activities — no conclusions yet.

There are various techniques that support this phase, most prominently interview techniques and video studies.

Interviews can be of different formats:

• On site interviews (face-to-face)

• Phone interviews

• Interviews are also possible with workshop participants (participatory workshop).

Observe the users, the environment, tool used and body language:

• To discover workarounds that they are performing.

• To learn their state of mind.

• To understand the context of the problem from the user point of view.

Ask "why?" questions:

• To discover workarounds that they are doing.
• To gain insights.

One of the key goals of the research phase is to create real, deep empathy for the potential user of the to-be-designed solution.

Sometimes, this can feel strange, as researchers have to immerse themselves in unusual situations and environments.

When doing research, it is not only about figuring out the goals, motivations, and challenges of people.

It is also about observing the environment, used things, activities, and interactions of people.

There are three key techniques to collect data in research for empathy:

• Observation (for example with video)

• Asking people (for example via interview)

• Try out the situation/ people experience

Prepare your research session to get the best possible information for your project.

Please be aware that most of the time what people say is not what they do, think, or feel.

Observe and try to develop empathy for your end users and stakeholders. Find out what they need and what motivates them, as this will be the foundation of your solution design.

Try to understand the environment of the people and engage with them in their context. Make them feel comfortable.

Focus on peoples goals and wishes.

Stay focused on your research question.

Try to find out root cause of problems by asking why.

Kids ask a lot of why questions, because they want to understand: "How does daddy or mum feel while doing it?".

Based on this study, there is even a technique called The 5 Whys. If you ask why 5 times, you might come to the really valuable data of your interview.

During research it is important to not only focus on mainstream users.

In many cases, so-called extreme users provide the most interesting insights for a challenge.

Including extreme users ensures a diverse set of users within field research.

Again, this can feel strange sometimes, but the creation of empathy should never be limited to people that appear conveniently to the researcher.

Running interviews will be a key part of your research. A typical and good interview runs through various phases:

• It starts with an introduction, then some questions to create rapport between the interviewer and the interviewee.

• Then, the interviewer should try to evoke stories and not just brief answers. Ask open-ended questions like: "why, what, how, where".

• The interviewer should then try to explore the emotions of the interviewee.

• Finally, if the stories and emotions do not fit the statements, the interviewer should question the statements of the interviewee.

Besides that, there are some Do's and Don'ts, which should be always be considered when preparing an interview.

A common mistake of inexperienced interviewers in the Design Thinking context is that they instantly ask questions that imply a high degree of creativity.

Don't just forward your design challenge to your interview partner. First make him/ her comfortable with easy questions about his/ herself, the current work, etc.

Once you have built up some context for your interview partner, you can go for more creative questions.