Database Reference
In-Depth Information
CHAPTER 4
Consolidation and Ideation: The Bridge
to Design
In the first part of Contextual Design, teams collect in-depth field data about all relevant
partsoftheircustomer'slives.Butthepurposeofcollectingdataistouseitinmakingdesign
decisions and inventing products. Helping a diverse design team take the data produced by
researchers and use it for design remains one of the biggest challenges of our industry.
At this writing, Contextual Inquiry has been taught in school for well over a decade; UX
groups are now a standard part of technology companies. But the creation of UX groups
tasked with research means that all the insight and deep knowledge about users tends to
be locked in that group. Transferring not just knowledge but insight, understanding, and a
“feel” for the user's world is the first step in creating a bridge between data and design. One
ofthegreatestchallengesforUXprofessionalsishowtodrivedataintotheideationprocess;
how to ensure that the lives of the users actually impact design thinking in the large.
Lives are complex and detailed, so sharing the findings of a field study can be challen-
ging. Taking all that data in can overwhelm team members and stake-holders alike. Man-
agement often tries to simplify the problem by asking for the “top 10” problems or features,
which makes the data easier to deal with but also limits the impact—the only way to make
realchangeisbyrethinkingtheproblem.Ifrichcustomerdatawon'tbeusedbecauseit'stoo
overwhelming to deal with it, why gather it at all? And in fact, some companies do abandon
that goal, and with it the possibility of a more transformative product.
But even a smaller, more targeted project scope benefits from rich data. A “usability re-
lease” which tries to fix all the hassle in a product requires a more comprehensive approach
to understanding the customer's world, because hassle comes from a bad fit between the
product and the users' lives. Design for the next release of an existing product is still best
served by understanding the activities and lives of the target customers holistically so that
the next release can make the most impact.
Effective design depends on the UX professional's ability to communicate the customer
data and insights in a way that is consumable and relevant for the people in the design pro-
