One method to reach a deeper understanding more quickly, is generative tools. As the name suggests, their purpose is to generate: information, conversation and ultimately insights that might be difficult to uncover in a basic interview. How do they achieve this?
There are so many generative tools out there, and what fascinates me is that they can be altered and entirely new ones can be created depending on the context of the research and the question you're trying to answer. Here are some ways I've used them in my own work:
Project: Shop SKETCH
At the start of the project, to get an understanding of our project brief and what were the motivations behind the initiation of it, we asked Rose (one of the directors at SKETCH) to draw out her vision for this shop display system.
Once we began ideating shop displays, we realized that there were too many things that it could be or do. We had to find out what was most and least important to the artists at SKETCH. The pictures they were asked to order were intentionally left to be interpreted subjectively by the artists, and when they were done we asked them to explain why they ordered them the way they did.
Using generative tools is a practice in empathetic, contextualized and creative research. Empathy is required in order to consider an interviewee's potential reaction to different research methods and variables such as level of intrusiveness and the presence of other people. Adjusting to social and physical contexts can create a more comfortable and natural environment for interviewees, and helps us avoid misunderstandings. The constantly changing needs of this approach to research also call for creativity and open-mindedness in how we use these tools and how we adapt them to reach the insights we're looking for.
Comments