• Evidence-based medicine

• Medical Research Design

• Pivina L.M., Ph.D., assistant

• Department of Internal Medicine No. 2

Previous Events

• Declining infant mortality and rapid population growth

• Changing the structure of morbidity from acute diseases to the predominance of chronic ones

• Changing the etiological nature of diseases - from infectious agents to behavioral factors

• The rapid development of medical science and the growth of medical technologies

• Development of social insurance systems

What does evidence-based medicine mean?

• “…conscientious, accurate, and meaningful use of the best clinical research findings to inform decisions about patient-specific care.”

• (Sackett D., Richardson W., Rosenberg W., Haynes R. Evidence-based medicine. How to practice and teach EBM. Churchill Livingstone, 1997.)

Evidence-based medicine concept

• The goal of the concept of evidence-based medicine is to give doctors the opportunity to find and use scientifically based facts obtained in the course of correctly conducted clinical studies when making clinical decisions, and to increase the accuracy of predicting the outcomes of medical interventions.

• The concept is based on two main ideas:

• Every clinical decision by a physician must be made taking into account scientific evidence.

• The weight of each fact is greater, the more rigorous the method of scientific research in which it was obtained.

• Paltsev M.A. 2006

When did evidence-based medicine appear?

• 1940 - First randomized trials (use of streptomycin for tuberculosis)

• 1960 - thalidomide tragedy

• 1962 - The US Food and Drug Administration introduced regulations requiring controlled trials of new drugs.

• 1971 - Cochran raised the issue of insufficient scientific evidence

• 1980-90 - Raising awareness of the need to include systematic reviews in clinical guidelines

• 1994 - first Cochrane colloquium in Oxford

• 1994 - EBM term

• 1996 - Most British doctors already know the term EBM

• 1996 - The British Health Secretary stated that his main task was to promote the concept of EBM

• 1996 - EBM term in leading British newspaper headlines

• 1999 - BMJ publishes a guide to EBM (US circulation ½ million)

• 2001 – German, Spanish, Russian, Japanese editions

• EBM was named after Archie Cochrane, an English epidemiologist who pointed out the need to evaluate the role of a specific clinical intervention using controlled clinical trials and store the results in a special database on the effectiveness of health care delivery.

• He was the first to formulate the concept of evidence-based medicine.

• Studies have shown that

• for 2/3 of patients doctors

• need information, but

• receive it only in

• a small number of cases. Where can I get the necessary information?

• Observations show that in some domestic magazines up to ½ of the articles are of an advertising nature in content, design, or related to print advertising

To keep up with the times…….

• “... a doctor needs to read 10 journals, approximately 70 original abstracts per month...”

• Sackett D.L. (1985)

• “...you need to read 15 articles 365 days a year...”

• McCrory D.C. (2002)

• The time available to a practitioner for reading is less than 1 hour per week.

The relationship between the practitioner and medical information

• Information boom

• Difficulties in finding reliable (“evidential”) information

• Difficulties in analyzing information

• Difficulty making effective clinical decisions

• Medical errors

• Prescribing unnecessary interventions

Justification for the need for regulation

• In the US, 98,000 deaths per year from medical errors (IOM, 2000)

• Only 30% of medical interventions with reliably proven effectiveness

• Ineffective (and sometimes harmful) interventions are common

• Not everyone in need receives interventions with proven effectiveness

• Use of cocarboxylase, riboxin, asparkam

• Parenteral administration of vitamins as an auxiliary treatment

• Prescription of angioprotectors, absorbable drugs

• Preventive administration of iron and folic acid to pregnant women– positive effect on the health of mother and newborn

• Mammography for early detection of breast cancer

The influence of rehabilitation training programs on the outcomes of CAD in patients who suffered myocardial infarction over 3 years of rehabilitation (meta-analysis)

Components of quality health care (Haynes et al'96)

Clinical epidemiology

• DM is based on clinical epidemiology is a branch of medicine that uses the epidemiological method to obtain medical information based only on strictly proven scientific facts, excluding the influence of systematic and random errors.

How scientific research makes us feel

FraminghamHeartStudy ( Framingham Study ) Massachusetts, under the auspices Heart, Lungand Blood

FraminghamHeartStudy ( Framingham Study ) a typical example of clinical epidemiology. This study began in 1948 to investigate cardiovascular health in Framingham, Massachusetts, under the auspices National Heart Institute (later renamed National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute: National Heart, Lungand Blood Institute; NHLBI). The study initially included 5,209 men and women. In 1971, it included 5,124 representatives of the second generation of participants - “offspring”. The researchers now plan to begin examining 3,500 grandchildren of those who entered the study more than 50 years ago—the “third generation.” The study has no equal in duration and size of the cohort, and its importance for modern medicine, and primarily cardiology, can hardly be overestimated. Over the years of careful observation of study participants, the main risk factors leading to diseases of the cardiovascular system were identified: high blood pressure, high blood cholesterol, smoking, obesity, diabetes, etc. Since its inception, the study has resulted in nearly 1,200 articles published in the world's major medical journals.

• Deviation from the norm Healthy or sick

• Diagnosis How accurate are the methods?

• Frequency How common is this disease?

• Risk What factors are associated with an increased risk of disease?

• Prognosis What are the consequences of the disease

• Treatment How will the course of the disease change with treatment?

• Prevention Are there methods to prevent the disease in healthy people? Does the course of the disease improve with early recognition and treatment?

• Cause What factors lead to the disease?

• Cost How much does this treatment cost?

• diseases?

Frequency

• Frequency

• Risk

• Forecast

• Treatment

• Prevention

• Cause

Retrospective

• Retrospective(retrospective study) – events that have already passed are assessed (for example, from medical histories)

• Prospective(prospective study) - first, a research plan is drawn up, the procedure for collecting and processing data is established, and then a study is conducted according to this plan.

Classification of research by design

• 1. Observational studies (studies - observations)

• one or more groups of patients are described and observed for certain characteristics

• 2. Experimental studies

• the results of an intervention (drug, procedure, treatment, etc.) are assessed and one, two or more groups are involved. The subject of the study is observed

Classification of scientific clinical trials

Research structure

• By time:

• Cross-sectional studies

• Longitudinal studies

Longitudinal studies

Description of cases

• Descriptive Reviews– the most “read” scientific publications that reflect the author’s position on a specific issue

• Most often the medical history of a single patient is presented.

• One way to understand complex clinical situations

• But has no scientific evidence

Case series and clinical cases

Types of Observational Studies Case series or descriptive study

• A case series is a study of the same intervention in individual consecutive patients without a control group.

• For example, a vascular surgeon might describe the results of carotid artery revascularization in 100 patients with cerebral ischemia.

Types of observational studies Case series or descriptive study, features

• describes a number of characteristics of interest in observed small groups of patients

• relatively short study period

• does not include any research hypotheses

• has no control groups

• precedes other studies

• this type of study is limited to data on individual patients

Case control study

• A study designed to compare two groups of participants who did and did not develop a clinical outcome (usually an unfavorable one) to identify differences in the influence of certain risk factors on the development of that clinical outcome.

• This study design is most suitable when trying to determine the cause of rare diseases, for example, the development of central nervous system disorders in children after the use of pertussis vaccine.

Occasions:

• Occasions: presence of disease or outcome

• Control: absence of disease or outcome

• Possible causes or risk factors for disease are assessed retrospectively, but are not historical controls

• Answers the question “What happened?”

• Longitudinal or Longitudinal Study

Case-control studies

• Design

Advantages and disadvantages Case-control

• Advantages

• Best Design for Rare Diseases or Conditions Requiring Long Time Intervals
• Used to test primary hypotheses
• Very short term
• Least expensive

• Flaws

• Large number of biases and systematic errors
• Depends on the quality of primary descriptions and measurements
• Difficulties in selecting an appropriate control group

• A study whose design allows you to follow a group (cohort) of participants and identify differences in the incidence of certain clinical outcomes among them.

• A group of patients is selected for a similar symptom, which will be followed in the future

• Begins with an assumption of a risk factor or outcome

• Exposed to RF and Unexposed

• Prospective over time, determination of the sought factors in the exposed group

• Answers the question “Will people get sick if they are exposed to a risk factor?”

• Mostly prospective, but there are also historical cohort (retrospective)

Design

• Design

Advantages and Disadvantages of Cohort Trials

• Advantages

• Better designs for studying the causes of conditions, diseases, risk factors and outcomes.
• Enough time to obtain rigorous evidence
• Many systematic errors can be avoided (occur if the outcome is known in advance)
• Allows assessment of the relationship between exposure to a risk factor and several diseases

• Flaws

• Longitudinal
• Expensive (studies of more people)
• Allows assessment of the relationship between a disease and exposure to a relatively small number of factors (those that were identified at the beginning of the study)
• Cannot be used for rare diseases (sample size must be larger than the number of individuals with the disease being studied)

Types of observational (descriptive) studies Cross-sectional study (prevalence)

• Data is collected at a specific point in time

• Types:

• Disease prevalence or outcome
• Study of the course of the disease, stages

• They answer the question “How much?”

Prevalence studies

• Design

TERMINOLOGY

• Prevalence– prevalence. Example: prevalence of IHD in the population, number of people with IHD/total population as a percentage.

• Incident– primary morbidity. Example: incident of bronchial asthma in children of Semey = number of new cases of asthma in children of Semey / number of children living in Semey.

• The higher the incidence (I) and the longer the disease or condition, the higher the prevalence (P)

• P = I x L

RANDOMIZED CONTROLLED TRIAL (RCT) (Controlled Clinical Trials (CCT))

• - GOLD STANDARD FOR ANY DIAGNOSIS AND TREATMENT METHOD.

• Typically, this is a study in which participants are randomly assigned to two groups - a study group (which receives the intervention being studied) and a control group (which receives a placebo or another intervention. This study design allows the effectiveness of the interventions to be compared.

Diagram of a typical RCT

Design

• Design

Placebo control

• Placebo control

• Active treatment

• Comparative characteristics of doses

Flaws

• Flaws

• often takes a long time
• Very expensive
• Not suitable for rare diseases
• Limited generalizability

• Advantages

• the best data for patients
• less bias (systematic error)
• best for evaluating effectiveness and testing interventions
• If randomized, the most rigorous in design and reliable

Development of the Study Protocol

• A clinical trial protocol (program) is a document that contains instructions for everyone taking part in a clinical trial, with specific tasks for each participant and instructions for completing those tasks.

• The protocol ensures qualified research, as well as the collection and analysis of data, which is then submitted for review to the authorities of the control and licensing system.

Development of an Individual Registration Card

• The Individual Record Card (IRC) is a means of collecting data from a paper-based study conducted at a research site. Some studies also use electronic means for these purposes.

• In the first stage (phase 1) of a clinical trial, researchers study a new drug or treatment in a small group of people (20-80 people) to first determine its safety, establish a range of safe doses, and identify side effects.

• In the second stage (Phase II), the drug or treatment being studied is given to a larger group of people (100-300 people) to see if it is effective and to further test its safety.

Stages (phases) of a clinical trial

In the third stage (phase III), the drug or treatment being studied is prescribed to even larger groups of people (1000-3000 people) to confirm effectiveness and safety, monitor side effects, and also for comparison with commonly used drugs and treatments, accumulating information that will allow It is safe to use this medicine or treatment.

The fourth stage (phase IV) of research is carried out after the medicine or treatment method has been approved for use by the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Kazakhstan. These studies continue testing the drug or treatment being studied to further gather information about its effects on different groups of people and to identify any side effects that occur with long-term use.

• A review is a serious scientific study that clearly states the question being studied, detailing the methods used to find, select, evaluate, and summarize the results of various studies relevant to the question being studied. Systematic analysis may include meta-analysis (but is not required).

Meta-analysis

• Summarizing the results of several studies on the same topic

Mainly compiled from systematic reviews. A method of statistical analysis that combines the results of several studies and presents the resulting score as a single weighted score (with larger weights usually given to larger studies or studies of higher methodological quality).

Medical Research Design Conclusions

• RCT– maximum in strength, but often expensive and time-consuming

• Well prepared observational studies give good results in identifying the causes of diseases, but are not sufficiently conclusive

• Cohort studies– best for studying the course of diseases and identifying risk factors

• Case-control studies fast and inexpensive

Selection of research methodology

• Quantitative research: designed to answer the questions: “How much” and “What quantity?” Aimed at identifying relationships, usually cause-and-effect relationships, between variables.

• Collection of information on the problem of interest and mathematical analysis of the obtained quantitative data.

• The goal is to identify general patterns that are characteristic not only of the examined group of people, but also of the entire population as a whole, which will allow the researcher to interpret the problem and make predictions.

Qualitative research

• Designed to answer the questions: “Who? Why? When? and where?" and is aimed at a deeper study of the problem.

• The problem is considered from various points of view.

• The purpose of the study is to reveal the principles (patterns) characteristic of the population under study, according to which the phenomena of interest to us occur and which will allow us to provide a deeper understanding of the problem.

Qualitative research

Data collection methods:

• Quantitative

• Tests and various measurement methods

• Questionnaires

• Formalized data collection

• The important elements are:

• Presence of a control group
• Randomization

Analysis of the received data

• Quantitative

• Statistics

Reliability of evidence

STUDY DESIGN DEVELOPMENT

At the first stage, the design is carefully worked out (from the English. design- creative idea) for future research.

First of all, a research program is developed.

Program includes the topic, purpose and objectives of the study, formulated hypotheses, definition of the object of study, units and volume of observations, glossary of terms, description of statistical methods for forming a sample population, collection, storage, processing and analysis of data, methodology for conducting a pilot study, list of statistical tools used .

Name Topics usually formulated in one sentence, which must correspond to the purpose of the study.

Purpose of the study- this is a mental anticipation of the result of an activity and the ways to achieve it using certain means. As a rule, the goal of medical and social research is not only theoretical (cognitive), but also practical (applied) in nature.

To achieve the goal, determine research objectives, which reveal and detail the content of the goal.

The most important components of the program are hypotheses (Expected results). Hypotheses are formulated using specific statistical indicators. The main requirement for hypotheses is the ability to test them during the research process. The results of the study can confirm, correct or refute the hypotheses.

Before collecting material, the object and unit of observation are determined. Under object of medical and social research understand a statistical aggregate consisting of relatively homogeneous individual objects or phenomena - units of observation.

Unit of observation- a primary element of a statistical population, endowed with all the characteristics to be studied.

The next important step in preparing a study is the development and approval of a work plan. If the research program is a kind of strategic plan that embodies the ideas of the researcher, then the work plan (as an appendix to the program) is a mechanism for implementing research. The work plan includes: the procedure for selecting, training and organizing the work of direct performers; development of normative and methodological documents; determination of the required volume and types of resource support for the study (personnel, finance, material and technical, information resources, etc.); determination of deadlines and those responsible for individual stages of the study. Typically it is presented in the form network graphics.

At the first stage of medical and social research, it is determined by what methods the selection of observation units will be carried out. Depending on the volume, continuous and selective studies are distinguished. In a continuous study, all units of the general population are studied, in a selective study, only a part of the general population (sample).

General population call a set of qualitatively homogeneous observation units, united by one or a group of characteristics.

Sample population (sample)- any subset of observation units of the general population.

The formation of a sample population that fully reflects the characteristics of the general population is the most important task of statistical research. All judgments about the general population based on sample data are valid only for representative samples, i.e. for such samples, the characteristics of which correspond to those of the general population.

Real sample representativeness is guaranteed by random selection, those. such a selection of observation units into a sample in which all objects in the population have the same chance of being selected. To ensure random selection, specially developed algorithms are used that implement this principle, either tables of random numbers, or a random number generator, available in many computer program packages. The essence of these methods is to randomly indicate the numbers of those objects that need to be selected from the entire somehow ordered general population. For example, the general population of a region can be sorted by age, place of residence, alphabet (last name, first name, patronymic), etc.

Along with random selection, when organizing and conducting medical and social research, the following methods of forming a sample population are also used:

Mechanical (systematic) selection;

Typological (stratified) selection;

Serial selection;

Multi-stage (screening) selection;

Cohort method;

Copy-pair method.

Mechanical (systematic) selection allows you to form a sample using a mechanical approach to selecting units of observation of an ordered population. In this case, it is necessary to determine the ratio of the volumes of the sample and general populations and thereby establish the proportion of selection. For example, in order to study the structure of hospitalized patients, a sample of 20% of all patients leaving the hospital is formed. In this case, among all the “medical records of an inpatient” (f. 003/u), sorted by number, every fifth card should be selected.

Typological (stratified) selection involves dividing the general population into typological groups (strata). When conducting medical and social research, age-sex, social, professional groups, individual localities, as well as urban and rural populations are taken as typological groups. In this case, the number of observation units from each group is selected into the sample randomly or mechanically in proportion to the size of the group. For example, when studying the cause-and-effect relationships of risk factors and cancer incidence in the population, the study group is first divided into subgroups by age, gender, profession, social status, and then the required number of observation units is selected from each subgroup.

Serial selection the sample is formed not from individual observation units, but from entire series or groups (municipalities, health care institutions, schools, kindergartens, etc.). The selection of series is carried out using purely random or mechanical sampling. Within each series, all units of observation are studied. This method can be used, for example, to assess the effectiveness of immunization of the child population.

Multi-stage (screening) selection involves a step-by-step sampling process. Based on the number of stages, one-stage, two-stage, three-stage selection, etc. are distinguished. For example, when studying the reproductive health of women living in the territory of a municipality, at the first stage working women are selected and examined using basic screening tests. At the second stage, a specialized examination of women with children is carried out, at the third stage - an in-depth specialized examination of women with children with congenital malformations. Note that in this case of targeted selection for a specific characteristic, the sample includes all objects that are carriers of the characteristic being studied on the territory of the municipality.

Cohort method used to study a statistical population of relatively homogeneous groups of people united by the occurrence of a certain demographic event in the same time interval. For example, when studying issues related to the problem of fertility, a population (cohort) is formed that is homogeneous based on a single date of birth (study of fertility by generation) or based on a single age at marriage (study of fertility by duration of family life).

Copy-pair method provides for the selection for each observation unit of the study group of an object that is similar in one or more characteristics (“copy-pair”). For example, it is known that the infant mortality rate is influenced by factors such as the body weight and sex of the child. When using this method, for each case of death of a child under 1 year of age, a “copy pair” of the same sex, similar in age and body weight, is selected from among living children under the age of 1 year. This selection method is advisable to use to study risk factors for the development of socially significant diseases and individual causes of death.

At the first stage, research is also developed (ready-made is used) and replicated statistical tools (maps, questionnaires, table layouts, computer programs for monitoring incoming information, creating and processing information databases, etc.), into which the information being studied will be entered.

In the study of public health and the performance of the health care system, sociological studies using special questionnaires are often used. Questionnaires for medical and sociological research they must be targeted, oriented, and ensure the reliability, authenticity and representativeness of the data recorded in them. During the development of questionnaires and interview programs, the following rules must be observed: the suitability of the questionnaire for collecting, processing and extracting the necessary information from it; the ability to revise the questionnaire (without violating the code system) in order to eliminate unsuccessful questions and make appropriate adjustments; explanation of the goals and objectives of the research; clear formulation of questions, eliminating the need for various additional clarifications; fixed nature of most issues.

Skillful selection and combination of different types of questions - open, closed and semi-closed - can significantly increase the accuracy, completeness and reliability of the information received.

The quality of the survey and its results largely depend on whether the basic requirements for the design of the questionnaire and its graphic design are met. There are the following basic rules for constructing a questionnaire:

The questionnaire includes only the most significant questions, the answers to which will help obtain the information necessary to solve the main objectives of the study, which cannot be obtained in any other way without conducting a questionnaire survey;

The wording of the questions and all the words in them must be understandable to the respondent and correspond to his level of knowledge and education;

The questionnaire should not contain questions that cause reluctance to answer them. You should strive to ensure that all questions evoke a positive reaction from the respondent and a desire to provide complete and true information;

The organization and sequence of questions should be subordinated to obtaining the most necessary information to achieve the goal and solve the problems posed in the study.

Special questionnaires (questionnaires) are widely used, among other things, to assess the quality of life of patients with a particular disease and the effectiveness of their treatment. They make it possible to capture changes in the quality of life of patients that have occurred in a relatively short period of time (usually 2-4 weeks). There are many special questionnaires, for example AQLQ (Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire) and AQ-20 (20-Item Asthma Questionnaire) for bronchial asthma, QLMI (Quality of Life after Myocardial Infarction Questionnaire) for patients with acute myocardial infarction, etc.

The coordination of work on the development of questionnaires and their adaptation to various linguistic and economic formations is carried out by the international non-profit organization for the study of quality of life - the MAPI Institute (France).

Already at the first stage of statistical research, it is necessary to create table layouts, which will later be filled with the received data.

In tables, as in grammatical sentences, the subject is distinguished, i.e. the main thing is what is said in the table, and the predicate, i.e. something that characterizes the subject. Subject - this is the main sign of the phenomenon being studied - usually located on the left along the horizontal rows of the table. Predicate - signs characterizing the subject are usually located at the top along the vertical columns of the table.

When compiling tables, certain requirements are observed:

The table should have a clear, concise title that reflects its essence;

The design of the table ends with the totals for columns and rows;

There should be no empty cells in the table (if there is no sign, put a dash).

There are simple, group and combinational (complex) types of tables.

A simple table is a table that presents a summary of data on only one attribute (Table 1.1).

Table 1.1. Simple table layout. Distribution of children by health groups, % of total

In the group table, the subject is characterized by several predicates that are not related to each other (Table 1.2).

Table 1.2. Group table layout. Distribution of children by health group, gender and age, % of total

In the combination table, the features characterizing the subject are interrelated (Table 1.3).

Table 1.3. Combination table layout. Distribution of children by health group, age and gender, % of total

An important place in the preparatory period is occupied by pilot study, whose task is to test statistical tools and check the correctness of the developed methodology for collecting and processing data. The most successful pilot study seems to be one that repeats the main one on a reduced scale, i.e. makes it possible to check all upcoming stages of work. Depending on the results of the preliminary analysis of the data obtained during piloting, adjustments are made to the statistical tools and methods of collecting and processing information.

SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH IN SOCIOLOGY, ITS ORGANIZATION

Every study begins with a basic question: why things are the way we observe them. We are looking for an explanation for the phenomena we observe. Where to begin?

First of all, with searching for the necessary literature. If we are lucky, this search leads to a ready-made explanation in the form of a theory - a theory formulated by someone who observed similar phenomena before us. More often we have to use the literature in a more creative manner, trying to construct the best possible explanation. The rest of the research process is then devoted to testing this explanation to see how much it contributes to our understanding of the essence of the phenomenon under study.

The first step in this process verification our theories consists in the formulation of certain hypotheses, which, from a logical point of view, must correspond to reality - if our initial assumptions regarding the essence of the observed phenomenon are observed. These – working – hypotheses serve for the following:

- they determine the variables that will appear in our study;

- they dictate the ways and methods of organizing research in the most optimal way - from the point of view of obtaining irrefutable evidence of the correctness of our understanding.

If our theory is a prototype building, then a separate working hypothesis is element this building. A necessary building block for this building– the theory we use. The working hypothesis explains one of the possible connections that form – as a whole – the process we are studying.

When formulating a hypothesis, it is necessary to be aware of whether it is possible to practically observe the connection between the phenomena it explains. Will we be able to find the data we need, do we have the capabilities to do this? It seems absolutely necessary that the researcher select hypotheses that can be adequately tested - taking into account the time, resources and abilities of the researcher himself. Otherwise we will fail.

Then the variables used in the study should be operationalized in such a way that they can be worked with, and as a result, conclusions that are meaningful for our study can be drawn. Here again the question of resources arises - if we do not have the time, money necessary to carry out measurements, assistance (from, say, persons participating in a public opinion poll), there is no point in starting work. In addition, you need to ask yourself the question: is there a substitution of concepts during the research process due to the use of an unacceptable method? The scientific value of the method must be very carefully analyzed before we begin to collect data, for no matter how carefully the data are collected, the inadequacy of the research method may invalidate the results of the study.

While developing our research method, we must also think about the analysis of the collected data that lies ahead. The researcher must determine, based on his working hypothesis, what specific mathematical and statistical comparisons will be necessary to test it. The main problem here is to find correct ratio between the level of measurement resulting from accepted operationalization of variables, and the level of measurement adopted in those standard statistical procedures that will be used in research; that is, the data obtained during collection must be suitable for use in the statistical processing process. It is necessary to ensure that it is not only the data that is typically used in these procedures, but that it is also accurate enough for processing. The distribution of the resulting data must also correspond to a standard statistical distribution - otherwise it will be difficult to process.

The next step is to design, designing our research in such a way that the measurement and data collection procedure is applied with the greatest efficiency. The main task of design is to make sure, to be completely sure, that the connection between the phenomena that we observe is explained by our working hypothesis, and is not a random phenomenon or the product of a completely different system of relationships. Alternative working hypotheses must be rejected - and not without evidence, but on the basis of serious analysis. Therefore, good design begins first with a review of the literature relevant to our field of study. This literary review, together with a logical analysis of the situation, should have the goal of rejecting other possible working hypotheses before we give room to our own explanation of the observed phenomena.

Research design should be developed through:

1) identification of comparisons used in testing the working hypothesis;

2) determining exactly what observations should be carried out (by whom or what, in what order, by what means, under what conditions);

3) determining the location of the data collected during the comparative study (no connection, positive connection, negative connection, etc.);

4) identifying the main competing hypotheses that also purport to explain the possible outcome of the study, and

5) organizing a set of observations so that additional comparisons (testing the applicability of the main competing hypotheses) are made (regardless of the actual results of the study).

When choosing the design of our study, it is necessary to know what statistical methods of analysis it is desirable to apply, because the design determines the nature of the data collected. In the process of designing our research, as in choosing a hypothesis and selecting a method, it is absolutely necessary to ask ourselves whether the task we have set is not feasible given the resources, time and abilities available to us. The best design will do nothing if we don't have the ability to implement it. Therefore, care must be taken to consider the cost and logic of the data collection process during the study design process.

DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS

As mentioned above, data collection and analysis are aimed at checking whether the working hypothesis corresponds to reality. The following should be noted here.

Various data collection methods can be used individually or in combination. Different methods serve different purposes. A researcher may, for example, engage in direct observation of a certain political group in order to collect general information in order to develop a working hypothesis, come to some preliminary conclusions, and then, in order to obtain accurate data, test this hypothesis, resort to a survey . Besides, the use of several methods in one study increases the scientific value of its result. For example, in a study of variations in the quality of public services around a city, one might find it desirable to corroborate the results obtained through a public opinion survey with statistics, official documents, interviews with officials, and the judgments of professionally trained observers. If all these data collection methods produce the same results regarding the relative position of each of these areas on the scale of service quality, the researcher can be confident in their applicability to the task at hand.

Empirical research can take on the character of discovery. Instead of testing hypotheses arising from the researcher's accepted explanations, he can collect data that give rise to fundamentally new interpretations - usually each study leads to new questions, offers new explanations and leads to new research.

DETERMINING THE SCIENTIFIC VALUE OF THE RESEARCH

In designing your own research or evaluating someone else's research, it is important to be able to assess whether it meets general but clearly defined criteria for objective value. The list below is broad and individual studies may contain some minor technical errors. But if the researcher can answer these questions positively (at least mostly), he can be sure that his project is free from fundamental errors that nullify the significance of the work done.

1. Is the question to be answered correctly formulated? Do we know the objectives of the study in their entirety? Is the research related to a more fundamental question or problem? Is the subject of the study important?

2. Are the main objects of analysis correctly selected, clearly identified and consistently applied?

3. Are the concepts on which the study is based clearly stated and adequately used? Where did they come from?

4. Is it clear which explanations need to be tested? If a theory is used, is it logically correct? Where is the source of the theory and its component explanations?

5. Is the theory or explanation consistent with the existing literature on the subject? Has the literature been thoroughly researched? Is the project related to previous research or to more fundamental research questions?

6. Are working hypotheses clearly identified and formulated? Do they follow logically from the explanation or theory being tested? Are they subject to empirical testing?

7. If more than one hypothesis is tested, what is the relationship between them? Are all hypotheses relevant to the theory, and is their role in testing the theory obvious?

8. Are all variables clearly defined and their status (dependent or independent) formulated in a working hypothesis?

9. Did the study include variables that could modify the hypothesized relationship?

10. Are the concepts clearly operationalized? Are measurement procedures stated in detail so that others can use them? Have they been used by other researchers?

11. Can these procedures be relied upon as being fully appropriate to the subject of analysis? Have they been verified on this matter?

12. Is the research design clearly defined and does it correspond to the task set – testing the working hypothesis? Is attention paid to alternative competing hypotheses and is the project design process designed to allow them to be tested in light of possible alternative explanations? Is there a logically coherent basis for the connections being made?

13. Is the “population” of interest to the researcher correctly defined? Is the sample representative? If not, is the researcher aware of the limitations this places on his or her results? Is the sampling procedure adequately explained?

14. Is the data collection technique (survey, content analysis, etc.) consistent with the purpose of the study, its objects of study and the type of information collected? Are all rules followed for this information collection method?

15. Is the data collection process clearly presented? Are their sources fully identified and can others identify them?

16. Is the chosen coding system fully defined and justified (such as collapsing certain income groups into broader categories or treating responses as “for” or “against”?).

17. Is the construction of the scales or indices used in the study explained? Are they one-dimensional? Do they retain the original meaning of the concepts?

18. Have the instruments been tested?

19. Were there any attempts to verify the results from other sources?

20. Is the graphic design appropriate to the nature of the data collected? Is this noted in the text? Do tables and graphs distort the results?

21. Are these graphs and tables easy to interpret?

22. Is their proposed interpretation correct?

23. Is the statistical method of data processing chosen correctly? Is it suitable for summarizing them in tables and graphs?

24. When examining relationships between variables, does the researcher provide data regarding their strength, direction, form, and meaning?

26. Are the level of statistics used appropriate to the level of the selected variables and the purpose of the study?

27. Do the data obtained correspond to the capabilities of the method and as shown by the researcher?

28. Does the researcher confuse the concepts of statistical and substantive significance of the results obtained? Doesn't he use them one instead of the other?

29. Have alternative hypotheses been statistically explored, and have the results of this study been taught and interpreted correctly?

30. Is each stage of data analysis related to the main conclusion of the study? Are the proposed interpretations consistent with the original theory or explanation?

31. Does the research report contain:

a) a clear statement of the objectives of the study;

b) the necessary literature review to demonstrate the place of the study in the general context of this area of ​​science;

c) adequate explanation of the study design, data, and methods;

d) clear formulation of conclusions?

32. Are the conclusions reached supported by the data presented and the choice of study design? Does it represent a serious contribution to the literature on the issue, or does it seem too general?

It must be emphasized that the criteria for the scientific value of research proposed above have a very wide range of application - they are by no means tied to sociology - they are universal.

Topics for essays

1. The program of political and sociological research is the addition of new knowledge to existing knowledge.

2. Hypothesis is the locomotive of political and sociological research.

3. Types of sociological research - how many can there be?

4. Interpretation of basic concepts - what method of philosophical knowledge is similar to this interpretation?

5. Problem situation, its significance in the program of political and sociological research.

Questions and tasks for review

1. Where does any serious research begin? Why?

2. What role does theory play in research? What is the relationship between theory And working hypothesis?

3. What dictates the choice methodology research? Isn't it accidental? Justify.

4. Why does using multiple methods in one study increase its value? Give examples.

5. What is study design? What should you consider when choosing a design?

6. What does the term mean? correctness of the research? How is it determined?

7. What numerical methods are used in applied sociology? What is the criterion for their selection?

8. What is the difference between statistical And substantive the significance of the result obtained?

9. What kind ethical problems may arise during sociological research and how should they be resolved?

Blind luck

The mythical idea of ​​the designer as a lonely dreamer does not allow us to see the similarities between him and the film director. However, when the lights go down in the cinema, we look forward to being allowed to enter the world created by the latter's imagination. Many film fans were introduced to the chilling world created by director Adrian Lyne with his 1987 film Fatal Attraction ( Fatal Attraction) became the highest-grossing film of the year. In the climactic scene of the film, Glenn Close, who skillfully wielded a knife, passes into the other world in the arms of Michael Douglas, bleeding. Apparently, this Adrian Lyne has a very vivid and vindictive imagination. Although, perhaps, not at all from him...

In this particular case, such a cinematic vision emerged from suburban American moviegoers. During a test screening of the film, which ended with Glenn Close's suicide scene, an outraged audience loudly demanded blood, and on a much larger scale than could be gained from suicide. It was this reaction from the audience that convinced the film company Paramount spending over a million dollars more to film a different, more bloodthirsty ending.

Today, making a film that becomes a box office hit is no longer the blind luck it once was. The same is true when developing successful products or programs. Through methods such as, focus groups hall tests and a number of others, design receives information from consumers, learns their reaction to new concepts and prototypes of products. For example, at a Swedish plant Orrefors Glass Users work with designers to evaluate new product ideas. In company Microsoft Developers sign up to receive email newsletters containing user feedback on products, which allows them to address emerging issues in the next version of the program.

No matter what we create - a film, a glass, a mechanical instrument, or a word processor - we need adequate methods to determine whether the wants and needs of consumers are being met. And in product design, we also need to ensure competitiveness with existing products, to ensure that our work reflects the constantly changing trends and directions in design, technology and culture.

In this chapter, we'll explain why research is so vital and how it should be used in experience-first design. We will review the main research methodologies and analyze in more detail those that have been recently improved in response to the challenges of new consumer culture and technological capabilities.

Research and design process

Most designers claim that they are not researchers at all, although in reality they are often engaged in research.

Let's use a comparison of two models that Niedjuis and Bersema put at our disposal - a model of the design development process and a model of the applied research process (Fig. 4.1).

The similarities are obvious: both design and research involve identifying a problem, taking a planned sequence of steps to study that problem, and finding the most appropriate solution. Each step involves research, which is the process of finding the information needed as the basis for each stage of the product creation process. So, for practicing designers, design research is a process of searching in three areas.

Search for understanding

But these studies are not necessarily and not always carried out consciously. Many designers have an innate ability to be in tune with the environment, people and their needs, with color, shape and material; this unique immersion in the material world allows them to use their acquired knowledge in the design process. However, there is often also a need to collect information about markets and all parties interested in the product (including customers, users, manufacturers), and for this there are special tools, techniques and disciplines.

Search for ideas

During design, the designer looks for ideas that can help him give the product a certain form, which includes the functions of the product, the materials from which it is to be made, and its aesthetics.

Here again the designer uses primarily his intuitive knowledge, but often intuition usually needs the help of conscious research. It all depends on the creative talent of the designer and his ability to use existing knowledge to spur his imagination.

Having decided on the context of the design task, the designer begins to search for ideas. To stimulate the creative process, some of the techniques for generating creative ideas are used (module 4.1). They are also called design methods.

Module 4.1. Methods for searching for creative ideas

Brainstorm

A technique for group participation in generating ideas to find a solution to a specific problem.

Goal tree

A technique that involves listing design goals and project subgoals and diagramming the hierarchical relationships between them.

Counter planning

This technique requires the analysis of the premises and justification of a problem, solution, plan or design through a process of proposal and consideration of opposing premises, resulting in a final, revised solution, plan or understanding.

Interaction Matrix

Investigate and chart the interactions between multiple elements within the problem being solved.

Interaction network

Converting an interaction matrix into a representation of spatial or other relationships between elements of a problem.

Forced connections

A method of generating innovation that consists in searching for probable connections that do not currently clearly exist between the components of a product or system.

New combinations abbreviated from the Open University Design Methods Module ( Open University,OU).

Searching of decisions

Finally, in the process of directly working on the design concept and solutions, the designer conducts (formally or informally) research, which involves not only the use of various creative techniques, but also a methodical search for processes, materials, technologies and ideas. Often designers organize their own information repositories. Yes, to the design bureau PSD A trend and technology room has been specially created for its employees, where relevant information about them is stored.

It is quite obvious that these search categories are interdependent and mutually complement each other. Understanding context, searching for ideas, and testing concepts overlap (Figure 4.2).

Design process

The designer does not conduct this search sequentially: first - understanding, then - ideas and finally - solutions. The design process is more like a constant alternation of tides

and ebbs, which can be illustrated by the four main categories of the design process: formulation, development, transfer and reaction.

Formulation is concerned with identifying needs and planning the problem statement. This start to the design and development process for a new product is often referred to as a “fuzzy start”: at this point the designer and others involved in the product development process attempt to understand the needs, requirements and desires of all stakeholders, and the result is the identification of incentives for subsequent idea generation.

There are two parts to this process (Figure 4.3). One is environmental research, where the designer and other company functions, such as sales and marketing, study trends, collect general market information, observe users and consumers, and monitor product usage and feedback. Very often, the designer takes upon himself only the observation of trends and consumers, which is carried out formally or, which happens much more often, informally. He can go to exhibitions, visit retail outlets, watch TV and purposefully collect information about the market and users. The market research department and sales staff also collect such information, but at an official level. The designer's goal is to intuitively understand the world in which he intends to work in order to enable the generation of ideas and the creative process. In other words, he is in search of understanding and ideas.

Once a problem or concept is defined, the search becomes more focused and specific research techniques are used, often called the requirements statement process (Figure 4.4). In the procedure for collecting and transforming information to develop requirements, formalized techniques are used, usually borrowed from the field of market research, but with the advent of ethnographic techniques, the most important aspect has become the recording of research results and monitoring their use and value throughout the entire course of product development, that is, the requirements management process .

Development associated with the generation of ideas, concepts and detailed design development.

At this stage, the designer searches for ideas, using existing knowledge, information and creative techniques to develop concepts; decides which technologies, materials and processes will help generate ideas and find solutions; Tests design concepts and revises developed designs based on context and user responses to the design. covers the implementation of a design into production and the release of a product to the market or its delivery to the user or consumer.

Here, the research is purely concerned with ensuring a smooth transition of the design into production - much of the research has already been carried out in previous planning stages. But even at this stage, the designer gains certain knowledge and experience in understanding the production and implementation process. The information obtained will be extremely useful for him when solving future design problems. On the stage reactions

the designer addresses the results of his work, evaluating them in terms of the reactions of users and other interested parties, and also evaluates the entire process and the knowledge gained. All this is part of the learning process for the designer himself and the organization as a whole.

The resulting body of knowledge and information collected will help in the quest to understand the impression created by the design.

Thus, research, design searches and the design process itself are interconnected and intersect many times. It is a constant process of learning and knowledge management. Figure 4.5 shows the relationship between research activity (we will look at its types in more detail a little later) with the concept of search and the design process. The diagram clearly demonstrates that conducting research is primarily the domain of the designer, especially at the beginning of the design process. Now we have to answer the question why this is needed and what research methods are most effective.

Cooper and Kleinschmidt analyzed 203 new product launches, both successful and unsuccessful 5 . Their research identified nine factors that were directly related to the success of new products; three of them had the strongest impact.

Advantages of the product - the product provided the consumer with unique opportunities; it was high quality, innovative, worth the money, and solved a problem the consumer was having.

High level of pre-project preparation - with products that turned out to be successful, a number of preliminary actions were carried out: preliminary review, preliminary market assessment, detailed study of market conditions and financial analysis.

Clear definition of the product - even before the product development stage, a clear definition of the target market segment, consumer needs, wishes and preferences, concept and technical characteristics of the product was carried out.

In other words, product success is rooted in a deep understanding of the customer, the market, and the benefits of the new product concept compared to competitors. Obtaining all this information is often the prerogative of specialists in the field. Internal marketing departments, market research consultants, and other professionals help guide the design process toward success. However, designers still need to understand the nature of existing research tools and how they can be adapted to their own needs when working on smaller projects.

Studying competitors

If successful design is to give a product an advantage over competitive products, the first step is to carefully analyze and evaluate the competition. This will help either to discover those empty niches in the market that design will help fill by providing the desired price, functionality, style or any other characteristic of the product that is created with its help, or to identify the initial inexpediency of entering into competition.

Some companies literally take their competitors' products apart piece by piece to learn how they are designed and manufactured. In 1960 the company Ford Motors
undertook such reverse engineering analysis BMC Mini In 1960 the company*. After studying the machine down to the last weld and carefully determining the cost of its assembly, engineers such reverse engineering analysis BMC came to the conclusion that production was unprofitable BMC by price. Designer James Pilditch, while on a business trip to Japan, discovered that all electronics companies were conducting this type of engineering analysis of their competitors' products.

Market research reports provide useful background information about competitors' market-leading products, but these studies rarely provide detailed and compelling information. Many designers resort to critical constructive analysis, obtaining information from other, various sources. These are trade fairs and exhibitions, industrial magazines, articles in Which?**, Compass(a guide to “who makes and sells what”, which can be found in most libraries) and careful examination of display cases. Once a designer is armed with sales brochures, price lists, reviews and other information, he begins to understand something about it.

Market research

Residents of Wales pay 5% more attention to color when buying ceramic tableware than buyers from Yorkshire. The durability of cookware does not matter for those over 65 and under 25. When choosing tableware, Manchester residents are more concerned about price than residents of other regions. Last year, 56% of men purchased at least one T-shirt. 96.5% of consumers expressed their disapproval when shown a particularly outstanding designer teapot...

Market research reports (MRs) consist of observations like those listed above regarding consumer preferences and behavior. Typically, the IT industry collects and collates information from manufacturers, retailers, and consumers through extensive research. Sometimes companies order research exclusively for themselves in order to compare their products with those of competitors.

Such formal market research is undoubtedly an important source of consumer knowledge, although not all companies

able to use them effectively.

A study by the Design Innovation Group in the UK found that around 90% of successful non-UK companies, but less than half of UK firms, used formal R&D during product planning7. The results showed that successful companies drew information from a variety of sources during product planning and design development, complementing formal R&D with other methods. Figure 4.6, which is based on the results of the study, shows the sources of information that successful firms used. Less successful companies tended to use only the first three sources listed.

As we will see later, formal IR is often imprecise and general and is more reactive than proactive. Such research cannot help designers adapt existing products or come up with new concepts that can anticipate future needs. The term “creative marketing” is used to refer to inherently more qualitative IR techniques (providing more detailed information about consumer views and various alternative concepts). It involves teams of researchers, designers and consumers who repeatedly discuss product ideas, first before design specifications are defined, and then again after prototypes have been produced. One of the methods used to find out consumer opinions is

A recent study at Loughborough University involved designers participating in focus groups to evaluate existing products. The benefits turned out to be obvious: designers begin not only to better feel and understand the end consumer, but also to more confidently develop designs for a wide variety of consumer groups; they receive information useful for their work, although the process itself takes a lot of time. However, according to Donald Norman, focus groups “show what matters now, but not what may matter in the future. It's incredibly difficult for users to imagine how they might use a new product in the future, and when it comes to completely new product categories, it's best to forget about focus groups." Norman goes even further, arguing that the behavior of focus group participants is dominated by a rational component, which does not always underlie people's actual behavior. In short, people can say one thing and do something completely different.

This especially applies to children. They are lying. And not at all because of innate deceit: children tend to say what they think adults want to hear from them, rather than answer sincerely - any parent will tell you this. Therefore, giving a child a prototype of a toy and asking what he thinks about it is far from the best research method. IN THE USA Fisher Price developed a research system known as Playlab (from English - “game laboratory”). The company carefully selects a group of children and invites them to play in a room full of new toys.

Researchers observe children through translucent mirrors and find out which toys children play with most actively and which ones arouse their lasting interest.

Is this the whole secret of successful design - just gather a few customers, develop a design according to their requirements and wait for an avalanche of orders to come your way? Any research method requires a certain amount of caution in approaching it. Liberation Management) Tom Peters tells how one company was able to solve this problem. Company Hilti, a manufacturer of professional mechanical tools, took advantage of a method developed by Professor Eric von Hippel of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology ( Massachusetts Institute ofTechnology). User-leader market research involves first identifying users who are most open to new ideas and innovations, and then recruiting them to participate in product development workshops (where they, along with marketers and designers, help develop and evaluate design ideas). As part of the new product development process, the user-leader method has led to Hilti to reduce development costs by up to 50%.

Lifestyle Study

Rumor has it that the company's chief designer Sony Yasuo Kuroki once said: “I don’t believe in market research. They don't help us develop new products at all." According to Christopher Lorenz, the point of view Sony Deserves attention.

In 1960, the American electronics giant company General Electric abandoned plans to produce portable televisions after market research showed that consumers did not see a need for such a product. Same year Sony launched an 8‑inch TV that retailed at twice the retail price of 21‑inch TVs. The product was a huge success and provided a launching pad for Japanese companies that would eventually dominate the American television market.

And still success Sony was not about ignoring market research. Rather, it was the result of the use of new and more adequate methods. Instead of relying on the opinions of consumers, who are often skeptical or distrustful of change, Sony decided to analyze behavioral patterns and changes in culture.

Lifestyle research has now become a core activity in many leading Japanese companies, with some design departments including trend research centers or lifestyle research centers, where sociologists, psychologists and anthropologists work alongside designers. In company Mazda The design research team's job isn't all about reading technical reports on carbon fibers. Magazines included in must-read lists Vogue And The Face

, and designers are sent on business trips to observe people (which they do by visiting European bars and restaurants). These trends have led to the emergence of a more powerful form of ethnographic research, which we will explore later in this chapter.

Studying trends

Increasingly, design is linked to the satisfaction of humanitarian needs - lifestyle, fashion, changing tastes, cultural significance. Closely intertwined with design, trends are a collection of various events in the technological world that give rise to new applications of design and new needs. How can a designer understand these processes of change and predict their further development?

The shapes, colors and materials that are popular today influence the nature of the objects designed by designers. A number of factors determine the types of communication and environmental objects. But technology capabilities are critical, and that's clear. For example, plastic molding technology was a key factor in the dominant aesthetic of the 1950s and 1960s. Computer image manipulation set graphic design trends in the 1990s, and today new production technologies and materials are driving greater diversity in design.

In addition, of course, there are also social and cultural relations. Thus, over the past 30 years, our attitude towards the environment has undergone significant transformations. Instead of disposable furniture from the 1960s, we increasingly prefer items made from recycled materials. Such elusive substances as taste and fashion also influence style. What you need to be especially aware of is that fashion today is much more diverse than in the past.

And the trends in design itself are far from uniform.

But rather than jumping blindly into existing diversity and giving in to the ever-increasing pace of change in fashion and design trends, we must find ways to unravel this tangle of tangled threads and understand what factors give rise to the changes that interest us. Perhaps this way we will be able to predict the direction of these changes in the future. Technological changes such as the development of microelectronics, information technology, the emergence of new materials, advanced manufacturing technologies and the development of biotechnology will continue to influence all areas of design (Module 4.2). The need to keep up with these phenomena and plan for their future development is quite obvious. In textiles, for example, new design possibilities are offered by the use of metal styles developed for industrial applications, today used by fashion designers such as Helen Storey, who created fashion concepts for ICI

(using insulating material for greenhouses). In the future, design innovation is likely to result from the merging of technologies, leading to hybrid products that combine functionality and technology.

Module 4.2. When clothes meet electronics In 2000 Philips Design began production of its portable electronics ( Wearable Electronics In 2000), launching products combining electronic and textile technologies. Electronics, consumer and fashion product design experts collaborated to develop clothing with built-in electronics. According to Peter Sarangi, head of the research laboratories

Modern fabrics, in which the cable is embedded, become a wearable network to which various components are connected at will. Children's clothing can be equipped with mobile phones and tracking systems, allowing parents to never lose sight of their children, or equipped with gaming systems and diversifying children's entertainment. With the help of clothes made from interactive fabric, nightclub lovers will be able to choose the club's music and lighting. A In 2000 already offers beeper sneakers that light up when someone who shares your interests is nearby.

New combinations press releases In 2000, http:// www. research. philips. com/ pressmedia/ releases/990802. html(date of access - August 16, 2000).

As any historian will tell you, predicting the future is easier if you remember the past well. One method to help us better understand the nature and pace of change is the change chart; compiling it involves analyzing the evolution of design or products in general, or the products of a specific company. Such diagrams help to see the rate of change and can serve as a basis for further development and improvement. They can be made very detailed and include photographs, performance and feature details, prices, sales data, etc. Change charts allow the designer to see the pace and nature of stylistic and technological changes, suggest whether the time has come for a design change, indicate the presence of free niches in the market.

Since the 1960s, there have been over 50 trend forecasting agencies in the UK; they are in the business of predicting future changes in fashion in the areas of color, style and shape. At first, the services of these agencies were used exclusively by clothing manufacturers, but now among their clients you can find both sellers and manufacturers such as In 1960 the company. Forecasters make money doing things they say designers should be doing that designers simply don't have time to do. Agencies study cultural and social trends, the market, events in the world of fashion, media and music, and present all the data obtained in the form of so-called emotional maps.

A matter of taste

Several years ago, one of us, the authors of this book, took part in a discussion with the managing director of a ceramic tableware company (the conversation was broadcast live on the radio). The controversy centered on his industry's apparent reluctance to think seriously about embracing diverse, modern design. In defense of his century-old design preferences, the managing director said: “In the end, design is a matter of taste.” The company in question recently went into receivership.

To some extent, the director was right. Historically, design in the UK has seen its mission as improving the taste of the mass market, and the key task of the Design Council ( Philips Council) was to define standards for good design. But the ardent desire to cultivate the middle class ran counter to the interests of industrialists and their supporters. In 1951, the UK Treasury declared in an internal report that it saw no future in good design and consequently recommended the abolition of the Design Council. The report said: “It turns out that the worse the design of an object, the better it sells on the foreign market. It’s obvious that porcelain dogs are especially popular abroad.”

If modernism saw its goal as smashing into pieces the porcelain dog and at the same time everything that stood behind it, then postmodernism prefers to see more dogs, of all kinds, and preferably plastic, made in China. Globalization, diversity and consumer choice have replaced dubious tenets of good taste, and the Design Council has long since abandoned its role as tastemaker.

As discussed in Chapter 1, taste is a system of discrimination and individuation that literally makes us what we are, giving shape to our identity. Design is no longer about trying to impose modernist tastes on the mass market. Today, design is about understanding the tastes of individual consumer groups, giving products shapes and feelings that express the meaning behind those tastes. Form is no longer determined by function, form is determined by meaning. Mirja Kalviainen from the Kuopio Design Academy ( Kuopio Academy Philips), Finland, believes that the design process should include an understanding of consumer taste: “The element of taste in designed objects should not be based on the preferences of the designer himself.

Reflexivity, the ability to question one's own concept of taste, is at the core of design processes that take consumer taste into account." Kalviainen suggests three areas of research that can help designers understand consumer taste preferences.

Objective frames. This refers to the demographic characteristics of the consumer group, the context of use, and the history of the product in that context.
Creating meanings.

Here the interest is focused on the sphere of symbolic meaning, from the perspective of which it is studied the life story of consumers and how a product acquires its own meaning through the process of consumption.

System of interactions. The designer explores the social world in which the consumer lives, including social codes and rituals, rules of interaction and key sources of influence. To summarize Kalviainen's reasoning, to gain significant insight into consumer tastes, a designer must conduct empirical research into the world in which those consumers live. And this way of knowing must be approached from the perspective of the social sciences (which try to explain the creation of meaning through consumption), supported by reflective introspection on the part of the designer himself. Some consulting firms already specialize in conducting this type of research. So, in the USA the company

Image

In Palo Alto, California's high-tech hub, the number of job openings for anthropologists nearly outnumbers the number of job openings for computer programmers. In February 1999, an editorial in the newspaper's financial section USA Today published under the title "Hot Corporate Assets: A Degree in Anthropology" ( Hot asset in corporate: anthropology degrees). The article said: “No amount of research can tell engineers what women really want from a razor. Therefore, marketing consultants Hauser Design they send anthropologists into bathrooms to spy on women shaving their legs.” Anthropology is very cool.

Indiana Jones was probably the first anthropologist to demonstrate just how cool it is to be an anthropologist. Harrison Ford's character was an archaeologist who studied artifacts to understand people and their cultural systems. Archeology is a branch of knowledge within anthropology that deals with the study of historical cultures.

Another branch of knowledge, applied anthropology, studies cultural systems and human behavior as applied to real-world problems, although that's probably what Indiana Jones did when trying to outsmart the Nazis. Ethnography, which draws on the methods, techniques, and theory of anthropology and other social sciences such as psychology, sociology, and communication theories, is called “a methodology used to provide perspective on the everyday.” Judy Tso - anthropologist whose consulting firm (Aha Solutions Unlimited www.ahasolutions.org

) uses ethnographic methods to address product development issues, offers this explanation:

If you want to know something about water, never ask a fish about it. Traditional market research methodology relies on structured research methods. One of the main problems with this approach is the following: fundamental needs, aspirations, habits and values ​​are so deeply ingrained in the culture of a particular group of consumers that people can no longer adequately express them in words or explain their reason. If we set ourselves the goal of understanding the context of life, then perhaps only observing the behavior and interactions of people and then analyzing what we see can help us in this.

By studying the life of fish, we can actually learn a lot about water. Or about photocopiers. One of the first ethnographic studies of high technology was conducted in 1979 by anthropologist Lucy Suchman, who carried out work for the Company Research Center Xerox in Palo Alto ( Palo Alto Research, Center PARC One of the first ethnographic studies of high technology was conducted in 1979 by anthropologist Lucy Suchman, who carried out work for the Company Research Center). Her video about office workers having difficulty coping with the work of making copies on the machine One of the first ethnographic studies of high technology was conducted in 1979 by anthropologist Lucy Suchman, who carried out work for the Company Research Center, helped the design team realize that ease of use is much more important than having a lot of extra features. As a result of finalizing the design, a large green button appeared on the photocopier, by clicking on which you get one very ordinary copy of the document. This button is still present on any, even the most multifunctional photocopier

. Suchman's work was a breakthrough in product development and opened the door for anthropologists to nearly every high-tech company. Not long ago the company Kodak conducted an ethnographic study as part of the Global Consumer Experience program ( Global User, Experience GLUE Not long ago the company) to develop product design and user interface for Philips in the markets of Japan, China and India. The study combined elements of ethnography, product and user interface prototype development, and design validation using focus groups in all three countries. Detailed report published in Management Journal

, illustrates how ethnography can directly contribute to the product design process. Not long ago the company While is quite obviously engaged in the development of consumer products created taking into account the context of their use, Intel is quite obviously engaged in the development of consumer products created taking into account the context of their use, There is also a whole team of anthropologists researching a range of different contexts of use in which a device with is quite obviously engaged in the development of consumer products created taking into account the context of their use, inside. According to Genevieve Bell, who is a member of this team and works for is quite obviously engaged in the development of consumer products created taking into account the context of their use, Since 1998, ethnography “is based on an idea that can be summed up succinctly: you learn a culture best by being in it and being part of it. An old teacher of mine called this deep immersion. You have to actually be there, interact with people, take part in their daily lives.” is quite obviously engaged in the development of consumer products created taking into account the context of their use, uses deep dive technology to identify new uses and new users of computer technology, thereby expanding the market for its microprocessors (more on this in module 4.3).

To embed its microprocessors inside even more digital products, the company is quite obviously engaged in the development of consumer products created taking into account the context of their use, I decided to see what was outside. To conduct one of the latest studies is quite obviously engaged in the development of consumer products created taking into account the context of their use, sent her anthropologists shopping. Ultimately, it was necessary to formulate technical specifications for web designers to create e-commerce sites and provide advice is quite obviously engaged in the development of consumer products created taking into account the context of their use,, what technologies will need to be developed in the future.

Genevieve Bell and her collaborators used surveys of shoppers, e-commerce enthusiasts, online sellers, and brick-and-mortar retailers as their research method. The actions taken also revealed the openness of the American market to new experiences in the shopping process.

The researchers joined a group of women from Seattle and filmed their day of shopping. The video showed the importance of the tactile, social and playful aspects of the shopping process, which helped to see the essence of the problem facing e-commerce: “None of this happens on the Internet. All you can do is look at a photo of the item and find out its price. While working on the design e- commerce and m-commerce [ m-commerce - a type of commerce carried out using a mobile phone; very popular in Japan] we need to understand the expectations people have about the buying process.”

As a result, a model of four ecological niches of the purchasing process was created (the model is presented below). The purchase process as a service is like buying gasoline or renewing insurance. Consumption is associated with self-indulgence. Supplies relate to the household and family life. A pilgrimage is the process of going shopping in order to socialize and take part in some events. Each model imposes its own limitations on the design, but also provides new opportunities. The researchers also noticed national characteristics of shopping trips. Thus, in the USA, buying food is classified as a “supply” level, while in Italy it is more of a “pilgrimage”. Identifying and understanding the identified ecological niches has helped to develop suitable e-commerce models.

Some of the external studies is quite obviously engaged in the development of consumer products created taking into account the context of their use, led to much more concrete results. One ethnographer, while visiting a salmon fishery in Alaska, noticed that the operator collecting the day's catch from the fishermen taped his laptop to an outside wall because that was the easiest place to enter data. A subsequent study called Fish and Chips(from English - “fried fish and chips”) led to the company’s development is quite obviously engaged in the development of consumer products created taking into account the context of their use, microprocessors capable of operating even at sub-zero temperatures.

Ethnography is called the process of creating a map of everyday life. Along with qualitative research methods, scientists use participant observation, interviews, reporting and, of course, deep immersion. Another method, behavioral flow chronicling, involves observing or filming people's behavior, which is especially suitable for studying interactions between people in the workplace. Next, researchers study the videotape and formulate questions or hypotheses regarding the characteristics of the activity, or use the technique of forced recall, when the subject comments on what is happening in the frame.

Then, finally, categorization is carried out and an index of the activities on the film is compiled. Ethnographic interviews can be conducted using a range of methods and techniques: from a travel interview, where the subject of the study is asked to give the researcher a tour of his or her workplace or home, to a personal impression interview, which aims to study specific examples of impressions. Conducting such research is a process consisting of an iterative cycle of observation, recording and analysis, resulting in a huge number of written notes, videos, audio recordings and entire collections of artifacts; a limitless process, fraught with a lot of discoveries and examining the object from both sides - from the inside and the outside. Essentially, “ethnography is based on a philosophical position that recognizes that people themselves know all the answers and understand better than others their lives, their problems and the circumstances in which they live and work.” Conducting ethnographic research to develop a new product or brand has become serious business. California consulting firm (Cheskin www.cheskin.com ), a consumer research company, has developed special ethnographic methods for its clients. Applied research aims to study consumer behavior in order to obtain results that can be used to take specific actions. Moreover, the emphasis is on studying the life context, which is necessary to identify consumer understanding. Examples of this approach include the development of a new form of dealership activity for Mitsubishi , based on an ethnographic study of car buyers, as well as an analysis of the lifestyles of teenagers for the company Pepsi . With help Digital Ethno™ Conducting ethnographic research to develop a new product or brand has become serious business. California consulting firm company

While ethnographers have traditionally been physically immersed in specific situations and cultural formations, digital ethnographers are instead using wired and wireless technologies and expanding the scope of classical ethnographic methods beyond geographic and time boundaries...Consumers can access powerful tools and technologies to observe behind their own worlds and record their features, and then share these impressions with others through the Internet and other digital technologies 31 .

Meanwhile in Brand New Corporation a project was developed called Getting Closer™ , which uses what the company calls photographic ethnography; its goal is to “give participants the opportunity to explore their own lives and behavior through the use of a camera.

It allows you to penetrate deeper into the motives of behavior, attitudes and intentions of participants and record them. Like qualitative research, this method is also applicable to a small number of participants, and in structure and internal sensations it resembles a focus group. But that’s where the similarities end.”

Consultants and corporate advisory groups demonstrate the great value of ethnographic research. When in 1995 the company Canon released the first color printers for home use, sales were far from impressive. The company hired G.V.O. released the first color printers for home use, sales were far from impressive. The company hired, a Palo Alto-based consulting firm, to find out exactly what materials families are printing and what they are sharing. Conducted When in 1995 the company research on refrigerator doors and bedroom walls led to the development - Creative

The program that comes with your printer is designed to print posters, T-shirts, and greeting cards.- Kimberly Clark Conducted an ethnographic study of children's potty training and identified, through the parents interviewed, issues, concerns, and fears that would not have been uncovered through traditional methods (e.g., focus groups). As a result, the company developed Huggies- Pull - Ups

training disposable panties that can be used after diapers, which allowed the company to increase its share of the relevant market to $400 million. Research conducted in China by the company, helped to discover that businessmen who were in rural areas where there was no telephone connection came up with an ingenious system for exchanging coded messages using pagers. The consequence of this was the development by the company Research conducted in China by the company pager with two-way communication support specifically for the Chinese market.

Ethnography is serious, cool and a very profitable branch of design consulting. Of course, objective assessment of the effectiveness of ethnographic methods in the process of developing new products is a matter for the future. Much of the existing literature, however small it may be, is devoted to case studies, journalistic reports, and reports written by the ethnographic consultants themselves. Although, there is no doubt that Morrow's review of the literature on the application of anthropology to product development is a very useful source of information. Despite the paucity of existing documented examples in this area, some conclusions can be drawn and the benefits that anthropological research can bring to designers can be identified.

Design is meant to satisfy the needs of users, not designers. Marietta Baba, head of the department of anthropology at Wayne State University ( Wayne State University) in Michigan, says: “Once upon a time, it was like this: a group of middle-aged white men were sitting around, and everyone said: “This is what I like, and this is what my wife likes, so let’s do it that way.”37 . Relying on ethnography encourages the designer to draw from the life context, needs and preferences of the users.

Research may reveal an unexpected group of users or usage situations. Technologies often have different uses and contexts of use, which is only revealed through ethnographic research methods (as happened in the case of two-way pagers in China described above). This leads to larger markets and more product variations.

Emphasis on meaning and identity. Ethnography is concerned with the cultural meaning of objects, rituals, and other activities, as well as the social identities associated with them. In an age of consumer culture, where products become vehicles for expressing meaning and individual identity, this approach makes cultural experience the true basis of the design process.

The last of these advantages is decisive. As cultural historian W. Bernard Carlson argues, “a successful product is much more than just a set of technical solutions. It is also a complex of cultural decisions. Unlike inventions, products succeed when they reflect an understanding of the values, established customs and economic concepts of a given culture.”

Moving to Design Experience Research

In our experience, consumers are likely to tell you that they want bigger buttons, fewer features, and a better price. But these are relatively superficial needs. When you dig deeper, consumers find it difficult to articulate or even imagine which products they won't be able to live without for several years to come.

Robert Logan is the head of user interface design at the company Thomson Consumer Electronics. The company has always considered its main task to be more consumer-oriented and to develop new products that consumers need and that would contribute to an unforgettable experience. To achieve the set goal in Thomson developed a new method and organizational focus for the company called "new research and design" ( new& R D research and design) (from English. research and - a counterweight development

- Research and development). The company has always considered its main task to be more consumer-oriented and to develop new products that consumers need and that would contribute to an unforgettable experience. To achieve the set goal in Company relied on the experience of such companies as And One of the first ethnographic studies of high technology was conducted in 1979 by anthropologist Lucy Suchman, who carried out work for the Company Research Center Apple Computer , who take a similar approach to experience-driven design. According to “new research and design,” three teams work together to develop products, as shown in Figure 4.8. The “artists” group brought together industrial and graphic designers, artists, photographers and contemporary media designers. “Humanities” include ergonomics specialists, marketers, psychologists and anthropologists. "Technologists" are mechanical engineers, engineers CAD

and computer technology specialists. The company has always considered its main task to be more consumer-oriented and to develop new products that consumers need and that would contribute to an unforgettable experience. To achieve the set goal in, which combines subjective, non-factual types of research on the one hand, and highly objective methods on the other, is a combination of approximation and precision.

If the experience truly originates at the intersection of art, technology and the humanities, then Thomson has chosen the most appropriate approach. In the previous chapter, we explored the idea of ​​designers metamizing technology—that is, creating design that goes beyond products and addresses the most meaningful consumer experiences. This is a variation on Pine and Gilmore's idea of ​​making things come alive that we mentioned in the chapter. Thomson is just one example of how research and design processes can be organized to achieve the ultimate goal of creating an experience.

This reflects a general trend in design management in the 1990s and early 21st century to create more impactful research methods that not only seek to customize products and achieve competitive advantage, but also to enhance the customer experience.

As the examples in this chapter show, the consumer electronics and software sectors have largely led the way. They have had to go from relying on consumers - early adopters, for whom technology and innovation in themselves are already a value, to a more mature stage, when the company is counting on a more diverse market, in which technology as such no longer matters much, but a key role convenience, reliability and a positive impression play a role. This shift is described in the works of Donald Norman, a psychologist turned design major. His book “The Design of Common Things” ( The design of everyday things

), published in 1988, is a seminal work on convenience and ease of use. The book makes a compelling case for designers and manufacturers to start designing and creating things that are easy to use, and provides a set of practical techniques to help achieve this. Using objects such as doors, gas stoves and telephones, Norman demonstrates the need for "user-centred design", "with an emphasis on producing products that are user-friendly and understandable." Ten years later, in the book "The Invisible Computer" (), Norman took it even further and moved from the idea of ​​usability and design to a broader concept - the development of human-centered products. The author defines this concept as a process that unites many disciplines, the goal of which is “to create technology that serves the user when it is suitable for the task,” and “it is the task that is difficult, not the means of solving it.” Norman defines the user experience as an essential key element in enabling products to meet the needs of today's markets: “When a technology reaches its maturity stage, customers begin to expect convenience, high quality, low cost and reliable performance. A successful product is backed by a solid business case and three pillars: technology, marketing and user experience.”

Donald Norman views user experience as an interdisciplinary activity within the product development process, involving six groups of specialists. These are:

• experts in anthropology and sociology conducting field trials;
• behavioral model designers with knowledge in the field of cognitive science and practical psychology;
• model and rapid prototype developers* specializing in programming, engineering and industrial design;
• user testers with skills in rapid user testing and, preferably, knowledge of experimental psychology;
• graphic and industrial designers, “who have a design skill that combines science and extensive experience with art and intuition”;
• technical writers "whose job should be to show technologists how to do things that don't require an instruction manual."

Donald Norman's user experience is very close to the company's new research and design The company has always considered its main task to be more consumer-oriented and to develop new products that consumers need and that would contribute to an unforgettable experience. To achieve the set goal in. Both approaches place design in an interdisciplinary context that spans specific humanities and engineering disciplines. In both cases, the main goal is to enrich the consumer experience. Consequently, we must consider the organizational, disciplinary and research aspects of design more broadly than before. Until now, research and practice in design management have focused on the relationship between design and marketing. For example, many studies have sought to 1) explain how marketing can drive design, and 2) pinpoint the meaning of design for each element of the marketing mix: product, price, distribution location, and promotion. What has received virtually no attention in the literature is the intersection between design and experience and the resulting research challenges. To draw an analogy with the marketing mix, which consists of four R, (from English, product, price place promotion), we propose the concept of four WITH, complex of impression - context, connection, consumption and completion (from English., context, connection consumption

closure

) (Table 4.1).

These stages roughly correspond to the stages of the experience design model developed by Rea and described in the previous chapter. Each of the four stages of an experience—context, initial emotional connection with the consumer, continued consumption, and completion or rejection—can be examined using a number of different methods. This is to understand what customer experience requirements are and ensure that every design element meets those requirements. Brand, packaging, product, environmental and information design must be in harmony to provide a holistic experience when using a product or service. Philips developed a method called “interactive analysis of consumer audience”. This method involves an interdisciplinary team (composed of marketers, engineers, sales and designers) examining the entire product experience to see what values ​​it contains that can be used to develop a brand image strategy. From the perspective of studying everyday consumption, focus groups, traditional usability testing, and other methods may be useful. Company TSDesign developed a technique for online designers called user experience analysis, which allows you to look at a website from the user's point of view: a team of designers, information architects and business strategists analyze the website based on its stated business goals.

The last two methods discussed in Table 4.1 deserve special attention because they provide significant advantages to designers. Although both originated in the design of organizational computer systems, their applications are expanding; They are increasingly used in interactive media design and (to a lesser extent) industrial design.

Interview in context

Company Usability Study Group Microsoft (Microsoft Usability Group) uses interviews in context (IC) to identify the needs that new software systems must meet, while Hewlett-Packard applies the same method to identify new needs in the computer printer market. Thus, it appears that IR originally originated in the high-tech industry, but as a research methodology can be applied to other industries.

IR is a research methodology in applied anthropology that is most often used to explain the processes, actions, and needs of people in the workplace. The founders of this technique, Hugh Beyer and Karen Holtzblatt, give it the following definition:

A way to understand exactly what our customers are really like and how they operate day after day. The design team conducts one-on-one interviews with clients in the client's workplace to find out exactly what matters to their work. The interviewer observes users as they work and asks questions about their actions, step by step finding out their motivation and strategy. During the conversation, the interviewer and the user develop a common understanding of what the latter does at his job.

IC has two key characteristics that distinguish it from many traditional methods for identifying user needs. First, the researchers conduct field research using a craft apprenticeship model; Secondly, the research is carried out by designers, not anthropologists or any other user research specialists. Both of these characteristics add to the value of IR as a research methodology.

The effectiveness of this method is also ensured by the direct participation of the designers themselves: “it is the designers who are faced with the task of understanding the client in order to develop a product design... We believe that designers absorb information better if they conduct interviews themselves, and then analyze them together with specialists in other areas.” areas, rather than just getting ready-made results from someone else.”

We won't go into methodological detail here, as that is beyond the scope of this book, but there are some very useful resources available regarding the issues at hand. IC has evolved into a more holistic approach to software design - contextual design, which is described in detail by the developers on their own website ( www.incontextenterprises.com).

Collaborative design

Participatory design (CD) originated in the Scandinavian democratic model, which was expressed in a commitment to industrial democracy - the participation of workers and trade union representatives in the management of industry. Since the late 1970s, the issue of introducing new technologies into the workplace has given rise to a variety of projects aimed at giving workers a say in decisions about the technologies and systems that would change their work. One of the first such projects to pave the way for collaborative design principles was Utopia ( UTOPIA). As part of this program, the researchers worked together with the Scandinavian Union of Graphic Designers ( Nordic Graphic Workers' Union). The goal of the collaboration was to “develop powerful support tools for graphic designers.” Thanks to the Utopia project, some progress has been made in the development of electronic newspaper publishing systems. These systems were created based on the skills that graphic designers and printers already possessed, and the capabilities of which were simultaneously expanded.

In Great Britain, somewhere on the periphery of the trade union movement, similar initiatives also took place. The most famous of them was the attempt of the Joint Committee of Trade Union Representatives of the company Lucas Aerospace design and develop a range of socially beneficial products that could be produced in decaying defense factories Lucas Aerospace. However, the Scandinavian culture of shared decision-making that gave rise to Utopia contrasted sharply with British policies of the 1980s aimed at weakening the influence of trade unions. Thatcherism appreciated the advantages of new technologies from the point of view of the effectiveness of their use as a political lever - to crush the trade unions.

The rise of technology may have given the right some short-term political advantage. However, 20 years after the bitter fighting at Wapping, when Murdoch ended once and for all any influence of the press unions, these events can be seen as part of a wider and more controversial position. With some exceptions, British industry tended to underestimate the knowledge and experience of workers and the needs and lifestyles of consumers. The fate of the British car industry is a good example of the consequences of failure to appreciate the quality of the working environment and customer experience. Poorly organized work and low-quality goods have no future.

Once again, we look to the American computer and multimedia industries as drivers of change that see collaborative design as a way to get closer to the consumer. According to experts Tec- Ed Inc. - a consulting firm that has introduced co-design to companies such as Sun Microsystems, Logitech, Cisco Systems and etc . , - the joint design looks like this:

A group of people with a stake in product design work together to come up with design options based on how the product will be used by consumers at work. Users play a central role in co-design meetings. They tell us about their work environment, the tasks they need to complete, which of the tools and resources at their disposal help them and which don't. This active user intervention leads to improved product designs and shortens product development and testing cycles.

IN Digital Equipment Corporation The designers collaborated with a team of chemists to develop a portable torque feedback device using a five-step co-design process.

1. Building relationships. Selecting a group of users to work with was initially done through electronic advertisements on the Internet, and then meetings were organized to familiarize users with the problems and technologies.
2. Interview in context. CI principles and techniques were applied to understand the users' work context.
3. Conducting a brainstorming session. Carried out among users to identify possible approaches to design solutions.
4. Storyboard. Based on the most promising ideas generated through brainstorming, users and computer design specialists created illustrated scenarios on the theme “a day in the life of a user.”
5. Iterative design*. The storyboards were used by engineers as design specifications: based on them, prototypes were created, tested with participating users, and then further developed. Design thus took the form of a cyclical process.

Based on this example, one could argue: “Collaborative design has pointed chemists and computer scientists in some new directions in design. This project demonstrates that participatory design can be used to develop new computer technologies in the same way that it is used for new computer application systems." 61

Collaborative design offers a number of benefits to the design team. First of all, it helps to identify the tacit knowledge of users and, therefore, discover possible design problems, as well as their solutions, that might have eluded a working group consisting of (including) users. As a result, the design is more tightly tied to the actual product requirements and user context, thereby improving the experience of using that product. And when designing for a specific user group or user environment, SD can give users a sense of importance and ownership of the new design.

Practice-oriented research

The final method we would like to review is less a method than a set of techniques that facilitate the integration of users' tacit knowledge and creative design into a research process guided by clearly defined goals and priorities. Practice-oriented research has contributed to the transition of design activity into the category of areas of activity in which it is possible to obtain an academic degree 62 .

The ongoing methodological debate about practice-oriented research will remain outside the scope of our discussion. We would like to dwell only on some of the issues that were first raised in these disputes or that arose in the few documented examples of such research in practice.

Currently, practice-oriented research can be seen as a number of heterogeneous approaches, each of which in its own way seeks to connect practice with theory. According to one approach, practice is considered a kind of research, since the product of the designer's work embodies information and is therefore actually the result of research, and only minimal effort is needed to formulate its theoretical conclusions.

Perhaps this model is based more on research in the visual arts. Currently, other models are emerging everywhere that seek to extract theoretical knowledge of design from design practice, which, in turn, is a manifestation of theory. This latter model was a manifestation of a recent desire among designers to assert their own hidden creative methodologies, making them part of the general process of academic research, while recognizing the need to maintain connections with other disciplines and methodologies. Some of the proponents of this model refer to the historical contribution of craft and design practice to the accumulation of knowledge and, accordingly, to the theory created on the basis of this knowledge. Kevin McCullough argues that the goal of design should be the fusion of theory and practice - design practice: "practice based on theory and theory derived from practice."

Some design researchers argue that design should become a more scientific activity, but emphasize that this approach does not contradict the creative nature of design (Module 4.4). Ken Friedman and Anti Ainamo are the most ardent proponents of this approach.

Science and scientific methods do not necessarily lead to positivism. Modern science and scientific methods involve different types of connections between theory and practice, not just a positivist approach. But what really matters is our desire to consciously acquire knowledge about design, to understand what a thing is and how it works based on fundamental principles. The main difference between design as a science and design as an art is that design as a science begins not with visual or other sensations, but with determining the conditions of the problem. Visual, tactile and other sensations, intonations, feelings and shades appear at the solution stage, already when, based on the conditions of the task set before the designer, the basic requirements for its solution are determined. Thus, the scientific approach to design does not in any way contradict its artistic aspect 66 .

Module 4.4. DIY research

An example of practice-oriented research focusing on user experience is one of Sheffield Hallam University's research projects. In his exploration of prosthetic hand design, industrial designer Graham Whiteley applied creative design and practical techniques to problems once thought to be the sole domain of scientists and engineers.

As a result, physical models of the naturally articulated skeleton of the hand and the entire arm up to the shoulder were obtained, which, in terms of quality characteristics and functionality, completely replicate the anatomy (bones and joints) of the human hand. It was also possible to attach attachments to the models in the form of tendons, causing the actuator muscles to provide driving force to the automatic arm. This example is a simple and clear demonstration of the use of practice-oriented design research in an interdisciplinary context. Evidence of this is the ease with which the information obtained during the research process and embedded in the created models is quickly and fully read by a variety of specialists and user groups who were able to study and evaluate these models without any auxiliary texts and materials. Whiteley and his supervisor Chris Rust have published their reflections on the development of design research based on creative practice, and, importantly, they contribute to scientific debates in two areas: design and engineering of medical devices. The project itself clearly demonstrated the importance of design practice as a means of usability testing and as an area in which theoretical principles from a number of different disciplines are expressed and integrated into a coherent whole.

The emergence of the concept of practice-oriented design has led to a useful and long overdue re-evaluation of the relationship of design to theory, science and methodology in scientific, academic contexts.

The diverse nature of design types means that sometimes artistic practice naturally leads to research, as in the case of applied art. And yet, practical design activity must be based on social sciences and culture - this is the main priority of modern industrial design. This is the only way we will achieve what we want: design will be driven by real needs and meaningful experiences.

The development of design in the 21st century is entirely driven by research, which must be based on an understanding of culture and technology, combining the arts, sciences and humanities. This state of affairs places new demands on designers and forces them to take on new responsibilities. Perhaps one of the main requirements is to strike a balance between the need to conduct thorough preliminary research and the time pressure caused by competition in the development of new products. So we conclude this chapter with a ranking of the five best tips for the time-poor designer (Table 4.2).

We've come up with our five best tips for doing research in a hurry, based on the experiences of designers themselves.

Perhaps design needs to be more science-based, and quite possibly informed by scientific knowledge and methods. However, according to Donald Norman, “applied science does not require the precision of traditional scientific methods. In industry, an approximately correct answer is quite sufficient.

Speed ​​is more important than accuracy."

Good design is the embodiment of knowledge and understanding, while bad design is an admission of ignorance. In this chapter, we tried to prove: 1) research must be the basis of design; 2) only such an approach will guarantee that the subject environment will give users the most pleasant impressions and enrich their life experience. In particular, we showed how techniques drawn from market research, ethnography, and other fields are critical to the success or failure of design. We saw that the user can be not only a source of marketing information, but also an essential participant in the design development process. We have also learned that practical design can be the core of a well-defined research program that expands our knowledge and helps more effectively integrate the theory and practice of artistic design.

0 Theoretical validation in sociological research: Methodology and methods

Research design is a combination of requirements regarding the collection and analysis of data necessary to achieve the objectives of the study. If we talk about information technology, then the corresponding research designs are related, first of all, to the features of the combinatorics of elements of qualitative and quantitative approaches within the framework of one study.
The main principles of organizing designs in information technology are: 1) awareness of the theoretical drive of the research project; 2) awareness of the role of borrowed components in a research project; 3) compliance with the methodological assumptions of the basic method; 4) working with the maximum available number of data sets. The first principle has to do with the purpose of the research (search vs confirmation), the appropriate types of scientific reasoning (induction vs deduction) and the appropriate methods in this case. According to the second principle, the researcher should pay attention not only to basic strategies for collecting and analyzing data, but also to additional ones that could enrich the main part of the research project with data that is important and cannot be obtained using basic methods. The third principle is related to the need to adhere to the fundamental requirements of working with data of one type or another. The essence of the last principle is quite obvious and has to do with attracting data from all available relevant sources.
Often IST is “situated” on a continuum between qualitative and quantitative research (see Figure 4.1). So, in the presented figure, zone “A” indicates the use of exclusively qualitative methods, zone “B” - mainly qualitative, with some quantitative components, zone “C” - equal use of qualitative and quantitative methods (fully integrated research), zone “D” - mostly quantitative with some qualitative components, zone “E” - exclusively quantitative methods.

Rice. Qualitative-mixed-quantitative continuum

If we talk about specific IST designs, there are two main typologies. One is suitable for cases where qualitative and quantitative methods are used at different stages of the same study, the other for cases where alternating or parallel qualitative and quantitative studies are used within a research project.
The first typology includes six mixed-type designs (see Table 4.2). An example of a study that uses qualitative and quantitative methods at different stages is concept alignment. In this research strategy, data collection is done using qualitative methods (e.g., brainstorming or focus groups) and analysis is quantitative (cluster analysis and multidimensional scaling). Depending on the tasks being solved (search or descriptive), it can be classified as either the second or sixth design.
According to the second typology, nine mixed-type designs can be distinguished (see Table 3). This typology is based on two main principles. First, in a mixed-type study, it is important to determine the status of each of the paradigms - whether qualitative and quantitative research have the same status, or whether one of them is considered as the main one, and the second - subordinate. Secondly, it is important to determine how the research will be conducted - in parallel or sequentially. In the case of a sequential solution, it is also necessary to determine which of them is first and which is second in the time dimension. An example of a research project that fits this typology would be a case where the first phase is a qualitative study to build theory (for example, using Anselm Strauss' grounded theory), and the second is a quantitative survey of a specific group of people, to to which the developed theory is applicable and in relation to which it is necessary to formulate a forecast for the development of the corresponding social phenomenon or problem.

Table 1. Mixed research designs using qualitative and quantitative methods within the same study*

* in this table, designs 2-7 are of a mixed nature, design 1 is completely qualitative, design 8 is completely quantitative.

Table 2. Mixed-method research designs using qualitative and quantitative research as different phases of the same research project*

* “quality” means qualitative research, “quantity” means quantitative research; "+" - simultaneous research, "=>" - sequential; large letters indicate the main status of the paradigm, small letters indicate the subordinate status.

Of course, these typologies do not limit the variety of research designs, and they should be considered as possible guidelines in IST planning.
IST designs in evaluation research.
According to the typology of IST designs used in assessment, two main types can be distinguished - component and integrative. In component design, although qualitative and quantitative methods are used within the same study, they are used separately from each other. In integrative design, on the other hand, methods belonging to different paradigms are used together.
The component type includes three types of designs: triangulation, complementary and expansive. In a triangulation design, results obtained from one method are used to confirm results obtained from other methods. In the case of complementary design, the results obtained using the main method are specified and refined on the basis of the results obtained using methods of secondary importance. When using an expansive design, different methods are used to obtain information regarding different aspects of the assessment, that is, each method is responsible for a specific piece of information.
The integrative type includes four types of designs: iterative, nested, holistic and transformational. In iterative design, the results obtained from a method suggest or guide the use of other methods that are relevant to the situation. Untested design deals with situations where one method is integrated into another. Holistic design involves the combined, integrated use of qualitative and quantitative methods to comprehensively evaluate a program. Moreover, both groups of methods have equivalent status. Transformational design occurs when different methods are used together to capture values ​​that are subsequently used to reconfigure dialogue in which participants hold different ideological positions.