User Centered Design Strategies — Gabriele Molari
The First Task the I-Design class is called to tackle is the one related to User Centered Design practices. The activity opens with a lecture by Gabriele Molari, of IconMedialab, who provides an overview of different strategies and techniques used both in the concept generation and in the assessment phase of a design process. The lecture focuses on specific differences characterizing the effectiveness of each research “tool” for gathering data valuable during the various stages of a hypothetic design project.
After the lecture the class divides into 3 groups, each one called to address a specific topic. The first group is assigned the task to provide an estimation of the kind of user researches that are technically the most yielding for orienting the creation and launch of a new product. Their task is to build a road-map that will eventually encompass several phases of the product creation and development, starting with inspirational research and ending up with the guidelines for the first round of proofing after the product has been launched.
The second group instead has the task to formulate a plan of user researches to substantiate the different steps of a design project carried out by an institutional player, such as for instance the European Union. Students are required to pay attention both to issues related to budget and timeframe of each specific project. The specific sequence of assessment and probing sessions should be accurately planned, while keeping in mind that the resources used should be commensurate to the importance of the funding agency and to its established standard requirements.
The third group eventually must address the task of devising a series of surveys for planning the redesign of a web service. In order to fulfill the requirements of this task the students must pay extreme attention to the identity of the client. While working for private companies it is of the utmost importance to make the best possible use of all the available resources. Managing and choosing in a clever way the most appropriate combination of research methodologies can in fact mark the difference between failure and success.
