I was inspired by the debate a while ago about doing design without research
to write an essay for my column at the Industrial Design magazine,
core77.com.
So, for your amusement, below are the first few paragraphs and a pointer to
the whole.
Let me acknowledge the assistance of Ken Friedman for a series of private
emails on the topic, including my first rough notes that led to the column.
Ken urged me to send it to this distribution list, but I decided to use it
to fulfill my continuing obligation to Core77.com.
http://www.core77.com/blog/columns/act_first_do_the_research_later_20051.asp
.
Don Norman, *
*[log in to unmask] www.jnd.org
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Act First, Do the Research Later
Think before acting. Sounds right, doesn't it? Think before starting to
design. Yup. Do some research, learn more about the requirements, the
people, the activities. Then design. It all makes sense. Which is precisely
why I wish to challenge it. Sometimes it makes sense to act first, think
afterwards.
In the real world of product development, time is always short and budgets
limited, so it is almost impossible to start with research. "Yes," the
product manager will say, "I know we should do some research first, but we
don't have time, we are too far behind schedule. But for the next project,
we will start with research, OK?" It never happens. The next project will
also start out with no time, behind schedule. In fact, let me create a law:
Norman's Law of Product Development: A project is behind schedule and over
its budget the day it is started.
Today we teach the importance of doing design research first, then going
through a period of ideation, prototyping and iterative refinement. Lots of
us like this method. I do. I teach it. But this makes no sense when
practical reality dictates that we do otherwise. If there is never enough
time to start with research, then why do we preach such an impractical
method? We need to adjust our methods to reality, not to some highfalutin,
elegant theory that only applies in the perfect world of academic dreams. We
should develop alternative strategies for design.
Opening paragraphs of my article on the Industrial Design magazine,
core77.com, website.
http://www.core77.com/blog/columns/act_first_do_the_research_later_20051.asp
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