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PHD-DESIGN  September 2014

PHD-DESIGN September 2014

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Subject:

Re: Researching user's unconscious

From:

Krishnesh Mehta <[log in to unmask]>

Reply-To:

PhD-Design - This list is for discussion of PhD studies and related research in Design <[log in to unmask]>

Date:

Tue, 30 Sep 2014 23:31:09 +0530

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Dear Priscila Mendoza,

Happy to know about your survey and especially because of your DM
background- as then I am not the only one who thinks so (that unconscious
surveying is very important for both  design and management) -I am one of
the founding faculty of the Master's Strategic Design Management programme
at NID, Ahmedabad. Some years ago when we were designing the programme the
main differentiation that a DM program should have was in understanding
what drives the behaviour of the user/consumer -the people. MBA and Market
research was found missing on many counts.

For, if you want to manage or design for people -your management or design
is only as good as your understanding of what drives/runs people -in fact
people is at the base of and sine qua non for the existence of designers
and managers.... While neuroscience and brain imaging is what is being
clouted as the latest to understand the behaviour (well I too am a big fan
of neuroscience as am qualified in it and am currently working on some easy
methods -but context is important and here I find there are better and more
universally accessible non neuro-methods as mentioned below)...we all know
that brain scans can only tell what parts are active but that cannot tell
accurately as to what is being really experienced (I can tell what areas of
the brain get activated while using a given design but cannot say what
exact cascades of feelings and emotions and affect that is creating and
what memories is it accessing and creating and therefore -what is most
important- what action orientations is it creating) - for brain has
multi-use and multi-function  mechanisms --the pleasure area of the brain
may activate because of an external or internal reasons, because of a past
memory or current stimulus...and so on... (just to understand why we get
angry there is an interplay of about 6 different chemicals in our brain
plus the social conditioning which together creates a certain pattern of
brain activation)..also there is no scan as on today that gives a
simultaneous high resolution both in terms of spatial and temporal terms
(and none that correlates those with the brain chemicals). Whether we
believe there is conscious -unconscious or not -whatever name one may give-
there is some estimate that we receive about 11 millions bits of info every
second of which we are conscious of only 40 bits/per sec. (many can argue
this) whether you accept this or not one thing that we all know (and might
have experienced) is that market research done the traditional way does not
turn out to be having any accuracy worth any mention-for we all know that
many exit polls (done by the best of agencies) might predict one result but
the actual result often turns out to be opposite...and so on with lot of MR
predictions.

So are there any other ways...well we have developed lot of indirect
methods ...but here I will discuss only some of those like metaphor
elicitation, forced metaphor elicitation, etc. that have some literature in
public domain -normally when we question or interview we have our (both
interviewers and interviewees) filters and biases -but if we tell them to
give metaphors (like a music piece or a film, picture or any other) -it
will be difficult to explain the method fully here- we tend to remove their
conscious (aware) biases and filters and we get clues to probe further that
helps to uncover the unconscious (we have found to the extent that you can
actually predict the exact colour, texture, touch, smell, and most
importantly feelings and memories)...we have had great success with this  (I
can say that we have used it successfully for over 100 products and many
fun things like even finding the long term compatibility of partners)...there
are many other techniques that we have developed but are not on the public
domain and so will refrain mentioning. Forced metaphor elicitation is
another good one -for example every one is made to draw a cat (based on a
given theme to survey) and then the different cats are evaluated for
metaphors (based on the drawing and descriptions) that lead to the
unconscious insights..

One person who has made metaphor elicitation famous is Gerald Zaltman (
through books-How Customers Think, Marketing Metaphoria -both by Harvard
Business School Press) -though his techniques are patented and much
different from how we use it...

Other techniques from literature are Experience Mapping and its later
versions and Geertz's Thick Description...I find these techniques are
reasonably simple (needs lot of practice to master), more universally
applicable, does not need any special set up so can study the factors in
their real contexts, very cost effective (compared to  brain scanning) and
most importantly very visual or arty for the tastes and competencies of
designers and they have worked for us -both for corporate and social
sectors  -given some very unimaginable insights.

Hope this helps,

all the best,
krishnesh mehta
nid, ahmedabad, India

On Tue, Sep 30, 2014 at 7:58 PM, Priscila Mendoza <
[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Don, Terry,and  Keith thanks so much for your contributions. I'm really
> glad to read all the conversation and discussion around the topic. It is
> and exciting and stimulating for me to see the different postures around
> the topic.
>
> Since the beggining of my research I found that the terms unconscious,
> subconscious, nonconscious, preconscious and consciousness were by nature
> controversial (although they refer to different concepts). The existence of
> "other mental processes"  besides of those we are aware and intentional
> about, has been in debate long time ago. From Descartes' body-mind
> cartesian theory, to the Freudian unconscious, to Jung's collective
> unconscious, and to the latest postures in psychology, neuroscience, and
> economics -Wilson, Bargh, Damasio, Kahneman, etc-. there has been always
> room to debate and contradiction in this realm.  Nonetheless the
> development of new technology like fMRI, the study of people with damaged
> brains, and the development of empirical psychology have brought evidence
> to the "theories" about the unconscious-conscious,  I also agree that we
> still have a lot to discover and study. And that is just fascinating!!
>
> The intention of my thesis study is to explore the different approaches to
> study "the unconscious" and look for oportunities for design. What I have
> found so far is a lack of integration among the different
> streams/approaches for capturing the elusive, (as I like to called it), but
> there might be reasons for this lack of integration, and that is something
> that I believe is worth some research.
>
> One of my latest interviewees pointed out the ontological differences
> between studying the individual and the thinking of the individual brain,
> to what it is studying the culture and people in action. That is something
> that seems obvious but can lead to the validation or refusal of what I'm
> trying to achieve. But that would be another thesis!
>
> Once again thanks for your reading, comments, and feedback.
>
> Have a great day,
>
> Best,
>
> --
> Priscila Mendoza
> MFA Design Management Candidate
>
> http://priscilamendoza.mx
>
>
>
>
> In some cases authors were refering to the mental processes linked to the
> workings of the brain, were as others (especially when refering to
> consciouness) stated that there was something else there, (the soul maybe?)
>
> 2014-09-30 0:47 GMT-04:00 Don Norman <[log in to unmask]>:
>
> > ​Excellent answer.  Thank you.
> >
> > ​We should have a more private discussion about research methods for your
> > dissertation. (Next time I am at SCAD?)
> >
> >
> > And yeah, this is a public response, but I thought the discussion group
> > should know that my overly cute remark about Priscila's research was
> > promptly put down with her appropriate response. She isn't probing the
> > unconscious by a survey: she is probing  what people do about it. And for
> > that, a survey is fine.
> >
> >
> > Maybe all this is irrelevant anyway, for Terry just informed me that the
> > unconscious is a myth, a theoretical entity that does not exist. Why? I
> > suspect because we can't see it. I responded that the unconscious, like
> > consciousness, is not a thing that can be seen: it is a state of mental
> > processing.  When people act or make decisions of which they are unaware,
> > that is by definition being done unconsciously.  Consciousness implies
> > awareness.
> >
> > (Come to think of it, perhaps Terry is a theoretical entity, a mythical
> > creature. After all, he can't be seen. Maybe those emails come from some
> > sentient computer up there in the clouds pretending to be Terry. Has
> anyone
> > actually seen Terry? (I have seen someone who claimed to be Terry, but I
> > have no evidence that this is the same "thing" that authors those
> emails.)
> >
> >
> >
> > don
> >
> > On Mon, Sep 29, 2014 at 5:27 PM, Priscila Mendoza <
> > [log in to unmask]> wrote:
> >
> > > The survey is not intended to probe unconscious knowledge. The
> objective
> > > for this survey is to get a sense about current design research
> practices
> > > when it comes to unarticulated and latent knowledge. That said, I
> totally
> > > agree that If my intention were to probe the unconscious knowledge of
> > > researchers a survey would have been a contradiction.
> > >
> >
> >
> >
> > Don Norman
> > Director, DesignLab, UC San Diego: Think Observe Make
> > Prof. Emeritus Cognitive Science & Psychology, UCSD
> > [log in to unmask]  www.jnd.org  <http://www.jnd.org/>
> > http://designlab.ucsd.edu/
> >
> > ​(Finally, a website I am not ashamed of)​
> >
> >
> > -----------------------------------------------------------------
> > PhD-Design mailing list  <[log in to unmask]>
> > Discussion of PhD studies and related research in Design
> > Subscribe or Unsubscribe at https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/phd-design
> > -----------------------------------------------------------------
> >
>
>
>
> --
> Priscila Mendoza
> MFA Design Management Candidate
>
> http://priscilamendoza.mx
>
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------------
> PhD-Design mailing list  <[log in to unmask]>
> Discussion of PhD studies and related research in Design
> Subscribe or Unsubscribe at https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/phd-design
> -----------------------------------------------------------------
>


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