By: Matias Rey, service designer
“If I had an hour to solve a problem I’d spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and five minutes thinking about solutions.”
– Albert Einstein
Recently, I gave a talk on “Understanding the Problem,” and this quote is how I started the presentation. I shared that this quote encapsulates my attitude when understanding a problem or challenge. Many of you may be familiar with this quote and agree with it if you are a dedicated researcher. Still, I also know that many more of you would quickly rush to solve the problem without fully understanding it first.
You might still be wondering: how does Age of Empires, a childhood or adulthood game (no judging here; I still play occasionally), relate to the four types of qualitative research? Well, let me illustrate:
In the following paragraphs, I am going to cover these four types of qualitative research:
- Generative Research (Exploring)
- Descriptive Research (What do we see?)
- Evaluative Research (What do you think?)
- Causal Research (Why is that so?)
Generative Research (Exploring)
The first type of research we will address is generative research, also referred to as exploring. According to Erika Hall, author of Just Enough Research, it is the research you do before you even know what you’re doing. It leads to ideas and helps define the problem. I like to phrase this as the point in time in which you are exploring the space, product, or service, as there is nothing that you know of that is causing problems or pain points at that point.
Bringing it back to the Age of Empires metaphor, this is just like when you are beginning the game, and there is nothing visible to you as you have not yet explored the map of the game. The first thing to do at this point is to explore the space you find yourself in.
How can we relate this to the actual practice of qualitative research? Well, generative research can take the form of a service safari. According to the Interaction Design Foundation, “Service safaris are an early qualitative research method where researchers walk in the customers’ shoes to experience a service from the customers’ perspective. By experiencing the service directly, they can find strengths, weaknesses, and more as they build empathy with customers early in the design process.” Service safaris are popular in service design, and it is often utilized by Harmonic Design to fully understand what the service experience is like for clients and employees.
Descriptive Research (What Do We See?)
The second type of research we will address is descriptive research, which we can phrase as: What do we see? According to Erika Hall, descriptive research is the transition from the question, ‘What’s a good problem to solve?’ to, ‘ What is the best way to solve the problem I have identified? ‘ Descriptive research is purely factual. When applying this type of research, it is important to only mention the facts of the events that are occurring.
Once we have explored the entire map in the Age of Empires game, for example, we find that there is a bunch of gold on enemy territory. For context, gold is needed to develop one’s civilization and create a stronger army in the game. So, we have identified a problem to solve, and we have to ask ourselves the best way to obtain that gold for ourselves.
Applying it to the practice of qualitative research, descriptive research can take the form of observations or shadowing of a service provider or user. For example, the act of observing or shadowing a specific customer’s journey at a supermarket would help us recognize user habits for making purchases and payments in supermarkets. Harmonic Design has utilized both observation and shadowing for various projects.
Evaluative Research (What do you think?)
The third type of research we will address is evaluative research, which we can phrase as: What do you think? According to Erika Hall, this is utilized once we have ideas for possible solutions. We can test them to make sure they work and meet the requirements that have been identified. Evaluative research does exactly what the name suggests: it evaluates whether or not the solution or idea identified would be the best solution.
In this image, the player manages to take over the gold and uses a method to collect it. The player is actively testing solutions and evaluating whether they meet their needs.
When you have designed/ideated something for your current service or a new service, you can use storyboards to communicate the concept of the service. This way, your audience can clearly understand what the service is about and if they like it or if they see some areas of opportunity. We must ask ourselves: Is this the best way to provide the service or experience? At Harmonic Design, we often visualize future service experiences in what we call stories from the future. This is a great way to showcase the potential future state service to stakeholders and clients and gauge their reactions and opinions about the service.
Causal Research (Why is that so?)
The fourth type of research that we will address is causal research, which we can phrase as: Why is that so? According to Erika Hall, once the service is implemented, you may start to notice that people are using it in a certain way, possibly not the way you expected. When something like this happens, it is the researcher’s responsibility to inform the business of it, and it is the business’s responsibility to decide whether to adopt it or not.
Why would blue convertible cars be in a game set in the Middle Ages? Well, a hypothesis that exists is that many players could not pass the different levels that Age of Empires offered and, hence, came up with a way to ‘cheat’ by utilizing the cars that were known to be the strongest and fastest army in the game. Personally, I found myself using this cheat code whenever I had been trying for hours to beat an opponent. I used it to spare myself from having to repeat the same level without even knowing if I could pass it on the second try. This feature or cheat code allowed those less serious gamers to enjoy the video game’s full experience without suffering as much. The blue convertible cars were most likely an adaptation that the game allowed, as it noticed many gamers gave up and dropped the game completely.
Causal research applied to services is very frequently seen in the form of A/B testing. A/B testing is a controlled way to control/manipulate the “cause” and measure the “effect.” This allows designers, programmers, and companies to test how changing a particular variable affects user behavior.
In many aspects of life, we face problems that we don’t know how to solve. It is essential to take time to understand what the problem is. This blog showed how research can take many forms and be presented differently. Don’t succumb to the pressure of having to have an answer immediately. It is most likely that your first thought regarding a solution was not the most appropriate one. Consider exploring, defining, and evaluating your solutions before implementing them.
References
Hall, Erika, and Kio Stark. Just enough research. New York: A Book Apart, 2013.
Interaction Design Foundation – IxDF. “What are Service Safaris?” Interaction Design Foundation – IxDF. 27 Aug. 2024 https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/topics/service-safaris
