Creative Toolkits Research Method + Speed Dating Activity Reflection
A research method I chose to analyze was creative toolkits. They are a collection of physical materials and elements that allow users to build, play, and participate in a range of activities. It is an example of a generative design research method because it helps produce an abundance of ideas and open a range of opportunities to intervene when designing a solution. Toolkits have a collection of different 3D elements like popsicle sticks, cards, and mock prototyping tools for web or device interactions, and includes a drawing component where users can use different colors to write or draw concepts, shuffling them around according to their thought processes.
This method is typically used in the stage of the design process when a scope of ideas need to be explored. For example, designing a mobile app and the different features that pop up on the screen according to what the camera is capturing in real life might require toolkits to prototype the different animations or buttons. This would require iterations and collaborative brainstorming for the colors, shapes, sizes and various visual elements.
Another example could be when designing a board game for children, a range of components and interactions between objects need to be explored. Toolkits are also easily collaborative and encourage user’s creativity with the range of materials and craft supplies. People can work together to build and be inspired by the things others create and play with. Additionally, toolkits allow teams to reframe problems from multiple perspectives, and encourage mixing and matching of materials or objects. This, in turn, can help users unintentionally unlock a new idea or concept that they may not have thought about before, or a new way of viewing a situation.
Moreover, an advantage of toolkits is that it can be theme based, easily modifiable according to the theme or scenario, and are a form of participatory activity which can be transported physically to many locations if there were design workshops.
2/9/21 Speed Dating Activity
From the first round, I was with Hayoon, and her research method was competitive testing. It is when you take your design and compare it with many others in the market and analyze the similarities, differences, positives, and negatives. My method was creative toolkits, and we agreed that it would be difficult to pair these two research methods together because toolkits are collaborative and hands on, whereas competitive testing is anonymous and involve multiple individuals testing multiple products on their own. Some prerequisites if these were to work together, would be the knowledge that with competitive testing, there could be potential biases going into the testing. For toolkits, theme based ones might help with better expression and iteration of ideas.
In the second round, I was with Getchen, and her research method was mood boarding, which is essentially combining pictures, words, and creating a visual board to brainstorm a direction or specific feel and aesthetic for the design. It would work really well with creative toolkits because they are both generative and collaborate. Prerequisites for using these two together would be knowing the initial problem space, target audience, and general theme of the design.
In the third round, I talked with Sarah, and she had Empathy maps, which is a map that contains multiple zones for speculative analysis, and creates an objective understanding of the user’s way of thinking, feeling, seeing, saying, and doing. It maps pains and gains, and helps to jumpstart other research methods, which is why it would work well with creative toolkits to generate ideas. Some prerequisites might be knowing the categories of the map or having a template for the diagram.
For the fourth round, I talked to Richard, who had experience prototyping. In this research method there is role play involved to gain a perspective of different user types. It simulates social contexts and active roles are played, sometimes with props. Prerequisites might be having props or knowing the theme and topic of exploration. This research method might work well after using creative toolkits, possibly after having made certain elements of 3D parts.
Lastly I talked with Rachel, and she had stakeholder mapping. This is a system mapping where there are multiple levels of organization and hierarchy and root causes, effects, and those affected are traced. It is used in the early stages of research, and therefore might work with creative toolkits to organize the ideas developed.
Overall I feel that this activity was really productive and eye opening because it gave me a broader idea of all the types of research methods and examples in practice. I thought it was interesting to hear new approaches and I would ultimately like to use some of these with my next project.
