The bestseller that pioneered the comparison of qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods research design continues in its Fourth Edition to help students and researchers prepare their plan or proposal for a scholarly journal article, dissertation or thesis.
"Universal Methods of Design is an immensely useful survey of research and design methods used by today's top practitioners, and will serve as a crucial reference for any designer grappling with really big problems. This book has a place on every designer's bookshelf, including yours!" —David Sherwin, Principal Designer at frog and author of Creative Workshop: 80 Challenges to Sharpen Your Design Skills "Universal Methods of Design is a landmark method book for the field of design. This tidy text compiles and summarizes 100 of the most widely applicable and effective methods of design—research, analysis, and ideation—the methods that every graduate of a design program should know, and every professional designer should employ. Methods are concisely presented, accompanied by information about the origin of the technique, key research supporting the method, and visual examples. Want to know about Card Sorting, or the Elito Method? What about Think-Aloud Protocols? This book has them all and more in readily digestible form. The authors have taken away our excuse for not using the right method for the job, and in so doing have elevated its readers and the field of design. UMOD is an essential resource for designers of all levels and specializations, and should be one of the go-to reference tools found in every designer’s toolbox." —William Lidwell, author of Universal Principles of Design, Lecturer of Industrial Design, University of Houston This comprehensive reference provides a thorough and critical presentation of 100 research methods, synthesis/analysis techniques, and research deliverables for human centered design, delivered in a concise and accessible format perfect for designers, educators, and students. Whether research is already an integral part of a practice or curriculum, or whether it has been unfortunately avoided due to perceived limitations of time, knowledge, or resources, Universal Methods of Design serves as an invaluable compendium of methods that can be easily referenced and utilized by cross-disciplinary teams in nearly any design project. This essential guide: - Dismantles the myth that user research methods are complicated, expensive, and time-consuming - Creates a shared meaning for cross-disciplinary design teams - Illustrates methods with compelling visualizations and case studies - Characterizes each method at a glance - Indicates when methods are best employed to help prioritize appropriate design research strategies Universal Methods of Design distills each method down to its most powerful essence, in a format that will help design teams select and implement the most credible research methods best suited to their design culture within the constraints of their projects.
How the tools of design research can involve designers more directly with objects, products and services they design; from human-centered research methods to formal experimentation, process models, and application to real world design problems. The tools of design research, writes Brenda Laurel, will allow designers "to claim and direct the power of their profession." Often neglected in the various curricula of design schools, the new models of design research described in this book help designers to investigate people, form, and process in ways that can make their work more potent and more delightful. "At the very least," Peter Lunenfeld writes in the preface, "design research saves us from reinventing the wheel. At its best, a lively research methodology can reinvigorate the passion that so often fades after designers join the profession." The goal of the book is to introduce designers to the many research tools that can be used to inform design as well as to ideas about how and when to deploy them effectively. The chapter authors come from diverse institutions and enterprises, including Stanford University, MIT, Intel, Maxis, Studio Anybody, Sweden's HUMlab, and Big Blue Dot. Each has something to say about how designers make themselves better at what they do through research, and illustrates it with real world examples—case studies, anecdotes, and images. Topics of this multi-voice conversation include qualitative and quantitative methods, performance ethnography and design improvisation, trend research, cultural diversity, formal and structural research practice, tactical discussions of design research process, and case studies drawn from areas as unique as computer games, museum information systems, and movies. Interspersed throughout the book are one-page "demos," snapshots of the design research experience. Design Research charts the paths from research methods to research findings to design principles to design results and demonstrates the transformation of theory into a richly satisfying and more reliably successful practice.
The Second Edition of An Applied Guide to Research Designs offers researchers in the social and behavioral sciences guidance for selecting the most appropriate research design to apply in their study. Using consistent terminology, the authors visually present a range of research designs used in quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods to help readers conceptualize, construct, test, and problem solve in their investigation. The Second Edition features revamped and expanded coverage of research designs, new real-world examples and references, a new chapter on action research, and updated ancillaries.
Understanding and Evaluating Research: A Critical Guide shows students how to be critical consumers of research and to appreciate the power of methodology as it shapes the research question, the use of theory in the study, the methods used, and how the outcomes are reported. The book starts with what it means to be a critical and uncritical reader of research, followed by a detailed chapter on methodology, and then proceeds to a discussion of each component of a research article as it is informed by the methodology. The book encourages readers to select an article from their discipline, learning along the way how to assess each component of the article and come to a judgment of its rigor or quality as a scholarly report.
This book provides the reader with a comprehensive, relevant, and visually rich insight into the world of research methods specifically aimed at product designers. It includes practical case studies and tutorials that will inform, inspire and help you to conduct product design research better. Product designers need a comprehensive understanding of research methods as their day-to-day work routinely involves them observing people, asking questions, searching for information, making and testing ideas, and ultimately generating 'solutions' to 'problems'. Manifest in the design process is the act of research. Huge technological advances in information, computing and manufacturing processes also offer enormous opportunities to product designers such as the development of 'intelligent' products and services, but at the same time raise important research questions that need to be dealt with. Product designers are, in many ways, best placed to address these challenges because of the manner in which they apply their design thinking to problems. This book demonstrates in a clear, highly visual and structured fashion how research methods can support product designers and help them address the very real issues the world currently faces in the 21st century.
Design Methods and Practices for Research of Project Management is the most comprehensive guide on how to do research of and in project management. Project management as a discipline has experienced near-exponential growth in its application across the business and not-for-profit sectors. This second edition of the authoritative reference book offers a substantial update on the first edition with over 60% new content and so provides both practitioner and student researchers with a fully up-to-date and complete guide to research practice on project management. In Design Methods and Practices for Research of Project Management, Beverly Pasian and Rodney Turner have brought together 27 original chapters from many of the leading international thinkers in project management research. The collection looks at each step in the research stages, including research strategy, management, methodology (quantitative and qualitative), techniques as well as how to share and publish research findings. The chapters offer an international perspective with examples from a wide range of project management applications; engineering, construction, mega-projects, high-risk environments and social transformation. Each chapter includes tips and exercises for the research student, as well as a complete set of further references. The book is the go-to text for practitioners undertaking research in companies, and also doctoral and masters students and their supervisors who are involved in research projects in and for universities.
'Designing and Conducting Mixed Methods Research' offers a practical, how-to guide for designing a mixed methods study. The text incorporates activities and exercises for classroom use or for use by the researcher in preparing designs.
Case Study Research: Principles and Practices provides a general understanding of the case study method as well as specific tools for its successful implementation. These tools are applicable in a variety of fields including anthropology, business and management, communications, economics, education, medicine, political science, psychology, social work, and sociology. Topics include: a survey of case study approaches; a methodologically tractable definition of 'case study'; strategies for case selection, including random sampling and other algorithmic approaches; quantitative and qualitative modes of case study analysis; and problems of internal and external validity. The second edition of this core textbook is designed to be accessible to readers who are new to the subject and is thoroughly revised and updated, incorporating recent research, numerous up-to-date studies and comprehensive lecture slides.
SAGE Course Companions are an exciting new series from SAGE offering students an insider's guide into how to make the most of their undergraduate courses and extend their understanding of key concepts covered in their course. Social Research Methods provides student readers with essential help with their research project, with revising for their course exams, preparing and writing course assessment materials, and enhancing and progressing their knowledge and thinking skills in line with course requirements on Research Methods courses. This Course Companion is designed to augment, rather than replace, existing textbooks for the course, and will provide: " Helpful summaries of the course curriculum to aid essay and project planning " Key summaries of the approach taken by the main Methods textbooks " Guidance on the essential study skills required " Help with developing critical thinking " Route-maps to aid the development of wider learning above and beyond the textbook " Pointers to success in course exams and written assessment exercises " A tutor's-eye view of what course examiners are looking for " An insider's view of what key course concepts are really all about SAGE Course Companions are much more than revision guides for undergraduate; they are an essential tool to taking your course learning and understanding to new levels and in new directions that are the key to success in undergraduate courses.