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Interaction Design UWE | Digital Media

Source from “Research Practice” by Vivian Ting.

– Robert Frost

“Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your

temper or your self-confidence.”

What is Research and Why to do Research?

Research Practice - Part 1

– Wernher von Braun

“Research is what I'm doing when I don't know what I'm doing.”

1. What is research?

❖ Research is the cornerstone of any scholarship. It refers to the organised, structured, and purposeful investigation aimed at discovering, interpreting, and revising human knowledge on different aspects of the world.

❖ Research can be defined as the systematic investigation of exploring a problem, addressing an issue, or answering question which increases knowledge and understanding of interaction design.

2. Why do we do research?

❖ Adding to the new knowledge in terms of interaction design practices, design theories and culture experiences.

❖ Theorising some sorts of human experiences and that shred new insights into interaction design.

❖ Proposing creative ideas to address particular issues or needs, and ultimately brings something positive to wider community.

❖ Advocating for the re-allocation of resources.

Ten Steps for Research

Research Practice - Part 2

– Allan Bloom

“Education is the movement from darkness to light.”

Ten steps for research1. Formulate your question

What are you research into? Any keywords crucial to your project and why? What would you expect from this project?

2. Get background information Are there any researchers looking into similar research area?

3. Refine your search topicHow would your research project different from others?

Ten steps for research4. Consider your resource

optionsWhat do you need to answer that research question?

5. Select the appropriate methodHow would you answer the research question?

6. Set up pilot and evaluate the methodDo you get the data by your proposed method?

Ten steps for research7. Document the research

process

8. Analyse your materials

9. Writing up

10. Compose your bibliography

Developing Research Questions

Research Practice - Part 3

Developing research questions

A good research question has the potential to expand our knowledge

base and inspire creative ideas.

Three basic criteria1. How well grounded the question is in the current knowledge base

The problem must have a basis in theory, research, or practice so that we can judge how much it can add to the knowledge base and gives us an anchor.

2. How researchable it is How easy it is to formulate clear operational definitions of the variables involved and clear hypotheses about the relationships between the variables.

3. How originality it isThis criteria includes reshaping material or considering information in other ways, and that leads to new approach of seeing the question or add new knowledge to the field.

Sampling Research Practice - Part 4

1. What is sampling?

It is the process of selecting a number of individuals for a study in such a way that the individuals represent the larger group from

which they were selected.

2. Naming your target group

❖ Identify the group of interest and its characteristics.

❖ Narrow down the target group to defining characteristics. For example, age, class, gender and race, or in the case of an organisation, number of employees, years of operation, type of business, etc.

3. Determining the size of sample❖ Sample size very much

depends on the nature of your research of the data you intend to collect.

❖ Many researchers who collect qualitative data in order to understand populations are not looking for representativeness. Their goal is often rich understanding that may come from the few, rather than the many.

4. Strategies for sampling❖ Selecting every nth case within a defined population.

It may involve going to every 10th house or selectingevery 20th person on a list.

❖ Cluster sampling involves surveying whole clusters of the population selected through a defined random sampling strategy. The thinking here is that the best way to find high school students is through high schools; or the best way to find church goers is through churches.

❖ Handpicked sampling involves selecting cases that meet particular criteria; are considered typical; show wide variance; represent expertise; or cover a range of possibilities.

Case Studies Research Practice - Part 5

1. What is case study?

❖ An in depth study of a particular situation rather than a sweeping statistical survey. It is a method used to narrow down a very broad field of research into one easily researchable topic.

❖ It excels at bringing us to an understanding of a complex issue or object and helps investigating a contemporary phenomenon within its real-life context; in which enables multiple sources.

❖ Many of the academia would insist that the validity of doing case study lies in its depth, rather than breath; and if carefully selected one’s research target, the case would also shed some lights onto the broader population because of the complexity of the research data.

2. How to conduct case study?

❖ The first foundation of the case study is the subject and relevance. In a case study, you are deliberately trying to isolate a small study group, one individual case or one particular population.

❖ It is important to plan and design how you are going to address the study and make sure that all collected data is relevant. There is no strict set of rules so the most important part is making sure that the study is focused and concise; otherwise you will end up to have a lot of irrelevant information.

2. How to conduct case study?

❖ It is best if you make yourself a short list of 4 or 5 bullet points that you are going to address during the study, then your research will not be far wrong.

❖ To be passive in your research. You are much more of an observer than an experimenter and must remember that, even in a multi-subject case, each case must be treated individually.

Interviewing Research Practice - Part 6

– Bruce Lee

“To know oneself is to study oneself in action with another person.”

1. What is interviewing?

Interviewing is a method of data collection that involves researchers seeking open-ended

answers related to a number of questions, topic areas, or themes. Your task is to talk only enough

to facilitate someone else’s ability to answer.

2. How will you conduct interview?

Formal ❖ Maintains distance, neutrality, objectivity.

❖ Done within a formal setting and allow interviewers a high level of control.

❖ Limit interviewee comfort and possibly the free flow of information.

Talking to museum director in office will help learning more about the working environment and daily operation.

2. How will you conduct interview?

Informal ❖ Bends or ignores rules with formal

interviewing to establish rapport and gain trust of communication.

❖ Style is causal and relax to minimise any gap between the interviewer and the interviewee.

Settings might occur over a beer at a bar or coffee shop to get your interviewee chatting comfortably.

3. Will interviews be structured or not?

Structured ❖ Use of pre-established questions, in a pre-determined order, with a

standard mode of delivery.

❖ Best suited for interviews where standardised data is a goal.

❖ Inexperienced interviewers generally feel comfortable with this high level of structure.

3. Will interviews be structured or not?

Unstructured ❖ Draw out information, attitudes, opinions and beliefs around

particular themes, to draw out rich and informative conversation.

❖ It allows interviewees to express their ideas in a way not dictated by the interviewer.

❖ The interviewers have to avoid leading the conversation while keeping it focused.

3. Will interviews be structured or not?

Semi-structured ❖ Flexible structure can start with a defined questioning plan, but will

shift to follow the natural flow of conversation.

❖ The advantage is being able to come away with all the data you intended, but also interesting and unexpected data that emerges.

4. How many will you interview at a time?

One to one interview ❖ Allows the researcher control over the process and the interviewee

the freedom to express their thoughts.

Group interview ❖ Group interview can save time and money. If lead probably, it

would get people to talk freely. Some might feel unheard or marginalised.

5. Prepare for the interview

1. Recruit participants according to the rationale of your research question.

2. Explain to your interviewees what your research project is about

3. Send them interview questions prior to the interview.

4. Set up recording equipment and the physical space where interviews will take place.

5. Prepare for the interview

5. Become knowledgeable about the research topic.

6. Anticipating and being prepared to answer any questions participants may have about it.

7. Be reliable. To get participants to take the interview seriously, you need to demonstrate your own commitment.

8. Keep all promises you make to participants.

Four Steps for Analysing Your Data

Research Practice - Part 7

1. Get to know your data

❖ Good analysis depends on understanding the data.

❖ Read and re-read the text.

❖ Write down any impressions you have as you go through the data.

2. Focus the analysis❖ Review the purpose of the

evaluation and what you want to find out.

❖ Identify a few key questions that you want your analysis to answer.

❖ Organising the data by question to look across all respondents and their answers to identify consistencies and differences.

3. Categorise information❖ Refer this process as coding

or indexing the data.

❖ Identify themes or patterns (e.g. ideas, concepts, behaviours, interactions, incidents, terminology or phrases used).

❖ Organise them into coherent categories that summarise and bring meaning to the text.

4. Identify patterns and connections❖ As you organise the data into categories,

you will begin to see patterns and connections both within and between the categories.

❖ You may be interested in summarising the information pertaining to one theme, or capturing the similarities or differences.

❖ You can work up from more specific categories to larger ideas and concepts. Then you can see how the parts relate to the whole.

Lecture Activity uwelecture.wordpress.com

– Aristotle

“The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet.”

Lecture Activity❖ Three to four people as a group.

❖ Select an existing mini project from one of the group member.

❖ Formulate two research questions.

❖ Critique the questions based on the three basic criteria.

❖ Consider your target group and think about their characteristics.

❖ Write down your rationale of working with this specific group.

❖ The content should be in point form with related headings.

❖ Post it to uwelecture.wordpress.com.