SCHOOL of

CREATIVE INDUSTRIES

BA
CONTEMPORARY
CREATIVE
PRACTICE
Lecture 2
CCIF60427

SEMESTER 1
 Module Picture Image

Industry Investigation

CCIF60427
The ‘traditional’ research process
INDUSTRY INVESTIGATION, CCIF60427
Research process: what is it?

The research process is essential to a research proposal

Research is a system of interdependent related stages

Research can mean many different things; it is a defined process that follows certain
steps, and is done for certain reasons
The ‘traditional’ research process: what is it?

The 8 stages in the ‘traditional’ research process are:

1. Identifying the ‘problem’ or the issue

2. Reviewing literature
3. Setting research questions, objectives, and hypotheses
4. Choosing the study design - methodology
5. Deciding on the sample design
6. Collecting data
7. Processing and analysing data
8. Writing the report / thesis / paper

There are a myriad ways of ‘doing research’ and methods….

Step 1: Identifying the ‘problem’
The first and foremost task is to identify a research problem.

A well-identified problem will lead you to accomplish all phases of the research
process, starting from setting objectives to the selection of the research
methodology.

A research problem is a perceived difficulty, a feeling of discomfort, or a

discrepancy between the common belief and reality.
Step 2: Literature review
A review of previous documents is essential even for the beginning researchers - why
spend time merely repeating what other investigators have already done?

1. Avoids duplication
2. Assists you to:
• find out what others have learned and reported on the problem
• become familiar with the types of methodology followed by others.
• understand what concepts and theories are relevant to your area of investigation.
• understand if there are any significant controversies, contradictions, and
inconsistencies in findings.
3. Allows you to understand if there are any unanswered research questions.
4. May help you to develop an analytical framework.
5. Will help you to consider things you might not otherwise have thought about.
 Literature
review steps
Step 3: Setting research questions, objectives and hypotheses

After discovering and defining the research problem , you make a formal
statement of the problem leading to research objectives.

1. An objective will precisely say what should be researched

2. A hypothesis is an unproven statement or proposition that can be refuted or supported

by data
Step 4: Choosing the research design

The research design is the blueprint or framework for fulfilling objectives and answering
research questions.

It is a master plan specifying the methods and procedures for collecting, processing, and
analysing the collected data.

The type of research design depends primarily on four factors:

1. The type of problem
2. The objectives of the study,
3. The existing state of knowledge about the problem that is being studied, and
4. The resources are available for the study.
Step 5: Deciding
on the sample
design
•Sampling is an important and
separate step in the research process.

•The basic concept of sampling is that

it involves any procedure that uses a
relatively small number of items or
portions (called a sample) of a
universe (called population) to
conclude the whole population.
Step 6: Collecting data
Data collection ranges from simple observation to a large-scale survey in any defined population.

There are many ways to collect data.

The approach selected depends on the objectives of the study, the research design, and the availability
of time, money, and personnel.

The most common means for collecting quantitative data is the structured interview.

Studies that obtain data by interviewing respondents are called surveys. Data can also be collected by
using self-administered questionnaires. Telephone interviewing is another way in which data may be
collected.

Other means of data collection include the use of secondary sources, such as the census, vital registration
records, official documents, previous surveys, etc. Qualitative data are collected mainly through in-depth
interviews, focus group discussions, and observational studies.
UX data collection
•Typically, design and the creative industries try
to understand problems that involve people – UX
– user experience(s).

•It is important to clearly differentiate qualitative

research (including user interviews, focus group
or user testing) from quantitative research
(combining surveys or analytics methods), two
approaches that can however be complementary.

•Qualitative research therefore aims to discover,

explore and understand behaviour, and needs to
be approached without preconceptions or bias,
whereas quantitative research will seek to
measure. The objective is to validate, prioritise or
even choose. This therefore requires having pre-
defined lines of research to build an effective
questionnaire.
Step 7a:
Processing data

•Data processing generally begins with the

editing and coding of data. Data are
edited to ensure consistency across
respondents and to locate omissions, if
any.

•In survey data, editing reduces errors in

the recording, improves legibility, and
clarifies unclear and inappropriate
responses. In addition to editing, the data
also need coding.
Step 7b: Analysing data
Data analysis usually involves reducing accumulated data to a manageable size, developing
summaries, searching for patterns, and applying statistical techniques for understanding
and interpreting the findings in the light of the research questions.

The techniques to be used in analysing data may range from simple graphical technique to
very complex multivariate analysis depending on the objectives of the study, research
design employed, and the nature of data collected.
Step 8: Writing up the report
The entire task of a research study is accumulated in a document

The document will be prepared to keep in view the sequence presented in the research
process. The document tells us what, how, where, and to whom it will be done.

It must also show the benefit of doing it. It always includes an explanation of the purpose
of the study (the research objectives) or a definition of the problem.

It systematically outlines the particular research methodology and details the procedures
that will be utilized at each stage of the research process.

The end goal of a scientific study is to interpret the results and draw conclusions.
What should be in a report?
At a bare minimum, a research report should contain sections on:

• An executive summary;
• Background of the problem;
• Literature review;
• Methodology;
• Findings;
• Discussion;
• Conclusions and
• Recommendations.
The [design based] research process
INDUSTRY INVESTIGATION, CCIF60427
Reference
[design based] research: why do it?

Design based research as an ongoing process of innovation

The research process is therefore stimulated by the intended improvement in a design.

In comparison to traditional research design and pure evaluation, design based research is characterised by
the following specific benefits:

• Innovation is at the cutting edge of theoretical knowledge

• The implementation will be accompanied by the research team
• Stakeholders in the field are not only data providers, but also actively customise the design
• Effects are continuously analysed with quantitative and qualitative methods which allows for the
prompt adjustments to the implementation
• The concept itself and the theoretical foundations are continuously reviewed and adapted .
What is design-based research
DBR:

is a process for use-inspired basic research (Stokes 1997; Schoenfeld

1999; Lester, 2005)where researchers design and study interventions that
solve practical problems in order to generate effective interventions and
theory that is useful for guiding design (Easterday, Lewis & Gerber, 2014).

recognises that neither theory nor interventions alone are sufficient

What is design-based research
DBR is slightly different in ‘traditional’ research in that:

A phase describes the goal of a set of methods within a design process;

for example, surveys and interviews could be considered methods in a data
collection phase of a research process
[design based] research steps

Reference
Steps in
DBR
DBR is an iterative process involving cycles
of exploring, designing, testing and refining
a response to a human need.

DBR is an iterative process of 6 phases:

1. focus,
2. understand,
3. define,
4. conceive,
5. build, and
6. test

…in which other scientific processes are

nested
Step 1: Focus
In the focus phase, designers define the audience, topic, and scope of the project

The audience specifies whom the product serves, including learners and the other stakeholders affected,
such as parents or the community. The team specifies who is designing the product and their reasons for
participating.

The topic specifies the general problem the product should address and how it arose.

The scope specifies the constraints and the scale of the project.

These issues are typically captured in a design brief.

Focusing sets the direction of the project. A design is meant to achieve an intended goal and there can be
no meaningful goal without some problem or opportunity to address. Focusing ensures that there is
something worth designing and that the team has the expertise to succeed.
Step 2: Understand
In the understand phase, designers study learners, domains, contexts and existing solutions.

The understand phase investigates the problem through empirical methods (first sources) and
secondary sources, and synthesises that knowledge into a form that can be easily used later in the
process.

Empirical methods include human-centered techniques such as observation, interviewing, surveys,

data analytics, etc – this is referred to as ‘data’. Review of secondary sources focuses on research –
literature - that helps understand the problem such as models of learning and cultural contexts, analysis of
current solutions to similar or related problems, and identification of design principles.

The empirical data and research literature must be synthesised through methods such as
identifying themes, building graphical models and creating learner personas.
Step 3: Define
•In the define phase, designers set goals and
assessments.

•Defining means converting an indeterminate

problem - which has no solution - into a
determinate problem that can be solved. There
are many ways to frame a problem.

•By completing the sentence “How might we...?”

the designer selects a goal from the infinite and
unknown number of goals that could be defined.

•It is up to the designer to define what that goal is,

taking into account the goals important to the
stakeholders and which can be productively
solved.

•Only after the goal has been defined can a design

be said to succeed or fail. A novel problem
definition can be the core innovation because it
can lead to entirely new kinds of solutions.
Step 4: Conceive
In the conceive phase, designers sketch a plan for the solution.

Given a definition (even if implicit) the designer can plan a design intended to reach the goal. This
involves imagining a solution and analysing whether it will work.

In this phase, the designer has not committed to implementing the design in a given medium, but rather
creates a non-functional, symbolic or graphical representation that allows the designer to conceptually
analyze the solution by determining the components of the design and how they might work together.

Designers have a number of tools for planning, sketching, and modelling a design.

These tools allow designers to test the design against their own knowledge and theory, to identify
problems and improved solutions before committing to implementation in a particular medium, which can
be difficult, costly, or time consuming.
Step 5: Build

•In the build phase, designers implement the

solution.

•Once a design has been conceived, the designer

can implement the design in a form that can be
used.

•This implementation can be of lower or higher

fidelity depending on the stage of the project and
the question that the designer wants to test, which
may be about a particular aspect of the educational
intervention, or whether the educational
intervention as conceived can achieve its goal.
Step 6: Test

•In the test phase, designers evaluate the

efficacy of the solution.

•Iterative user-testing involves testing

successive (often parallel) versions of the
design at increasing levels of fidelity.

•Early testing of the plans produced in the

conceive phase focuses on questions of
relevance and consistency and then later on
expected practicality, with expert reviews and
walkthroughs.
Iteration in this
whole process
•The design phases are not carried out in a linear
sequence but rather iteratively.

•Iteration is a tenet of modern human-centered

design.

•It protects against the risks of designing

interventions that are over-budget and behind
schedule by quickly testing the designer’s
assumptions.

•Rather than design an entire intervention and

discover only at the end that it does not work,
iterative design argues for quickly building low
fidelity prototypes, testing them, and re-designing--
gradually evolving the intervention over time.
Project proposal

Reference
Project
What is the project?

Brief overview

What will you be completing? What is your intention?

Project needs

What is the object of the project?

Initial ideas

Brainstorming and mind mapping

FULL SCREEN IMAGE

Reference
Q&A

Thank You.