Design Research Methodology - Final Compilation & Reflection
Design Research Methodology - Final Compilation & Reflection
MIB
Assignment 1 : Proposal
Assignment 2 : Critical Review
Assignment 3 : Research Implementation - Primary Data
Assignment 4 : Research Reflection Report & Recorded Presentation
It seemed difficult enough to begin with the research proposal at the beginning of this semester. The most difficult part of this first assignment for me was deciding on a research topic that I was interested in. When it came to the topic, I had a lot on my mind, and I was worried that I wouldn't be able to do well and find a lot of information relevant to my topic. I gave it a lot of thought before deciding on minimalism. It's not that I'm particularly fond of this style of design. But I've seen it come and go out of style so many times that I knew there had to be something I could do with it. I wanted to know how it worked and why it worked, as well as when it didn't work at all. After that, the majority of my difficulties came from the writing and reading processes. I had no idea how to create a flow or what information was most important to include. There were a few issues with the research problem and how it was written that were discovered. I don't believe it included all of the most important points, but after my consultation, I was able to see where I went wrong and correct it by doing more research on the information that needed to be included.
In comparison to the first assignment, I believe the second was a lot easier for me. I didn't have to struggle with deciding on a topic, which saved me a lot of time and effort. My only issue was that I am not a big reader. It takes me a long time to read something thoroughly and fully comprehend it, let alone write about it. I had to read a lot of research articles for this project. Finding relevant articles that fit within the timeframe and topic of my choice was the most difficult aspect of this assignment for me. I tried my hardest to find articles about graphic design and minimalism. Despite the fact that they are all quite similar, I was able to accomplish this, and they all worked out in my favour. Another problem was that I had no idea how to write a critical review. I wasn't sure how I was going to comment on someone else's work. I looked up a few critical reviews on the internet to see how other people wrote it. I read the research articles I came across and kept track of what I found useful and what I didn't.Then I whittled down the critical review using that information. We were initially required to write for each of the articles we chose, but this was later changed to an overall review of all the research articles. I had already completed the majority of them separately, which made compiling the relevant information for their respective topics, between findings and discussions, and then the methodology, much easier.
The third assignment was also the last task of our researching process for our topic. After doing some research and properly understanding what primary research is, I knew that conducting interviews was the best fit for my topic. The first thing I did was more reading on how interviews are conducted and what kind of questions I needed to produce. The questions had to be formed in a way that I could get the most out of the participants. I had to keep the research problem in hand while I made these questions. The benefit for me with interviews was that I didn't need a lot of participants. I was lucky enough to get a response from two of them. I originally wanted to do at least five participants, and some of which specialized in minimalist designs as well. I was not fortunate enough to receive this, but I did receive two responses. I was pleased with the two responses because, based on their work, they appear to be knowledgeable about the design industry and thus would have something to say about minimalism. Even so, time management was difficult due to the fact that working designers are extremely busy. Originally, I planned to conduct an online Zoom video call interview. Even so, I had to resort to email interviews. One advantage was that I only had to take notes afterward, and I already knew all of their exact answers. As a result, there were no issues on my end. Having said that, I must say that I'm glad I sent the questions out when I did because I wouldn't have received them in time if I hadn't.
Overall, I am very pleased with the decisions I made in this module. This turned out to be a lot more enjoyable than I anticipated. I liked how our tasks were assigned and how well-organized this module is. I learned a lot of new things after receiving all of the assistance I required from the respected lecturers and especially, Dr Jinchi. When it came to reading and writing, I learned to be more patient. I've learned to recognise when I'm looking at the right information when doing research and, most importantly, how to write in a more organised manner. I was initially hesitant about beginning this module. I have had my fair share of troubles and doubts obviously, because I am very new to a module like this and I still have a long way to go and a lot more to learn. Nonetheless, I am relieved that I was able to get through this much more smoothly than I expected. I am looking forward to seeing how I will perform in the design research dissertation.
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