As much of the research was taking place in Germany, we worked with our local partners in the Reach Network, Minds & Makers. Together we developed a methodology for the fieldwork, targeted around the kind of insights we needed. We involved a range of participants that covered a variety of social and geographical backgrounds, each of whom had different preferences and routines centred around mobility  and re-fueling. A series of probes, semi-structured interviews, and location visits gave us the data we needed for an internal analysis workshop at our Amsterdam office.

The end result was a series of clustered insights that could be used to inform and inspire the client’s design teams. To make these insights as accessible as possible to these teams, we visualised them on a large-scale poster, in addition to presenting them in a more traditional report format. Presenting results in this way is something we’ve had a lot of success with in the past; after all, even the most resonant of insights will achieve little if the right people never get to see them.

In a full-day internal workshop with people from many different departments in the client organisation we presented the insight from the research, and participated in discussions around a series of new service concepts they are currently working on. The posters with observations, quotes and insights were there to refer to and to ensure that the consumer perspective did not get lost during the sometimes passionate strategic discussions.

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With a month to go before our first conference ‘The Great Outdoors of Design’ gets underway, the full list of topics we’ll be looking at has now been finalised. Our intention with this event has always been to aim for a more intimate and collaborative atmosphere than is found at many conferences; we really want to explore these issues in conjunction with our attendees – not just stand there on the stage talking about them.

All of the topics are collected around two main themes, both of which we think are right at the heart of Design Research:

How can Research and Design be brought closer together?

and

How can global and local insights and opportunities be combined?

These are two questions which we’re constantly addressing with our work here at STBY, and our Reach partners will all be presenting their own perspectives on what these questions actually mean in reality. We wanted to organise a conference that looked at these questions from the point of real-world practice, not just abstract theory – and we’re excited about finally getting the chance to do so!

You can download a copy of the programme by clicking here. Tickets for GOOD’11 are on sale now at our Eventbrite Site.

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These are exciting times here at STBY, as today we can announce that come Friday September 23rd we’ll be hosting our first conference with Reach, the global network of design research companies of which STBY are a co-founder.

Held in conjunction with the London Design Festival,”The Great Outdoors of Design” (or ‘GOOD’, as we increasingly like to call it) will be a behind-the-scenes look at a range of cross-cultural research projects that embody design principles.

What happens when innovative design is combined with groundbreaking research?

The event will be an interactive experience where those attending will be able to collaboratively explore the benefits design research can deliver to product and service operation. The Reach partners will be jetting in from across the world meanwhile to share their experiences on two key themes:

Firstly, we’ll be looking at how design and research can be brought closer together. This will cover issues like organisational management, data visualisations, and how the two disciplines can each be used to facilitate the other.

The second theme builds on this in order to explore what actually happens “when global meets local”. Reach partners from as far afield as Brazil, China, and Japan will be sharing their insights into issues such as how specific local circumstances can affect global strategic shifts.

The emphasis throughout however will be placed upon interaction, with all those attending given a chance to share their own thoughts and participate in collaborative explorations of the issues addressed.

Tickets for the event are strictly limited, but can be ordered now via our Eventbrite Site. There’ll be lots more GOOD news coming over the next few weeks, and the best way to keep updated with this is to follow us on Twitter at @stby.

Looking forward to seeing you all in September!

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Our client is in the process of developing a new innovative service proposition in this area. They wanted to obtain feedback from consumers on their early concepts, as well as get a fresh outside perspective that could help them to further develop the concepts and progress them towards implementation.

To expose the concept to many different people in a short period of time, we invited four groups of six reasonably healthy people to our studio to take part in a series of half-day Service Experience Labs. We prepared a set of engaging materials to introduce the concept to the participants, and to engage them in an interactive exploration and discussion.

In contrast to traditional focus groups, the participants in these Service Experience Labs do not just sit around a table and respond to general questions. Through a series of individual and group assignments they were prompted to reflect in detail and in a highly personal way on the consequences that the use of the concept would have on their daily lives. They also compiled a rich personal profile of their current (healthy) lifestyle, indicated the aspects they would like to change, and reflected on the potential use for them of getting support in achieving this.

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On 16 June at the Q Festival, organised by the Association of Qualitative Research (AQR), Geke van Dijk will present a talk, together with Marianne Guldbrandsen from the Design Council, and Kat Gough from Nokia. The tilte of the talk is ‘Design Research: The most creative in the industry?’

The Q Festival is advertised as the ‘Glastonbury of Qual…’, a festival of thought, surprise, provocation and illumination, so that is very promising.

See this link for more information on the Q Festival and on AQR

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One of the parties we really enjoy working with in The Netherlands is LBi Lost Boys. Following up on the successful and pleasant collaboration for the development of the national innovation programme ‘Creatie van Waarde’, and the support for the new Amsterdam School for Creative Leadership THNK, we are currently teaming up more proactively for various clients.

The synergy between our Design Research expertise and Lost Boys’ creative and strategy teams is high. This really shows the added value we can create together for our clients.

At the Creative Company Conference in Haarlem on 7 June, Ruurd Priester, Strategy Director of LBi Lost Boys, announced our collaboration as one of their strategic partnerships.  In this day and age of networked collaboration we feel that we are learly not just doing the talk, but also walking the walk.

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1. Say yes to the mess! For 'The week of Service Design' on Molblog, the online...
2. Mobility, Cars and Refueling Experiences What do people care about in terms of mobility, and...
3. Stakeholder Research in Food & Retail for Ahold In collaboration with LBi Lost Boys, STBY recently conducted a...

1. Say yes to the mess! For ‘The week of Service Design’ on Molblog, the online...
2. Mobility, Cars and Refueling Experiences What do people care about in terms of mobility, and...
3. Stakeholder Research in Food & Retail for Ahold In collaboration with LBi Lost Boys, STBY recently conducted a...

To provide for informative as well as inspiring research outputs, we worked with a probe package (sent out to the participants in advance of the interviews) and with a large scale insight map annotating the stages of the decision making process from the perspectives of the various target audiences involved.

A broad range of useful insights have been derived from this first exploratory study – later in the development process more in-depth studies focusing on specific aspects may follow. The collaboration between the various parties involved has also been quite special. In the true spirit of iterative co-creation we regularly got together in workshops, where we exchanged our concurrent insights, ideas and early concepts. Apart from THNK and STBY, Lava is working on the brand identity and visual style, with LBi Lost Boys developing the next release of the online platform. All very experienced and knowledgable experts in their fields, and all a real pleasure to work with.

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Bespoke methodology for each project

We design a bespoke project for each situation and environment we’re asked to research. We use a wide range of tools that allow us to consistently deliver intimate and resonant insights. We might use film, making a series of short documentaries that explore and document the lives and interests of particular people. We might use a series of in-depth interviews as the basis for developing personas, clustering together the themes we uncover into easily recognisable groups. Or we might run a user-lab or workshop, inviting people to attend our studio in order to explore new service concepts via a range of interactive exercises.

What we don’t do is reduce people’s lives down to surveys or questionnaires. We prefer to deliver materials that are engaging, and present insights into people’s everyday lives that truly get to the heart of what defines an experience. We don’t think traditional market-research is capable of doing this, nor do we believe that research should take place in isolation of the overall design and implementation process.

Guidance on how to implement the insights and ideas

In fact, our projects often involve providing guidance to service providers and design teams who want to use the results to inform and inspire their innovation processes. We’ve established long-term relationships with a number of clients, and we’ve helped some of them reorientate their research activities around the service design principles we incorporate into our work. These partnerships have in many instances extended over multiple projects; we don’t just deliver results, we build relationships and provide expertise and support in the long-term.

We aim to deliver a holistic solution that generates insights, provokes innovation, and assists implementation. Each of these stages is crucial in ensuring that services are connected with the lives of the people using them.

Still not sure what we do? Try downloading one of the following articles:

Service Design – Visualising Future Solutions tells you a bit more about the field of service design,
Design Research – Inspiring Research with the Principles of Design explains a bit more about the design research methodologies we use in our work.

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2. Mobility, Cars and Refueling Experiences What do people care about in terms of mobility, and...
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