BIG IDEAS: A HISTORY OF FIELD RESEARCH IN INDUSTRIAL DESIGN IN THE UNITED STATES
James A. Arnold · 2005
Field research is a general term that can be used to describe many different kinds of research activity that bring the designer (or design team members) into direct contact with the customer. Many disciplines, including industrial design, refer to field research as ethnography. However, because the term ethnography traditionally came from the social sciences and because disciplines like anthropology and sociology define ethnography in specific ways, field research has also become known as: customer inquiry, design ethnography, discovery research, and empathic design. The principle of prolonged cultural immersion (sometimes requiring months or years) commonly used in anthropology is typically skipped when ethnographic methods are used in design. The above terms serve to imply that the methodology or method has been customized to suit the purposes of product development. Product development time cycles and finances typically do not allow for extended periods of research. For the purposes of this paper, field research is defined as: activities during the product development process where the designer gathers information about the user while in the user’s environment – which can then be used to influence product design. This may include methods similar to methods used in ethnography and cultural anthropology. Paul Rothstein (1999) has designated the following attributes of field research as follows: field research is about studying culture and human behavior, field research is part art and science, and field research involves a method. This method is composed of phases, including: research design, data collection, analysis, and reporting. Arnold Wasserman contends that field research based design tends to foster better solutions to design problems and reduces risk of the product failing on the market. It also helps justify the high cost (sometimes in the millions of dollars) of development that a company must invest in order to proceed with product development (personal interview, December 29, 2004). Most designers and design teams throughout history did not conduct field research as a part of the design process. At times, this may have been due to the nature of the products that designers were called upon to design. For example, existing products are redesigned to incorporate a new feature, technology, or updated styling for the upcoming year. These may not need extensive field research to proceed with design work. Research also costs somebody a substantial amount of money. While a company may be willing to spend money on extensive research to reduce risk and maximize potential for innovation, many companies (without deep understanding of how to conduct cost effective and actionable field research) may feel the expense is unnecessary. When