The Pocket Universal Methods of Design, Revised and Expanded

052	Exploratory Research

User and product studies intended to forge an empathic knowledge base

• Exploratory research is conducted in the early stages of the design process and set by the planning, scoping, and definition phase.
• The focus is on gaining a solid knowledge base of the design territory and existing artifacts and forging an empathic sense of the people targeted by the design.
• Various diverse yet complementary methods might include contextual inquiry, touchstone tours, surveys, observation, experience sampling, and cultural probes.
• Research is purposefully flexible, encouraging divergence from planned protocols and the inclusion of data from spontaneous interactions and observations.
• Synthesis is critical, but targeted toward ...