In “Understanding the Problem: Design Research”, the author discussed qualitative research techniques for design and how they are used to support and enhance quantitative techniques. Qualitative methods help designers better understand not only a product but also stakeholders and users. The reading introduced different qualitative research techniques that are important for designing in a real world. During my undergraduate internship as a user experience designer, I worked together with a user researcher and a market researcher. User research allowed us to understand user’s pain points that led to the problem as well as suggested market opportunities. In that internship, I assisted the researcher during the stakeholder, customer, and user interviews. I found it interesting that the conversations with some of them are totally different, while some are similar; therefore, analyzing the data was a really important step to shape the design process.

The “MagneTracks: A Tangible Constructionist Toolkit for Newtonian Physics” gave a great example of how we could design a tangible learning tool for students. The authors presented their design, a multi-component educational toolkit that allows students to explore the concept of Newtonian Physics. From the reading, I really like how the designers left rooms for creativity and questions to be explored. This tool also reminded me of one of the educational toys that we played in class last week: the magic pen inductive robot. It was my favorite tool because it doesn’t limit me from drawing any shapes that I wanted, allowing me to explore more possibilities.

Burning questions: What user research techniques are often used for a tangible design? What should designers consider differently during early stages of design and after getting the design done?