Core77

Check out Dan Soltzberg's review and analysis of Stefan Sagmeister's recent lecture at Stanford, where he presented based on his Things I Have Learned In My Life So Far projects. Thanks to an audience member's inquiry on Sagmeister's ideation methods, the audience got an up-close and personal look at the side of him that has the ability to avoid "the dangers of starting ideation from existing solutions and opinions."

This demonstration... got me thinking about the art of research.

Design research is often positioned as a kind of counterbalance to the type of creative act I've just described. But, when it's well-practiced, research includes a juxtaposing and synthesizing of ideas... Just as with other aspects of the design process, research culminates in possibilities for new ways that things can go together. For design researchers, the materials for this synthesis include a deep and focused exploration of people: behaviors, bodies, meaning, culture, complaints, wishes, lies and truths.

...The beauty of integrating a focused understanding of people into the whole design process... is that what comes out the other end of the pipe will be imbued not only with the vision of its creators but with the soul of that wider audience as well.