We've all had trouble validating our design directions. Plain and simple.

Those folks in marketing are constantly throwing market research at us as a means to direct our design efforts. It's time to throw a little something back. By blending DESIGN research with market research, we can create touch points to insure product success. Marty Gage (RocketSurgery) and Chris Rockwell (Lextant) put together a stellar workshop discussion centered around the various processes associated with design research. It aimed to demystify the ways to reach out to users with a focus that provides beneficial results.

Design research allows us to get buy-in from the business side of our organizations by providing them with justification for concepts in areas like consumer usablility and product usefulness. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. Extremely compelling presentation. Perhaps the best part of the session is yet to come...the attendees will all get a digital copy of the presentation as a reference for future projects!