About perspective and research in product design

Sometimes we do research just for the sake of it. Ideally, we do research based on a clear goal. This goal can be as specific as “understand if our users prefer option A or B” or as broad as “understand how pen & paper plays a role in our users’ lives”.

But why do we end up feeling good when research is done? What is it about? Vlad Glaveanu’s lecture on “Culture and Creativity” got me thinking. Highly recommend watching the whole thing, by the way.

A little about perspective. “Perspectives may be understood broadly as perceptual and conceptual orientations to a situation with a view to acting within that situation.” (Martin, 2005; Gillespie, 2006).

In simpler terms, perspective is all about the way we act in any given situation.

Let's say you have a table in front of you and you're drinking water from a cup. The dominant perspective says that you can rest the cup on the table. A kid, though, might pour the water on the table and play with it.

That perspective can be shifted based on one's life experiences and on different roles we ourselves play.

Your perspective in a classroom is different if you are listening or if you are speaking.

When you mix all of these perspectives, what you end up with is a dialogue. A big complex soup of many ingredients. And this dialogue is where a lot of creativity happens.

That's why we do research. To expose ourselves to different perspectives.

This results in higher diversity of opinions and, as a consequence, in a higher quality product.

Maybe everything comes back to perspective.