Speakers: Kelly Costello - Design Research Conference, IIT Institute of Design

Kelly Costello, Doblin

Kelly Costello As the leader of user research at Doblin, Kelly keeps the firm's battery of research methods current and effective. In her tenure at this innovation strategy firm, she has worked with a wide variety of clients in the development of new products, services, systems, and business opportunities. During her career, Kelly has led as a design research initiatives in innovation strategy, product design, software and web development.

Kelly holds a Masters of Design from the Institute of Design at IIT and a BFA in Visual Communication of Anthropology from the University of Memphis. Kelly has led workshops and taught classes in visual communication, ethnographic research, documentary research methods and color narrative. She taught as a full-time professor at Studio Centers, International in Florence, Italy and served as an adjunct professor at the Institute of Design at IIT and Bowling Green State University in Ohio.

Talk: Design Under Pressure

Friday Oct. 2, 3:40 pm

Research is under constant pressure to deliver more for less - less time, fewer dollars, smaller teams - and never more so than now, amid these uncertain economic times. All the variables of design research are subject to critical scrutiny. And while our clients are asking for these concessions, an increasing number of consumers are publishing information through a vast array of digital media.

How do we as researchers leverage the convergences of these trends and demands to understand the marketplace in new ways? What constitutes 'new' research methods? New to your organization? To design research? To social science, broadly?

1. New to the organization

At the most rudimentary level, proven methods exist that may not yet have been used by a particular practice or company. Staying current on established research approaches and flexible in your willingness to try new methods will keep your organization’s tool kit sharp and insights fresh.

2. New to design research

These methods exist in other contexts, but have not yet been applied to innovation/design research, at least not as a common practice. The wealth of user generated content on the web has been researched and mined for other purposes, and can also inform an innovation process.

3. New to social science

Emerging methods present completely novel applications to the broader category of social science research. One unique application is represented in the work that Malcolm Gladwell discusses in the Tipping Point, where the tenants of epidemiology are applied to social behavior, with a resulting theory of how successful trends are created.

This presentation examines all three arenas, suggesting appropriate applications at each level. Participants will be engaged to debate the intent, approach and application of each method with relevant examples and case studies.