Ian Noble and Russell Bestley break down the science of design research in this chapter, and address how designers should approach design problems, as well as the methods available to designers (and best practices) to conduct research. First, Noble and Bestley suggest that the designer ask themself what they want to achieve. This will help in the process of: field of study, project focus, and lastly research methodology. Field of study is the broad context for the work- which can be learned about through experience, such as market research. Noble and Bestley recommend that designers become familiar with the sophisticated visual languages which already exist, that seek to engage the audience.
As well, Noble and Bestley remind designers to be conscious of cost decisions- when it comes to printing and production, it is better to measure twice and cut once, as the saying goes. Secondly, project focus describes the message which is communicated- and the focus of the project may change during its lifespan. That is okay! There are two ways to approach this, according to Noble and Bestley: context-definition and context-experiment. An example of context-experiment is AB testing in UX design: breaking the design down to the minute details and seeing which produces better results. This makes designers nearly really cool scientists or psychologists- I love understanding why the brain is visually drawn to some parts of visual language and not others. Lastly, Noble and Bestley give a few case study examples: one being a map of cities that is made with anthropological words instead of traditional map structure. I think the idea of human density and connection can be much better expressed this way- though it might not tell you how to get somewhere, in an era where paper maps are nearly extinct, I find this idea a lovely one.
I think I understand the types of design research Noble and Bestley are talking about here- and why it's important. You cannot just throw in something visually because it looks cool, you have to have reasoning behind why that aspect of design is important to your goals and your audience. I think, in this project, I will look at other visual languages my audiences are already familiar with- and how to synthesize and connect with them through that, without breaking them away and disengaging their interest. Often, brands will attempt to do this and be too "trendy"- eg, using hashtags or other tools which seem juvenile to most actual adolescents or young people. Instead, I will be honest and straightforward- something today's generation seems to value the most.
Works Cited: Noble, Ian, and Russell Bestley. Visual Research: An Introduction to Research Methodologies in Graphic Design. Lausanne: AVA, 2005. Print.