Ben Kraal - Maths for Design Researchers

In this talk, I’ll introduce design researchers to concepts that will help them grow their confidence in working quantitatively. I’ll show that even people who think they’re “bad at maths” already think quantitatively. I’ll give some basic criteria that quantitatively inexperienced design researchers can use to judge the quality and usefulness of numerical approaches. And I’ll show how to use quantitative approaches to win arguments with engineers, persuade managers, and create space for design.

Transcript

1. Maths for designers
   and design researchers;
   or, an inquiry into the
   application of
   quantitative thinking
   for the visually inclined.
   Ben Kraal · 17 March 2021
   Maths
   for Designers
   and design researchers
   

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2. “Is this significant?”
   

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3. Most people, most
   of the time, don’t
   encounter
   research in their
   daily work.
   

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4. Our stakeholders
   have trouble
   trusting design
   research.
   

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5. But which
   numbers?
   

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6. 1. Why stakeholders like numbers
   2. What are good numbers
   3. An example of using “good” numbers
   

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7. Why do our
   stakeholders like
   numbers?
   

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8. A measured
   performance.
   

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9. The industrial
   revolution was also
   an institutional
   revolution.
   

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10. Beer and statistics.
    

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11. Randomness
    at scale
    is predictable.
    

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12. What are “good” numbers?
    

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13. Good numbers
    measure what they
    say they do.
    

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14. Oh, hey NPS.
    

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15. Academics
    sometimes make it
    harder than
    necessary to
    understand their
    numbers.
    

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16. Good numbers
    have a benchmark.
    

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17. Good Numbers
    Easy to administer;
    Easy to analyse
    

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18. The
    Single Ease
    Question
    Very
    difficult
    Very
    easy
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7
    ̋ ̋ ̋ ̋ ̋ ̋ ̋
    How easy or difficult was this task?
    

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19. User
    Experience
    Questionnaire
    -1.00
    -0.50
    0.00
    0.50
    1.00
    1.50
    2.00
    2.50
    Attractiveness Perspicuity Efficiency Dependability Stimulation Novelty
    

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20. An example with
    our old friend the
    System Usability
    Scale.
    

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21. A scenario:
    Usability of
    Electronic Health
    Record Systems
    in UK EDs
    (Bloom et al, 2021)
    

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22. Comparing results
    to the benchmark.
    

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23. The “good” line.
    

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24. The power is in
    your hands.
    

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25. Give stakeholders
    numbers.
    Carefully.
    

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26. Numbers need
    explaining.
    

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27. Iterate and
    measure again.
    

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28. Designers and design
    researchers can use
    maths and numbers to
    make space for, and
    build trust in, the
    stories they want to
    tell.
    Ben Kraal · 17 March 2021
    Maths
    for Designers
    and design researchers
    

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29. Colophon The design of this
    presentation is heavily
    inspired by Robin Rendle’s
    fantastic “Newsletters”
    essay.
    

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