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
2. “Is this significant?”
3. Most people, most of the time, don’t encounter research in their daily work.
4. Our stakeholders have trouble trusting design research.
5. But which numbers?
6. 1. Why stakeholders like numbers 2. What are good numbers 3. An example of using “good” numbers
7. Why do our stakeholders like numbers?
8. A measured performance.
9. The industrial revolution was also an institutional revolution.
10. Beer and statistics.
11. Randomness at scale is predictable.
12. What are “good” numbers?
13. Good numbers measure what they say they do.
14. Oh, hey NPS.
15. Academics sometimes make it harder than necessary to understand their numbers.
16. Good numbers have a benchmark.
17. Good Numbers Easy to administer; Easy to analyse
18. The Single Ease Question Very difficult Very easy 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 ̋ ̋ ̋ ̋ ̋ ̋ ̋ How easy or difficult was this task?
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
20. An example with our old friend the System Usability Scale.
21. A scenario: Usability of Electronic Health Record Systems in UK EDs (Bloom et al, 2021)
22. Comparing results to the benchmark.
23. The “good” line.
24. The power is in your hands.
25. Give stakeholders numbers. Carefully.
26. Numbers need explaining.
27. Iterate and measure again.
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
29. Colophon The design of this presentation is heavily inspired by Robin Rendle’s fantastic “Newsletters” essay.