Laura Ryan - The Role of the Design Researcher in Creating a Wellbeing Economy

Human Centred Design is often seen as a guardrail protecting researchers and designers from creating products and services that don’t address a customer need. However, we know that HCD can and has been used to validate ideas that aren’t always in the best interests of its users.

This introduces an interesting challenge for researchers who are not just data collectors, but employed to interpret data, build evidence and provide insights for decision making. Whether we choose to or not, as researchers we are impacting people's wellbeing. Is it enough to just take what participants say and build it?

Transcript

1. The role of the design
   researcher in creating
   a Wellbeing Economy
   `
   | 1 |
   | Future | Friendly |
   Laura Ryan
   Partner - Strategy
   Future Friendly
   Formerly Mentally Friendly
   

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2. | 2 |
   | Future | Friendly | Three key questions |
   01 / What is a wellbeing economy?
   02 / Why should I care about a ‘wellbeing
   economy’ as a design researcher?
   03 / What is the role of design research in
   augmenting products and services for a
   wellbeing economy?
   Three key questions
   

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3. | 3 |
   | Future | Friendly |
   01.
   What is a
   ‘wellbeing economy’?
   

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4. In short, GDP measures
   everything except that
   which makes life worthwhile
   Senator Bobby Kennedy
   University of Kansas - 1968
   “
   

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5. | 5 |
   | Future | Friendly | What is a wellbeing economy? |
   We need a holistic
   approach to sustainably
   improve wellbeing.
   Measuring progress on
   financial growth alone
   is sub-optimal.
   

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6. | 6 |
   | Future | Friendly | The wellbeing economy |
   The wellbeing
   economy
   Equality
   Finance
   Sustainability
   Education
   Poverty
   Sanitation
   Mental
   health
   

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7. | 7 |
   | Future | Friendly |
   02.
   Why should I care about
   a wellbeing economy as
   a design researcher?
   

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8. | 8 |
   | Future | Friendly | Why should I care? |
   Products and services
   are the way we interact
   with the designed world
   around us.
   The designed world is
   having a profound effect
   on our wellbeing.
   

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9. | 9 |
   | Future | Friendly | Why should I care? |
   Whether we choose to or
   not, as designers we are
   impacting people's
   wellbeing.
   We need to be conscious
   as researchers about what
   impact our actions have.
   

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10. | 10 |
    | Future | Friendly | Why should I care? |
    Has anyone ever been in a
    testing session or interview
    and had someone respond
    to something positively or
    ask for something that you
    felt would deliver negative
    outcomes?
    Keep this
    in mind
    

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11. | 11 |
    | Future | Friendly | Why should I care?|
    Category
    Superannuation
    Outcome
    Improve people’s literacy of
    superannuation
    Assumption
    Interacting with your
    superannuation will build
    literacy
    

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12. | 12 |
    IF
    We make it easy for
    people to interact
    with their risk profile
    and investments
    THEN
    People will understand
    and describe
    accurately what
    actions they’re taking
    | Future | Friendly | Why should I care?|
    

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13. | 13 |
    People with high financial literacy and high
    digital capability
    Able to confidently make decisions.
    People with low financial literacy and high
    digital capability
    Able to use the tooling very efficiently, but in
    doing so were also able to make decisions
    about their finances that they didn’t really
    understand.
    ‘This is awesome. I can change up my
    investments on the bus on the way to work.’
    | Future | Friendly | Why should I care?|
    

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14. | 14 |
    | Future | Friendly |
    03.
    What is the role of design
    research in augmenting
    products and services for
    a wellbeing economy?
    

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15. | 15 |
    | Future | Friendly | What is the role of design research in augmenting products and services for a wellbeing economy? |
    Comprehension comes first
    Principle
    Be very cautious when people see the value of a concept, but don’t properly
    understand it.
    When people don’t understand what the results of their actions are, it’s impossible
    for them to actually desire or value that experience.
    That delta between intention and comprehension is the danger zone.
    

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16. | 16 |
    | Future | Friendly | What is the role of design research in augmenting products and services for a wellbeing economy? |
    How
    Design experiments
    that test people’s
    comprehension
    before testing their
    desirability and value
    attribution.
    Comprehension
    People can clearly articulate the
    concept, and how it’s unique.
    Value attribution
    People see value in the product, and
    compare it to existing alternatives
    Desire
    People are willing to commit time
    and energy to pursue the concept
    

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17. | 17 |
    | Future | Friendly | What is the role of design research in augmenting products and services for a wellbeing economy? |
    Spot significance using
    outcomes
    Principle
    Insights are most significant when they can be attributed to the delivery of an
    outcome.
    Considering insights in isolation can result in products and services that deliver
    unintended consequences.
    On the surface, it looked as though offering people the ability to adjust their risk
    appetite and investment decisions on the fly was a good idea that was desired by the
    customer. But when we consider it in the broader context of building financial literacy,
    the inverse may be true.
    

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18. | 18 |
    | Future | Friendly | What is the role of design research in augmenting products and services for a wellbeing economy? |
    How
    Adopt an outcomes
    focused approach
    from day one and
    create alignment on
    those outcomes.
    Evaluate and prioritise
    insights against those
    outcomes.
    Horizon 1 Horizon 2 Horizon 3
    Long term
    outcome
    Indicators
    Collection
    and review
    process
    Key
    evaluation
    questions
    

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19. | 19 |
    | Future | Friendly | What is the role of design research in augmenting products and services for a wellbeing economy? |
    Balance empathy with
    entrepreneurialism
    Principle
    A business doesn’t need to label themselves as ‘purpose driven’ to be on the hook for
    delivering wellbeing outcomes.
    Wellbeing outcomes and profit do not contradict each other.
    Separating them is really dangerous.
    

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20. | 20 |
    | Future | Friendly | What is the role of design research in augmenting products and services for a wellbeing economy? |
    How
    Understand where tradeoffs
    are being made and what the
    predicted consequences are
    for business and people.
    Direction
    Direction Evidence & Insights
    The value we are delivering
    Business benefits
    Customer benefits
    Risks
    How Might We statements
    Ideas & Opportunities
    Supporting evidence & insights
    Key benefits & risks
    Problems framed as opportunity
    for design
    Execution ideas & opportunities /
    experiments
    

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21. | 21 |
    | Future | Friendly |
    Thank you
    future-friendly
    futurefriendly.team
    @_futurefriendly
    

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