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Re-framing remote research

Design With
Re-framing remote research
By Tyler Gindraux • Issue #6 • View online
Hi, hello, welcome! A reminder that you can find past issues here.

Text: This Week
Text: This Week
I started a new job last week, which has me returning to many of the resources I sifted through when the pandemic first hit. For those of us with experience conducting research or facilitating co-design activities in person, there are so many things that need to change given a remote-only context. However, it’s worth remembering (1) there are also a lot of things that remain the same and (2) not all of these changes are negative.
I’m particularly drawn to resources which highlight both the constraints and the possibilities of conducting remote research or co-designing online. It warms my generally optimistic heart when I see how researchers and designers are re-framing remote design work.
Before the goods, here are a few provocations to sit with:
  • How might we be able to provide a better experience for research participants in a remote setting?
  • How do we design for different levels of digital literacy and can we hold space for a spectrum of engagement?
  • How might we allow participants to co-author design projects, when we’re only coming together online?
  • And finally, can we use this experience to envision more contextual and embedded research practices post-Covid?
Our philosophy is to embrace the new reality — rather than trying to conduct an ersatz of in-person research online, we welcome the new paradigm.
I almost don’t want to write anything here, because I feel like it’s just definitely worth a read. This piece is very practical but also hopeful; I keep coming back to the notion that time and space constraints have been flipped on their heads, given a remote research context.
medium.com  •  Share
Holding the space for long term thinking when our partners are in a reactive mode trying to address emerging needs, can be challenging.
Towards the beginning of the pandemic, FutureGov shared a slide deck with practical ways to transition to remote design research. And more recently, Alessandra wrote this piece about how FutureGov’s service design team is developing new ways of working through a crisis.
blog.wearefuturegov.com  •  Share
But what happens when the world as we know it shifts, and designers need to now support co-creation activities with a diverse range of humans online?
This webinar, hosted by Portable, offers practical recommendations to co-designing remotely. The most useful bit, for me, is when Aishling goes through common research methods and describes ways of facilitating them online.
portable.com.au  •  Share
Text: "It's still important to acknowledge what's missing when we take away the experience of our bodies together in a place." Cath Richardson and Cyril Maury
Text: "It's still important to acknowledge what's missing when we take away the experience of our bodies together in a place." Cath Richardson and Cyril Maury
Thanks
Did that quote make you cry? Me too. Anyways, let me know if you’ve been finding or creating any stellar methods for researching remotely.
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Tyler Gindraux

This monthly newsletter is curated by Tyler Gindraux, a researcher and service designer based in London and Cape Town.

Design With encourages conversation while building a community of people who are interested in participatory approaches to urban planning, service design, and user research.

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