A shared picture
Maps, themes and careful descriptions that help a team discuss the same experience.
DESIGN RESEARCH / EVERYDAY LIFE
Look closely.
Keep an open mind.
Understand the everyday.
A design research practice for the small details, familiar routines and unanswered questions that shape how we live.
Explore the methods
Good questions
start here.
THE VALUE OF
LOOKING CLOSER
The ordinary is
full of possibility.
Before deciding what should change, it helps to understand what is already happening. The pauses. The familiar habits. The ways people make things work.
Research gives those details a place in the conversation. A patient look can reveal a question that a quick answer would miss.
Less assumption. More attention.
AN OPEN METHOD BOOK
A different way of looking.
Different questions call for different ways of paying attention. Choose a method and a context to explore an authored example.
A QUESTION TO BEGIN WITH
What happens between arriving and knowing what to do next?
What it might leave behind
A journey sketch that separates the intended steps from the pauses and improvised workarounds.
Start with an ordinary arrival. Note what is visible, then keep interpretations separate from observations.
WHAT RESEARCH LEAVES BEHIND
Something
to think with.
Not just a document. A way to have a more useful conversation about what could come next.
Better questions
A clear distinction between what was noticed, what might explain it and what still needs to be understood.
Something to try
A small, tangible next step with its assumptions visible. An invitation to learn more, not a promise of certainty.
Useful research keeps the unknowns in view.
QUESTIONS FROM EVERYDAY SITUATIONS
Start where
life happens.
Three imagined starting points.
An invitation to notice your own.
At the counter
Where does a simple errand become complicated?
An imagined service question about signs, waiting and knowing whose turn comes next.
Around the kitchen table
What do the objects we keep close tell us?
An imagined product question about habits, attachments and practical adjustments.
Between one step and the next
What gets lost when something changes hands?
An imagined collaboration question about information, expectations and shared understanding.
A COLLABORATIVE PRACTICE
Stay curious.
Think together.
A good question benefits from more than one perspective. This is one way to give a shared enquiry its shape.
an open
questiona shared
perspectivea next
question
questiona shared
perspectivea next
question
Begin with an open question.
Agree on what is useful to understand, who may be affected and what a proportionate enquiry could look like.
Give the context your attention.
Choose a method that fits the question. In real research, participation, consent and care need to be planned before any fieldwork.
Make sense together.
Bring observations into the room. Look for differences as well as patterns, and keep uncertainty visible.
Leave with a next question.
Turn a useful insight into something small enough to examine. Decide what would need to be learnt before going further.
A LOCAL PROJECT NOTE
What are
you curious
about?
Start with something you have noticed. An unanswered question is a useful place to begin.
ObserveA service
SCOPE STUDIO is a fictional research-practice concept with original generated photography. This local note sends nothing, saves nothing and books no service. No personal or confidential information is needed.
BEFORE WE BEGIN
A few open
questions.
Clarity about the practice.
Room for what comes next.
What is design research looking for?
A richer understanding of an experience and the context around it. It can help a team ask better questions and examine assumptions before choosing what to make or change.
Does every question need a large study?
The scope should fit the question, the context and the people involved. The examples here describe small starting points, not prescribed research plans or guaranteed results.
Are these examples from real projects?
No. SCOPE STUDIO is a fictional research-practice concept. All prompts and output descriptions are authored examples, and the generated photographs show imagined empty workspaces and materials.
Can I upload interviews or research materials?
No. This page has no recording, upload, analysis or participant-data tools. The method explorer switches between six prewritten examples. Do not include personal or confidential information in the local note.
What happens when I prepare a project note?
You get an unsent preview on this page. Nothing is saved, emailed or submitted, and no service is booked. Copy anything you want to keep before leaving or reloading.