Time 4 Design
Table 12
Objective A strand 2
Students are encouraged to formulate a list of questions in order of importance that will help prioritize and guide their research. Students will need to identify:
the questions that need to be answered to solve the problem
the relevant data that needs to be collected
where the data will be sourced from
whether sources are primary or secondary
which sources are essential and which are desirable.
The nature of and amount of research required will vary depending on the level and the nature of the design problem/challenge. By the end of the course, students should be able to conduct primary, secondary, qualitative and quantitative research.
Table 13 outlines primary and secondary research tasks that students could carry out to gather the answers to their research questions.
Primary research
(Direct: First-hand research)
All primary research is carried out by the student, who collects his or her own data.
Examples include:
conducting interviews, surveys and polls with a target audience and/or client
interviewing experts over the telephone
writing letters or emails asking for specific information about a product from a client
observing users interacting within the situation and making notes
analysing products that have things in common with the problem
investigating the work of other designers of existing products
conducting market research such as surveys, questionnaires and interviews through focus groups
experimenting with materials, tools and processes.
Secondary research
(Indirect: Desk research)
Secondary research involves using data collected by other people.
Examples include:
analysing data from a website or book
reading accounts of a problem written by another person
analysing articles in magazines, journals and newspapers
downloading data from a marketing website
viewing videos about how to use materials, tools and processes.
Table 13
Primary and secondary research tasks
Adapted from MYP Site https://ibpublishing.ibo.org/server2/rest/app/tsm.xql?doc=m_8_techn_tsm_1406_1_e&part=3&chapter=4