Everyday reality

Where does design research take place?

Doing design research is universal by nature, just like design. Almost everything around us is designed. As a consequence design research can take place almost everywhere. Everyday life is an appropriate label for such a place because the everyday happens everywhere. But in design research, we use a particular view on everyday life, as a place where people produce cultural and social meaning, partly through their use of designed products and services, but also through their interactions with people and organisations. Everyday life here is not seen as determined by brands and consumption, it is considered a place where people actively create contemporary society and popular culture.

What is the nature of everyday life?

The everyday is dull and spectacular at the same time*. Routines like working in a factory or office, or doing house chores are mixed with the unusual like excitement, astonishment or surprise, about an event or a person. Or perhaps a joke in a video chat with a friend at the other side of the world. Or something you saw at an exhibition. Often, there is a certain newness to these surprises that can also wear off again quite quickly, but there are always new new phenomena. The ordinary mixes with the extraordinary all the time. The everyday is a mix of routines and surprises. Both are equally important to design research.

[* Highmore, B. (Ed.) (2002) The Everyday Life Reader, London and New York, Routledge ]

Film is a way
to tell stories from
everyday life

Americans Are Spending More Time Listening To Music Than Ever Before

 In 2016, Americans listened to an average of 26.6 hours of music per week, while in the year prior, it was just 23.5 hours. (...) At 2017’s mid-year mark, Americans had hit play on 184 billion songs on on-demand streaming outlets like Spotify and Apple Music. That’s up an incredible 62% from the same period a year before. (Forbes, 2017)

Yeah, numbers.
Now what?

Design and innovation teams need more than numbers. They also need to understand people's experiences and motives. 

A FILM

NUMBER

FACT

A FILM CLIP

A QUOTE

A TOUCHPOINT

A DOCUMENTATION

A REGISTRATION




A FILM

=

A STORY

=

A PERSPECTIVE

=

AN EXPERIENCE

=

SEVERAL INSIGHTS

=

KNOWLEDGE


Film is a way
to tell stories from
everyday life


ROUTINES + SURPRISES


THE PARTICULAR
+
THE GENERAL


IMAGE + SOUND
(indeed, film is a visual language, see the next section)