UX Research Plan

Last updated on:
November 14, 2019

Author: Stephen Bau
Stakeholders: Human individuals, communities, societies, Earth and all living things

Background

When do we have permission to think about the big picture? To solve systemic problems, we need to be able to reimagine our social architecture, the metaphysical design of our common social, economic, and political lives on Earth and how our activity impacts the ecology of the planet and all living things?

Scientists have been warning us about the ecological impact of human activity for several decades. Many of us are living in denial. Children are protesting that we are leaving them a world that is on fire and we are the arsonists.

Our social, economic, and political institutions are failing us.

  • Belief systems are dividing us
  • Corporations are exploiting us
  • Governments are oppressing us

This is a service design problem because of the many complex layers of experience, all the living organisms on the Earth who have a stake in the ecology of the planet, and the challenges we face because of the constraints on time, energy, and matter.

Doing, Not Talking

Opinions are great, and everyone always has at least one. But service design is based in reality. Instead of talking about something for a long time, build stuff, test it, understand what needs to be improved, build it again. Show me, don’t tell me. Stop comparing opinions, start testing prototypes.

Stickdorn, Marc,Hormess, Markus Edgar,Lawrence, Adam,Schneider, Jakob. This Is Service Design Doing (Kindle Locations 839-841). O'Reilly Media. Kindle Edition.

Research Goals

  • Learn what people are doing to become more aware of the problems.
  • Understand what people are doing to maintain their mental health and resilience.
  • Discover how people are engaging in efforts to change their habits.
  • Understand how people might overcome resistance to change.
  • Gather information about existing plans to make changes and solve problems.
  • Research how art, music, storytelling, and culture might be part of the solution to inspire people to work together.

Participants

The creative collaborative community of humans who are motivated to get involved in the process of imagining, designing, and building the future together. According to Astra Taylor, we need only a small percentage of motivated people to make social change a reality.

We are all in this together. (Forget demographics. It is inherently classist, racist, and sexist. Advertising and marketing are what got us into this mess.)

Methodologies

  • Literature Review: to better understand the primary challenges humans are facing.
  • Collaborative Analysis: to gain greater awareness of how we can build on the efforts of others.
  • Surveys: to discover how people are engaging in efforts to change their habits.
  • 1:1 Interviews: to discover whether the model we are proposing for events, workshops, and projects might be effective to build relationships, capacity, and imagination.

Timeline

  • Literature Review
  • Collaborative Analysis
  • Surveys
  • 1:1 Interviews