What is the meaning of home to young adults who frequently relocate?
Identify design opportunities for products and services that help people adjust to their new life after relocation.
Summary
This project details my research process from secondary research to primary interview tactics through analysis of the findings and initial ideation based on identified opportunities.
Project Duration
12 weeks
Team
Solo
Skills
Secondary research
User interviews
Laddering (interview technique)
Pile Sort, User Journey, Card Associations
Analysis frameworks
Defining the Problem
Many designers know the importance of finding the right problem to solve. It is important to frame the problem correctly in order to develop the most useful research methods to help answer the question at hand.
In the current economic climate, it has become common for young adults to relocate for their education and employment. Many people will relocate once a year or more, often within the same city.
Identify design opportunities for products and services that help people adjust to their new life after relocation.
What is the meaning of home to young adults who frequently relocate?
Conducting Secondary Research
Secondary research is a vital part of the user research process. It is important to understand the information that is already openly available before diving in to your own research process.
In the case of frequent relocation, much of the openly available information was focused on the effect of moving on young children rather than adults.
While this information was helpful, primary research focusing on adults would be required to gain a better understanding of the issue.
Conducting Primary Research
In order to better find the answer to the main question, three research goals were laid out to help guide the interview process.
Primary Research Process
Develop Research Goals
Define Your Participants
Choose Your Tools
Conduct Interviews
Develop Research Goals
By laying out goals for our research, we can understand the purpose of our primary research and choose the correct generative tools for the job.
Understanding the motives to move frequently.
Understanding how they move.
Understanding if and how personal relationships change in relation to relocation.
Define Your Participants
To make sure we recruit the most appropriate interviewees, we first defined what our typical users might look like.
Additionally, we defined the sort of people who would be experts on our particular topic of moving frequently.
Users
Young adults leasing apartments, condos, or homes in Los Angeles or other major US cities. College age to pre-marriage (not "settled down"). And people who have moved multiple times in the past several years, ideally at least once a year.
Experts
Real estate agents or "apartment locators" in major cities.
Choose Your Tools
Generative tools use creativity and metaphor to allow users to dig deeply into feelings and thoughts they may not otherwise consider discussing. Using the right generative tools helps us gain useful user insight and reach our research goals.
Moving Timeline
The timeline technique allows users to visualize and discuss how they feel about individual tasks in the moving process.
“Create a timeline that represents your most recent or memorable move.”
Dixit Card Deck
These illustrated cards help interviewees think in metaphors and encourage them to think about their feelings and opinions in different ways. The same card often means different things to different people.
“Pick two or three cards that represent how you feel after moving to a new home.”
Modified Pile Sort
Interviewees are given a stack of various photos that represent different aspects of the home. They are asked to populate their own home with the things they need most.
“Fill this house with the things you need to feel the most at home.”
Conduct Interviews
All interviews are filmed and kept for later reference.
Interviews are conducted in person, ideally at the interviewee’s home.
Particularly when discussing the topic of moving, it is helpful to see the interviewee’s home, take photos, and ask questions about their choice of surroundings.
Analysis of Findings
After the user interviews are complete, we move into the analysis phase, which allows us to develop insights and opportunities that will inform the design process.
To begin the analysis phase of the research process, all research findings and thoughts are gathered and clustered into groups using sticky notes.
These sticky notes are filled with key words from interviews, behavioral observations, recurring themes, and more.
Next, these thoughts and findings are analyzed by using tools designed to help provoke thoughts about how users think, act, and feel.
Developing Insights
From these charts and graphs, insights and opportunities are developed. These insights are expanded on as the research process flows into the design process.
Top Five Insights
Home as a place for escape
Finding new places you love to go is difficult
The need for assurance of safety in a new home
Not wanting to lose memories when you leave a place
The struggle to make new friends
From just 5 insights and opportunities, over 80 concepts were developed in a variety of areas.
Each concept addressed some aspect of moving or feeling at home in a new place. Some concepts were focused on children, building new friendships, or feeling safe in a new home.
80 concepts were then narrowed down to the five most promising ideas to further research and develop designs.
Unplugged
Unplugged is a small wifi blocking device to promote healthy sleep and work habits. It is thin enough to fit between your mattress and boxspring.
The device prevents you from using your home’s wifi in the area directly surrounding your bed.
Hush Hush
Hush Hush is an app that allows people to anonymously share their favorite local spots.
Users can find anything from interesting landmarks, hole-in-the-wall restaurants, or big chain stores.
Street Smart
Street smart is a smart welcome mat that can work with other devices in your smart home.
The LED light that shines on the edges of the mat changes colors to indicate your message to visitors and delivery drivers.
What I Remember
This tablet based app allows you and your child to work together, drawing and writing down memories of your home.
Take photos of their favorite places, people, and things and compile them in a place that they can access at any time if they miss something or feel anxious about the big changes in their lives.
Swap
Swap is an app that uses near field communication to encourage networking and meeting new people by turning it into a game.
Users create their own personal trading card (profile) and “trade cards” with others they meet. Meeting more people builds your “deck” and earns you rewards.