There’s an interesting discussion emerging on the blogosphere on the importance of design research. Don Norman argues that research works when iterating over existing products and services but isn’t a great fit when coming up with innovative breakthrough ideas. Adam Richardson of Frog Design points that design research doesn’t necessarily equate to user research, which is what Don frames his article on and adds quite a few good points to the table.

I’ve been reading Warren Berger’s book Glimmer (amazon link) and mulling over this exact same question in the last few days, and I am somewhere between the two camps. One might argue that some of the greatest products of our time are not necessarily a product of design research but of genius design (Berger talks about Jonathan Ive’s work for Apple). But you could also say that genius design doesn’t necessarily emerge out of a vacuum – it is the product of deep thinking about how people use the products and services around them, and the realization that things can often be better through design.

Whenever I read about design research being the be-all-end-all of figuring out what people need, I remember the Ford quote “If I had asked my customers what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse.” In fact, most companies that claim to do design research go out and ask people what they’re lacking about a product – and people do want “everything, really” (including a faster horse).

Ultimately, I believe the answer to “what do I do to know what people need?” is to use design research in order to create a bond with the target audience – dive into the challenge -, and then go with the instincts of the design team. While instinct alone may work in the realm of the inexplicable (and may often return odd results), it is unquestionable that an informed (by research) instinct is where lies the secret to the next iPhone, Netflix or Nike Plus.

Here’s a couple of fragments from a recent post by the always brilliant Adam Greenfield over at Speedbird. Don’t, however, let these quotes deter you away from reading the complete post, as it is quite worth a piece of your weekend reading time:

My own guilty secret is that I don’t follow those names, pay any attention to the various sites and journals people like me are supposed to read, or attend the community’s events, and (to some reasonably approximate value of “never”) never really have. I suppose it’s always possible that I’d be a more accomplished practitioner if I did and had, but my feeling is that there are better and deeper sources of insight available if you dig a little in the history of adjacent design disciplines. (…)

I can tell you that whenever I do get to spend some time with a book like Responsive Environments, I come away enthused, humbled, enriched and inspired, where I think you’d be hard-pressed to say the same of the extant UX literature. And as for the struggles we face in daily working life, it just might be that a challenge seemingly cut from the fabric of this moment alone can yield to an insight hauled up from decades, even centuries, away.

I believe a good designer gets inspiration not only from others in his field but from others in other fields and fields other than his own. Have a great weekend – possibly reading about something you never considered reading about before (maybe you’d like to peruse Adam’s own reading list?).