Who are the design researchers?

Debate chair Nick Southgate said the MRS Conference had never heard much from the design research industry. Who are these people and how does their work compare with more mainstream research?

Katie Leckie, the head of research at design agency Kinneir Dufort, spent a decade as a ‘normal’ researcher at the likes of Ipsos and AstraZeneca before making the jump tp design research. By the end of the session members of the audience were openly admitting their envy of her work.

So what’s so different about carrying out research for the design industry? For a start, the research “plays a fundamental part” in every project, be it for graphic design, consumer goods or industrial products.

Leckie said that her research team and the design and innovation team “are very close” with both influencing each other through every step of the process. This ensures that “value isn’t lost between the stages of a project”, she said.

Speed is another factor. Members of the design team are present, either in person or looking through the focus group glass, and can knock up new stimulus overnight in the firm’s model making facilities to show consumers the next day.

This capacity to “make things more real” allows consumers to have an input, which could lead to changes, at every step of the process. “In effect we’re asking them to co-create with us,” she said.