Design Research Methodology / Final Compilation & Reflection

31.8.2023 - 6.12.2023 (Week 1 - Week 15)
Elysa Wee Qi En / 0355060 / Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media / Taylor's University
Design Research Methodology
Final Compilation & Reflection

INSTRUCTIONS

Fig. 1. Module Information Booklet

SUBMISSIONS

Final Report: 

Fig. 2. Final Report (PPT Slides) (9/12/2023)

Recorded Presentation:

Fig. 3. Recorded Video Presentation (9/12/2023)

FEEDBACK

Week 2
- Mr Charles likes my topic and finds it fascinating. There are different ideas that I can go along with and expand upon.

Week 3
- Remember to not be too opinionated in creating the proposal. State facts with research to back it up.

Week 5
- Don't be too ambitious. Focus on fewer aspects.

Week 6 - Critical review feedback: add subheadings and make it more aesthetically appealing. - For the critical review, I shouldn’t review just an abstract, but the whole article instead. - Try to make the proposal slides more aesthetically appealing too, though it doesn’t have to be too fancy.

Week 8
- Mr Charles approves of my justification for my chosen research method.

Week 11 - Research problem is well-written, clear. - Have a clearer distinction between RQ 1&2, they seem like the same question. - Edit RO 3 to better fit with RQ 3.  - Try to interview up to 20 people. -When interviewing, try to remind interviewees to give narrative answers that aren’t too short or vague/concise/direct. Also remember not to goad them to answer in a certain way. - Try to also not interview just friends who know you too well, or you know too well, but do reach out to Genshin fans.

REFLECTIONS

Experience
I enjoy research, especially on topics that I’m passionate about, so I quite enjoyed this module. It was nice to be able to choose almost anything I wanted as my research topic, and it enabled me to try researching something not just from the internet, but from surveying and interviewing other people. Overall, it gave me opportunities and was an enjoyable experience. Though, due to my topic and the extent of research I needed, it was difficult to get the data I needed in the time I had, so I had to make do with all I could get. I only had 9 responses in my survey and only had time to interview 3 people, but also luckily due to the subjective nature of the data, there was still quite a bit of value to extract. 

Observations
As I was finishing up my research, I realised there were some questions I set for myself that I did not have the data to answer. I need to take note of this mistake and be more careful when I set up data collection methods in the future so I can properly answer all the main points. Also, I now know just how difficult it is to arrange interviews with people, especially in such a short amount of time. I hope I can remember that and properly prepare or make adjustments accordingly, like how I changed to using a survey method in this research. 

Findings
I find it interesting how just a simple sound effect can tell you so much about a character in the game. Lots of my participants voiced that they worried their answers were bad or sounded strange, but they ended up having more accuracy than they (and even I) expected. It took me by surprise how connected sound is to a person. 

Another thing I found interesting is how many different topics emerged from so many people. There were so many different topics of research despite us all taking the same course, and it goes to show how many different interests we have and how many aspects of design there are, especially in relation to psychology.