How designers can make sense of qualitative research findings: a case study

Abstract

How to communicate qualitative research findings so that they make sense, become useful and manage to inspire designers is still an issue in HCI. There is a need for methods and tools supporting this transfer of knowledge and stimulate design thinking. But before we can form methods and tools we need carefully presented case studies to help us shape these methods and tools. In this paper we present how we made use of the extreme characters method to communicate the essence of a high-level typology formed from eight narrative interviews on the meaning of home. We describe how applying this method enabled a group of eight workshop participants, unfamiliar with the typology, to use the typology to generate a range of innovative design features and open up new design spaces.