DESIGN PROCESS. 'How to...' Self- evaluation

Review the work produced in response to the 'How to...' brief identifying the following:

• What problem did you identify?
• What evidence did you find to support your decisions?
• What methods did you use to gather your evidence and what forms did it take?
• (categorise your research using terms primary, secondary, quantitative and qualitative)
• What methods of research did you find useful and why?
• How did these inform your response to your problem?
• What methods did you encounter as problematic?
• How did you overcome this?
• What research could you have carried put that would have proved more useful?

Answers: 

• How to prepare a christmas dinner without stress
• We did some surveys,looked at books, found a lot of tips online, also some recipes and asked people (our families)  about how they prepare their dinner.
• We did design sheets, blogged everything, took some pictures, did some folding, wrote down some tips or ideas in notebooks. 

• I think secondary qualitative research was really useful considering our problem. We couldn't do that much primary and quantitive  research weren't that easy to do - we are talking about cooking.
• Basically we started off  doing a lot of research about 'How to prepare a meal without wasting time and money'  and throughout the whole process of research we realized that this topic is to broad and only based on research and studio crit we decided to narrow it down and  ended up doing more focused final idea and design. We didn't know where we're going to end up and that's why as Bruce Mao said we ended up with something we all were glad. Only because of the research we were able to make a decision that time is the one problem everyone has during the holidays. 
• Primary research was a bit more harder for us I think, it's better do bas the final piece with wider numbers or more calculated statistics, than just asking people around. Though I think all the methods are good - it only depends on the topic that are given which research methods are going to be more or less useful.
• We balanced the quantitative with qualitative, primary with secondary. 
• I think doing surveys are more useful if you have a more focused audience, lets say: students or course mates. Than again statistics that are gathered throughout a country or a city might be more helpful for a less focused audience. 

Five things that I learned about the process:

1. I realized that research is a never ending circle. It's not all about making one decision and going for it. In any point you might need to revisit the research or do more research that will help you to develop your final piece.

2. Research is as important as the final work.

3. Primary and secondary research may also be categorized in quantitative and qualitative.

4. The best way to start thinking about the problem is to ask yourself: HOW? WHY? WHAT IF?

5. Also I learned the strategy for thinking through a problem:  

1. assimilation

2. general development 

3. development

4. communication

List five things you would do different next time:

1. Start doing the final piece a bit earlier

2. Organize the research a bit better and clearer 

3. Don't get stuck in the 'research' zone for too long. 

4. Organize my time better. 

5. Decided on tasks for each group member so we wouldn't get the same research stuff and doing the same things. That there wouldn't be repetition in the research.