Formative Research

Formative research and summative research (sometimes known as generative research and evaluative research) help us understand and evaluate design solutions.

Formative research is the exploratory phase of the design process where the focus is on understanding context, our users, and their needs. It's about gathering insights that will inform and shape the design decisions. This type of research is typically conducted at the beginning of a project or when significant changes are being considered.

Common formative research methods include:

• User interviews: Talking to potential users to understand their goals, motivations, pain points, and behaviors.
• Surveys: Gathering quantitative data about user demographics, preferences, and opinions.
• Contextual inquiry: Observing users in their natural environment to understand how they interact with products or services.
• Diary studies: Asking users to keep a diary of their experiences over a period of time.
• Card sorting: Using cards to understand how users categorize and prioritize information.

The insights gained from formative research help designers:

• Define the problem: Clearly articulate the problem that the design is trying to solve.
• Understand users: Develop empathy for the users and their needs.
• Generate ideas: Come up with creative solutions to the problem.
• Prioritize features: Decide which features are most important to users.

Summative Research

Summative research is about evaluating the effectiveness of the design solution. It's about measuring how well the product or service meets the users' needs and achieves the desired outcomes. This type of research is typically conducted after the design has been implemented or when a prototype is ready for testing.

Some common summative research methods include:

• Usability testing: Observing users as they interact with the product or service to identify any usability issues.
• A/B testing: Comparing two versions of a design to see which one performs better.
• Analytics: Tracking user behavior to understand how the product or service is being used.
• User satisfaction surveys: Measuring how satisfied users are with the product or service.

The insights gained from summative research help designers:

• Identify usability issues: Find and fix problems that make the product or service difficult to use.
• Measure user satisfaction: Understand how happy users are with the product or service.
• Track progress: See how the product or service is performing over time.
• Make data-driven decisions: Use data to inform design decisions and improvements.

Formative and summative research are not mutually exclusive, they are complementary and iterative. Formative research informs the design process, while summative research evaluates the outcome. The insights gained from summative research can then be used to inform further formative research and design iterations.

Learn more about research approaches in our Sydney One day Introduction to User Research Course

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