In November, Taiwan Design Research Institute (TDRI) launched “Public Service Research: Five Classes Before Design” to share its public service experience and methodology over the four years since its upgrade through actual case studies, guiding people to understand the different research methods in a simple and straightforward manner. The classes received as many as 7,450 registrations, attracting attendees from different disciplines, including designers, students, public servants, marketing professionals, researchers, project managers, and teachers. The course received a 4.8 satisfaction score, and most attendees expressed that it was beneficial to practical applications, which also showed the strong demand for research on public topics.
Five Methods, Five Cases, In-Class Exercises, After-Class Exercises: Combination of Theory and Practice
▲ Online seminar featuring TDRI Public Service Section Chief Lovelyn Huang (Top Right), Project Manager Irene Fan (Bottom Left), Project Manager Lin Mu-en (Top Left), and Owl Consulting Founder Lin Wan-ying (Bottom Right).
The series of classes was co-created by TDRI and Owl Consulting, and each class introduced a research topic and actual public service innovation case study, helping attendees to imagine how research was conducted in cases through these real examples. After the lecturers introduced the research methods, they also helped attendees through real-time interaction in the online chatroom to practice and think; at the end of the classes, the lecturers would also hand out homework to deepen the attendees’ understanding and allow them to practice complete operations.
The series of classes focused on the commonly used five methodologies in the domain of public services, including: defining stakeholders, in-depth interview, field study, questionnaire, and data compilation and analysis, unveiling the secrets to the five research methods in five lessons:
Lesson 1 Defining Stakeholders (with case study of election aesthetics)
Public service design involves broad ranges of agencies and professional disciplines, and is governed by related laws and administrative rules. Thus, defining stakeholders helps to more precisely target interviewees, formulate interview outlines, ask the right questions, and profile the interviewees, while also establishing mutual trust, optimizing research flow, and enhancing research efficiency.
▲ Summary of key points (L) of Lesson 1 Defining Stakeholders; summary of election aesthetics case study (R).
Lesson 2 In-depth Interview (with case study of Taipei MRT signage system research)
Good interview outline and interaction allows researchers to effectively collect extensive and useful information within limited time. Thus, to design interview outline, researchers should first define stakeholders and learn the actual operational situations in the field; also, the questions should follow some principles: open and no close-end questions; no presumptive and leading questions, in order to achieve the most optimal interview outcomes.
▲ Summary of key points (L) of Lesson 2 In-depth Interview; summary of Taipei MRT signage system research case study (R).
Lesson 3 Field Study (with case study of Taipei MRT fixed facilities research)
Public services often involve interactions between men and spatial environment or objects, such as the service flow, information communication, and interaction between men and place. Often, field study is done during “service peak hours” at a specific site in order to more comprehensively identify issues; in addition to the site itself, sites of similar services can also serve as references.
▲ Summary of key points (L) of Lesson 3 Field Study; summary of Taipei MRT fixed facilities research case study (R).
Lesson 4 Questionnaire (with case study of Public Health Center Re-design)
Quantitative questionnaire is used for the purposes of describing overall phenomenon and profiling target group, as well as further analyzing and verifying the correlations between variables; also, quantitative questionnaire can be paired with qualitative survey depending on the nature of project. Questionnaire survey is often used in cases of public services to gain insight into user behavior, such as frequency of use of facility; questionnaires help researchers to quickly learn positive and negative feedback of users through quantification, and can better verify the effects of innovations.
▲ Summary of key points (L) of Lesson 4 Questionnaire; summary of Public Health Center Re-design case study (R).
Lesson 5 Application of Research Findings (with case study of Demonstrative Design Guidebook framework method)
The purpose of data compilation is to gain in-depth insight through summarization of qualitative data for pre-design topic management and proposal of strategy. This stage is also the most complicated and difficult aspect of research, and researchers must constantly remind themselves the research purpose so that they do not lose focus when compiling data. The four major steps of data compilation: 1. Using systematic charts to help with data compilation and further organizing corpus of interview for conversion into sentences; 2. Extracting key messages of sentences, and presenting as much as possible concrete actions and facts with contexts, as well as causes and effects, to further clarify the concept, which also makes ensuing analysis and interpretation easier; 3. Categorizing concepts based on similarities and differences; 4. Summarizing key insights, and inducing key causes behind problems based on their types.
▲ Summary of key points (L) of Lesson 5 Application of Research Findings; summary of Demonstrative Design Guidebook framework method case study (R).
Apply Research Methods You Have learned and Join Public Service Actions!
▲ TDRI President Chang Chi-yi encourages attendees to learn research basics and join public service actions.
Public issues are often more complicated than imagined and involve many stakeholders. Sound and thorough research in advance helps us to probe into the core of the problem, developing strategy of design and direction of solution, so that good design projects can bring changes to the society we live in. By planning a six-month course, TDRI converted and condensed its four-year experience in public services into five lessons over eight hours, hoping to share the knowledge with more people, encouraging them to join public service actions! The classes received a satisfaction score of 4.8, and most attendees expressed afterwards that the five lessons were highly educational and useful, easy to understand, logical, and practical…, and helped them to understand the practices of public services and methods of research. As a pioneer in public service innovation, TDRI will continue to share more experience and methods in the future, jointly building a more wonderful public environment for Taiwan!
