Q: A design team is building a website for home cooks looking to make an impressive meal for friends and family. They did research and decided on a website that helps users plan and cook a multi-course meal. The design team needs to know how they should build the website. At this stage, what kind of research in the product development lifecycle should they employ?
or
Q: A design team is creating a website for home chefs who want to amaze their family and friends with a delicious supper. After doing research, they chose a website that assists users in organizing and preparing a multi-course dinner. The design team must understand the best way to construct the website. What type of research should they use at this point in the product development lifecycle?
- Post-launch research
- Foundational research
- Design research
Explanation: Formative research is something that the design team need to be doing at this point in the product development lifecycle. Formative research, also called generative research, is research that is undertaken in the early phases to feed the design process and influence decision-making. The objective is to get an understanding of user demands, preferences, and behaviors, and then to apply this knowledge to the process of determining the product’s future course.
User interviews, surveys, and the usability testing of early prototypes are some of the methods that are often utilized in formative research. The design team will be able to make more informed judgments regarding how to organize the website, what features to add, and how to develop a user-friendly and successful platform for home chefs planning and preparing multiple-course meals if they obtain feedback from prospective users and incorporate those insights in their deliberations.
