Investigation: Primary and Secondary Data
Good design starts with understanding the user. Learn how a designer investigates user needs using primary and secondary data, ergonomics and body measurements, and turns the findings into a brief and specification.
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Free interactive practice on the decisions the assessment actually asks you to justify.
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Know your user
A good designer does not guess what people want. Before designing anything, they investigate the needs of the people who will use the product. This module covers the two kinds of data a designer gathers, how they design to fit the human body, and how the findings become a brief and specification.
Ergonomics words
Four terms run through this topic. Learn them first.
Primary or secondary?
Designers gather two kinds of data.
Match the term
- Primary data
- Secondary data
- Ergonomics
- Anthropometric data
- Information the designer collects first-hand
- Information that already exists elsewhere
- Designing to fit how people use a product
- Measurements of the human body
Primary or secondary?
You interview the future users of your product yourself. Which kind of data are you collecting?
- Primary data
- Secondary data
- Ergonomic data
- Anthropometric data
Designing for people
Ergonomics means designing a product so it is comfortable and easy for people to use. Designers use anthropometric data, which is measurements of the human body. Because people are different sizes, they often design for a percentile range, such as the 5th to the 95th percentile, so the product fits most users.
Match the research word
- Design brief
- Specification
- Focus group
- Product analysis
- A short statement of the design problem
- The measurable criteria the product must meet
- A small group sharing their views
- Examining existing products to learn from them
Primary methods
Which TWO of these are ways of collecting PRIMARY data? Choose all that apply.
- Interviewing users yourself
- Handing out a questionnaire you wrote
- Reading facts in a library book
- Looking up figures on a manufacturer website
Work out the percentage
In a survey, 40 out of 50 people preferred design A. What percentage of people preferred design A? Give a number.
The investigation process
Put the steps of a design investigation in order.
- Identify the user and the problem
- Gather primary and secondary data
- Analyse the data to find the needs
- Write the design brief and specification
Primary against secondary data
Data you collect first-hand yourself is _____ data. Data that already exists in books or online is _____ data. Designing to fit how people use a product is called _____. Body measurements used for sizing are _____ data. The measurable criteria a product must meet are the _____.
Spot the primary data
Tap the TWO ways of collecting primary data.
- Interviewing the future users yourself
- Handing out a questionnaire you wrote
- Reading facts in a library book
- Looking up data on a manufacturer website
Primary or secondary?
For each research action, decide whether it gathers primary or secondary data.
- A designer watches people using a kettle in their own kitchen. Which kind of data is this?
- A designer reads a published report about kitchen trends. Which kind of data is this?
- A designer hands out a questionnaire to 100 shoppers. Which kind of data is this?
Investigate a design
Explain how a designer uses primary and secondary data to understand what users need.
- Explain the difference between primary and secondary data
- Give one example of each kind of data
- Explain why understanding user needs matters before designing