Research For/By Design: Part II

Christopher Kim
6 min readApr 20, 2021

Background

This post will cover part 2 out of 5 parts of this project. For this part, I will be identifying key stakeholders around my topic, which was homelessness. Afterward, I will select primary research methods and conduct research “in the field” to inform my future designs with my team.

For this part, I have dedicated to focusing on two types of primary research methods, which were:

  • Ethnographic Research
  • User Interviews

Tools

The tools used in this project were:

  • iPad for note-taking
  • Google Doc/Slides for organizing and presentation

Ethnographic Research

To kick off my primary research studies, for the first research method, I have conducted an ethnographic study on a homeless individual living in Jackson Heights, Queens. However, like most traditional ethnographic studies where the researcher dedicates long hours or even days, I’ve decided to timebox myself to run this research for only 2 hours.

Feel free to view the Ethnographic Research Notes: Click Here

Down below, I’ve documented the participant I chose for the ethnographic research. I’ve documented their behavior and actions based on a specific time from 12:30 PM to 2:30 PM.

Down below are some pictures I’ve taken while conducting the ethnographic study.

Ethnographic Research Insights

In conclusion, for my ethnographic research, I discovered a few key insights from the participants I was conducting my research on.

  • The participant tends to be more mobile and ask for money in one location.
  • The participant does not stray too far away from what appears to be his home or resting spot.
  • The participant tends to make his cup seem more empty than it seems to be.
  • Based on the geographics the participants were in, it is in an area where there are more fast food

User Interview

After conducting an ethnographic study, I wanted to dig deeper and start conducting a user interview and understand more in the shoes of a homeless person.

Before starting the interview, I have constructed a research plan to guide me better and document everything. The main objective for this interview wanted to identify areas of opportunities where we can better support the homeless community. I have decided to narrow down my search for homeless individuals within the 5 boroughs of New York City. A few things I wanted to understand were:

  • What has led them to become homeless?
  • What is the day-to-day like?
  • How does the homeless perceive other people and other homeless groups?
  • What are the various opportunities we can explore to help homeless people?
  • Does the homeless understand how to leverage any social or governmental support?

Feel free to check out the full research plan + responses: Click here

After writing my research plan and narrowing down my target audience, I went out to the field and started my research. Looking down below, I recorded a summarized version for all responses I could get from the interviews.

While interviewing one of the participants, I liked his artwork and listening to his story. Down below, I have provided a few pictures of his work while I was interviewing him.

User Interview Insights

In conclusion, for my ethnographic research, I discovered a few key insights from the participants I was conducting my research on.

To conclude the user interview, a few key insights I was able to retrieve from interviewing 2 participants were:

  • A lot of homeless people do have smartphones and have access to public WiFi. This was interesting mainly cause this allows us to explore a digital solution.
  • It was difficult for the homeless to get jobs and all their jobs in the past or now because they had to know someone. By being able to connect them with people, we can help them get off the streets
  • Based on those 2 interviews, the jobs that they tend to get paid under the table. It is much harder for the homeless with a record to get employment and paid as we would; there is potential to create new opportunity to tackle this
  • A homeless person who has a criminal record tends to stray away from getting help from the government. However, he tends to accept help more from private organizations or churches. Since the homeless can’t rely on the government

Conclusion

This would conclude my research methods and my insights. Being able to get data at a very high level by conducting ethnographic research really helped me understand the general patterns of a homeless individual. However, by being able to conduct the user interview, it was more of a testimony. It provided me great additional insights to learn more about the exact problems.

Self Reflection

This part of the project was enjoyable, and I enjoyed doing some fieldwork despite the current conditions with COVID-19. By being able to talk with the homeless did help build up more empathy. The more I work on this project, the easier it is for me to start identifying the exact issues related to homelessness.

What would I have done differently?

The biggest thing I would have done differently is to interview more homeless people and understand their stories. I would have also loved to talk with the community center and understand more about their perspective towards homelessness.

Next Steps

Two next steps I would like to do are.

  • Access all the data gathered from the survey, interviews, and ethnographic research and narrow down the problem.
  • Based on those problems, we would like to start laying out solutions as a team-building consensus.

Contact Information

For any questions or feedback, feel free to send an email at Hi@christopher.kim

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