The idea to do an unstructured interview came from reading some of the dSchool materials, amongst various other materials. Because there isn’t a specified problem or client, I felt that I wanted to know more about the space in order to uncover possible problems to look in to, so I thought an interview to elicit comments and experiences might help with that. I had an idea of the questions I wanted to ask and the detail I wanted to uncover, but I thought that not sticking to a pre-determined set of questions would allow me to probe further if an interviewee mentions something of interest (and we did diverge now and again to discuss particular points of interest).
I spent some further time since the interviews observing at a train station bus stop and in a public space (popular with tourists and families), to see how parents and children cope with getting around. It wasn’t particularly interesting and I realised that perhaps the problem with my choice is that it’s just one snapshot of a whole journey or experience. Still, I saw how people struggled with juggling kids and luggage, and stressed parents trying to keep kids happy. I realise there are various other situations that could be chosen and I’ll also be going out on a short trip with an adult and children in her care. I’d like to do what Yo mentions, but I think the time constraints don’t really allow me to do that number of observations. I’m also starting to be mindful that I should try to move towards developing ideas.
So I think at this point, I feel that I know a little bit more about how parents travel with kids on holiday. I’ve identified some issues and needs - keeping kids occupied, handling kids and luggage, finding toilets, storing and carrying items - that I can look at further, narrow my scope and start to curate a brief and sets of requirements.
So once my brief and requirements are set, I might use a survey to help me to sculpt choices about my ideas? Would that seem appropriate? Or not at all? Is a survey a fundamental part of design research (ie, almost always used)?
I realise these might sound like silly statements to more experienced designers, but I am learning and failing, and trying to learn from my fails.