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The initial research to understand the nature of the problem itself is part of the discipline of design research. Note that this is research about the customer and the people who will use the products under consideration. It is not the kind of research that scientists do in their laboratories, trying to find new laws of nature. The design researcher will go to the potential customers, observing their activities, attempting to understand their interests, motives, and true needs. The problem definition for the product design will come from this deep understanding of the goals the people are trying to accomplish and the impediments they experience. One of its most critical techniques is to observe the would-be customers in their natural environment, in their normal lives, wherever the product or service being designed will actually be used. Watch them in their homes, schools, and offices. Watch them commute, at parties, at mealtime, and with friends at the local bar. Follow them into the shower if necessary, because it is essential to understand the real situations that they encounter, not some pure isolated experience. This technique is called applied ethnography, a method adapted from the field of anthropology. Applied ethnography differs from the slower, more methodical, research-oriented practice of academic anthropologists because the goals are different.

Excerpted from ‘The Design of Everyday Things’ by Don Norman