Technology-supported design research

This survey paper explores the opportunities and challenges of new technologies and social media for design research and design ethnography in particular, and summarizes the results in a framework. Understanding users' needs and observing their behavioral patterns becomes more and more important when designing innovative products or services. Traditional design ethnography mainly consists of in-depth interviews and field observations of individuals or groups in the social context to be investigated. Digital technologies might enable new possibilities in collecting, analyzing, and visualizing research data. Advanced hard- and software, the ubiquitous presence of smartphones, global accessibility of data, and new technological and social concepts, such as social media or crowdsourcing, allow for new approaches in design research. We suggest that technology nowadays is able to not only collect large numbers of data but also improve data quality by providing access to new approaches in design research as well as facilitating and assisting the researcher with coding and interpreting the collected data.