ABSTRACT
The creation of successful designs that suit the greatest number of users, to be ‘inclusive’, is an ever more challenging task. In recent years, this process has benefited from some convergence among the disciplines of design and its related specialisms. User research methods, which range from near-market to the highly conceptual, from the conventional to the experimental, from the quick and easy to the detailed and exhaustive, have become increasingly vital in understanding users’ behaviour and needs, but until recently, there has been no typology to assist designers in the selection of methods. This paper discusses the origins of a typology of user research methods which later become known as the Methods Lab, the objective being to build a definitive resource of user research methods in design.
