Basics Design: Design Thinking

Target groups

Character profiles

A character profile is a tool developed during the research stage, containing

written and graphic information about a particular group of people. It is used

in the design process to stimulate idea formation and help with decision making.

A character profile is built by looking for key words and characteristics that

define the target group. These can then be augmented with visual clues such

as magazine cuttings and may be used to construct an image of the life led by

a fictional representative character of the group. This might include the cars

they drive, where they take holidays, the technology they use, their aspirations

and any peculiarities. This is a mental model construction, put together through

research of the group’s habits and buying patterns, brainstorming and other

processes to identify and define the key characteristics of the group.

Remembering that it is dangerous to make assumptions, character profiles

should also be made for the outliers of the group; the more extreme people

that may not exhibit typical behaviour, yet share many of the same qualities.

By keeping these storyboards in view while working, a designer has a

continual point of reference and the ability to repeatedly ask, ‘What would

x think of this?’ at decision points.

Secondary research

Secondary research sees the collection and use of existing published information

about customers, competitors and relevant trends of interest such as social and

economic trends. Secondary research can be used to feed general information

about the target group, the market and underlying trends into the design process.

Resources

Various secondary data resources are available at public reference libraries and

online. These may allow you to automatically repeat a search every day or to

subscribe to web feeds. Secondary data sources include newspapers and trade

periodicals, blogs, conference papers, market research reports, trade association

and official statistics, commercial business reports (KeyNote, Euromonitor, Mintel,

Datamonitor and EIU), university research papers and think tanks.

Checklist:

Do we have information at hand to build a character profile?

What key information do we lack?

Do surveys and opinion polls exist that can fill these gaps?

Design Thinking

Research

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