Design Research Methodology / Research Proposal

31.03.2022 - 24.04.2022 (Week 1 - Week 4)
Abigail Kartika Darmowinoto / 0350525 / Bachelor of Design in Creative Media
Interactive Design / Taylor's University
Task 1: Research Proposal

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LIST

• Lectures
• Instructions
• Progression
• Weekly Progression Sheet

OTHER POST:

• Design Research Methodology / Critical Review
• Design Research Methodology / Primary Research
• Design Research and Methodology / Research Reflection Report and Presentation
• Design Research Methodology / Final Compilation and Reflection

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LECTURES
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*all images sourced from the original lecture

Week 1 (31/03/2022) : Research  (from Lecture 1)

On the first meeting, Dr. Noorhayati and Dr. Jinchi introduced us to the MIB and briefed us the activity that will be done in this module.

Then we were having some lectures as Design Research class introduction.

RESEARCH

-What is it?

• A systematic and creative way of investigation to increase knowledge, a pursuit of knowledge which is self directed work of any areas of study to explore issues of interest in ourselves.
• An organised and systematic study of a problem where the researcher attempts to address or find solution to the problem.
• In order to properly address the problem, specific questions and clearly defined objectives are important.

-Research can come from:

• personal experience
• theory
• observations
• contemporary issues
• engagement with the literature

-Why should I do research?

• Expands understanding
• Defines oneselves
• Establish valuable connection
• Academic experience
• Develop > critical thinking, leadership, time management, communication skill
• Explore research technique

-How should I start?

1. Identify field of interest
2. Do a further research
3. Write more extensively in the form of a statement
4. Formulate research question
5. Identify research objectives

Week 2 (07/04/2022) : Problem Statement  (from Lecture 2)

What's problem statement?

A concise description of an issue to be addressed that identify the current (problem) state and desired goal.

purpose? -> to make readers understand the research problem.

Hypothesis?

• A Tentative statement
• To explain what you expect to happen during your research
• Doesn't have to be correct

    Inappropriate Hypothesis:

• No hunch or educated guess about a particular situation
• No set of defined variables.
• Question centre on phenomenological description (the study of consciousness and the objects of direct experience)
• Question centre on an ethnographic study of a cultural group (systematic study of people and culture)
• Engage in, and research, the process of collaborative change (working together to achieve a goal)

Good Hypothesis:

• Simple
• One exposure
• One outcome

• Specific
• No ambiguity about study participants / variables

• Stated in advance
• Written at outset
• Focused on primary objective

Variables?

• A variable is something that can be changed or varied, such as a characteristic or value. Variables are generally used in psychology experiments to determine if changes to one thing result in changes to another.
• By systematically varying some variables and measuring the effects on other variables, researchers can determine if changes to one thing result in changes in something else.
• “Students who are sleep deprived will score significantly lower on a test”

Week 3 (14/04/2022) : Research Questions and Objectives (from Lecture 2 and 3)

Research Questions -> something you wanted to study.

Answerable inquiry into a specific concern or issue. 

Step in making research project. 
Ground / foundation of the research

Refining ideas to research question:

General uncertainty -> narrow down 

        Translating uncertainty to research question:

1. Frames problem in specific terms(Cultural Identity / Character for Animation)
2. Focuses on one issue
3. Is written in every day language
4. Can use more than one verb, if needed
5. Should link the question to the potential action that would be taken once the question is answered

        Steps to write research question: 

1. Specify your specific concern or issue
2. Decide what you want to know about the specific concern or issue
3. Turn what you want to know and the specific concern into a question
4. Ensure that the question is answerable
5. Check to make sure the question is not too broad or too narrow

        Good Research Questions:

1. Define the investigations
2. Set boundaries
3. Provide direction

        Research Question Development:

fig 1.1, Research Question Development, Week 2 (07/04/2022)

fig 1.2, Research Question Development, Week 2 (07/04/2022)

Two category of research questions:

• Descriptive questions
• Involve observations to measure quantity • No comparison groups/interventions
• Analytical questions
• Involve comparisons / interventions to test a hypothesis

Good research questions should be:

• Feasible : adequate number of participants, technical expertise and resources
• Interesting
• Novel : extends previous finding, provide new information
• Ethical : community will approve
• Relevant : advance knowledge

Research Objective

Examples:

• To describe what factors farmers take into account in making such decisions as whether to adopt a new technology or what crops to grow. -> being able to specify factors which emerged in household decisions.

• To develop a budget for reducing pollution by a particular enterprise. -> specification of a pollution reduction budget.

• To describe the habitat of the giant panda in China. -> creating a picture of the habitat of the giant panda in China.

Good research objective: SMART

• S - Specific
• M - Measurable
• A - Attainable
• R - Realistic
• T - Time bound
• Also be relevant, feasible, unambiguous.

Which came first? If no idea, question, if already have hypothesis, problem.

RESEARCH APPROACH:

fig 1.3, inductive and deductive research, Week 3 (13/04/2022)

• INDUCTIVE APPROACH

- When not much literatures exist

- Steps:

• Observation
• Observe Pattern
• Develop Theory

• DEDUCTIVE APPROACH

- Starts with theory

- Steps:

• Start with existing theory
• Formulate hypothesis based on the theory
• Data Collection
• Analyse result

EXAMPLE: (INDUCTIVE APPROACH)

fig 1.4, inductive research example, Week 3 (13/04/2022)

Week 4 (21/04/2022) : Library Literacy

5 Step of research skill:

1. Define your topic

• Keywords
• Alerts on:

fig 1.5, how to define topic, Week 4 (21/04/2022)

2. Select Your Research Resources 

• SEARCHING STRATEGIES

fig 1.6, searching strategy, Week 4 (21/04/2022)

• Track history

3. Search, Locate and Access Materials

• Taylor's Library: https://taylorslibrary.taylors.edu.my
• Website Login: e-forms and tutorial guides
• Ezproxy Login: Online Resources

• Taylor's Catalogue:

fig 1.7, Taylor's Catalogue, Week 4 (21/04/2022)

• E-Book
• Resources - E-book collection
• Proquest: cover all subject area

• E-Journal:
• Resources - E-journal
• Sage: Games and Culture
• MIT Press: design

• Online Database:
• Resources - Online Database
• JKL - JSTOR

4. Evaluate Resources

5 Focus Criteria:

• Currency
• When was the information updated or revised?
• Is it still relevant to the current time?
• For website, take a look at the Copyright year
• Just because it is online does not mean it is up to date

• Relevance
• How much information is presented?
• Is it detailed analyses or does it only provide the basic information
• Is the readership level appropriate to your level

• Authority
• Who are the authors/editors and are their qualification?
• Are they published by scholarly publishers or popular presses
• Websites (corporate websites rarely has personal authors)
• See if the authors has the credentials or links connected to them

• Accuracy
• Does the source match your understanding of your topic?
• Can the information be verified in other resources?
• Is there a bibliography list?
• What are the resources referred to and how many are relevant to the discussed topic?

• Purpose
• Is the purpose stated?
• Is it seen from a standpoint (leads to biasness)?
• To identify the nature and the degree of the bias
• How will the information presented affect the findings?

5. Use Ethically

PLAGIARISM

1. Turning in someone else's work as your own
2. Copying words or ideas from someone else without giving credit
3. Failing to put a quotation in quotation marks 
4. Giving incorrect information about the source of a quotation (Inaccurate citation)
5. Changing words but copying the sentence structure of a source without giving credit 
6. Copying so many words or ideas from a source that it makes up the majority of your work, whether you give credit or not (see our section on "fair use" rules)
7. Unauthorized collaboration
8. Presenting as new and original an idea or product derived from an existing source

• 3 Types:

Intentionally (copy paste, paraphrasing, remix, clone)

Unintentionally (citation failure, aggregator)

Self Plagiarism (using own previous work and not citing)

• Ways to avoid:

fig 1.8, how to avoid plagiarism, Week 4 (21/04/2022)

REFERENCING RULES

1. Cite all references
2. Reference appear in two list, in text and at the end
3. Correct Method; APA citation

CITATION

• In text citation:
(Author's surname/family name, Year of publication)

fig 1.9, way to search, Week 4 (21/04/2022)

fig 1.10, way to search, Week 4 (21/04/2022)

• Reference List
• In a separate page(s);
• A list of all sources that you have cited;
• Arranged in alphabetical order by author’s last name; and
• Provide appropriate information for each type of source cited e.g. book, journal article.

REFERENCING

• Printed Book:
  Author(s) name, Publication year, Book title, Publisher's name

fig 1.11-1.12, Printed Book APA Citation style, Week 4 (21/04/2022)

• E-Book
Author(s) name, Publication year, Book title, Edition (if any), Publisher, DOI (if available) / URL (only if the eBook retrieved from other website)

fig 1.13-1.15, E-Book APA Citation style, Week 4 (21/04/2022)

• Printed Journal Article
Author(s) name, Publication year, Article title, Journal title/ Periodical title, Volume number, Issue number, Page number(s)

fig 1.16, Printed Journal APA Citation style, Week 4 (21/04/2022)

• Electronic Journal Article
Author(s) name, Publication year, Article title, Journal title, Volume number, Issue number, Page number(s), URL/doi

fig 1.17-1.19, Electronic Journal Article APA Citation style, Week 4 (21/04/2022)

• Printed Magazine
Author(s) name, Publication year, month and date, Magazine name, Magazine volume number (if given), Magazine issue number (if given),  Page number(s)

fig 1.20, Printed Magazine APA Citation style, Week 4 (21/04/2022)

• Online Magazine
Author(s)'s name, Publication year, month and date (of the magazine article), Article title, Magazine name, URL address

fig 1.21, Online Magazine APA Citation style, Week 4 (21/04/2022)
• Websites
  Author's name / Corporate website name, Date of publication or copyright year (can be found on bottom of a webpage), Title of webpage, Website title/website name, URL address

fig 1.21-23, Websites APA Citation style, Week 4 (21/04/2022)

• YouTube
  Author's name/Youtuber name, Publication year, month and date, Video title, Video format, Source information (Youtube), URL address

fig 1.24, YouTube APA Citation style, Week 4 (21/04/2022)

SECONDARY REFERENCING

• Secondary source: the work you are reading at the moment, original source: the work cited in the work you are reading
• Some styles like IEEE does not allow Secondary Referencing 
• Styles like APA, Harvard and MLA allow this action, but direct citations are preferred

fig 1.25-1.26, Secondary Referencing Example, Week 4 (21/04/2022)

MISSING INFORMATION

no author: organization/ corporation, if no -> (Anon.) if using book title, use italic

no date: (n.d.)

SUMMARY

fig 1.27, Summary, Week 4 (21/04/2022)

1. Invert author’s name (Surname, Initials of forename) 
2. Up to 20 authors; first 19 names of author followed by “…” and last author's name
3. Use (&) instead of “and” in Reference list
4. Capitalize ONLY the first word of a title (exceptional for proper nouns)
5. Punctuation
6. Indentation
7. Arrange alphabetically

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INSTRUCTIONS
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fig 2.1, Module Information Booklet of Design Research Methodology

PROGRESSION

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Rationale-1

fig 3.1, Rationale 1, Week 1 (06/04/2022)

Since my area of interest is generally a UI/UX of games, I plan my research area to be game:

How UI/UX impacted player in gaming experience.

Rationale-2

Dr. Noorhayati recommended me to narrow down the topic and specified it to certain kind of game genre, like RPG, MMORPG, shooter, game, arcade game, etc. Thus, I wanted to choose something that I'm familiar with, MMORPG (since to be honest I think it'll be easier to find respondents rather than other MMORPG types).

So, here's my second version of my rationale:

fig 3.2, Rationale 2, Week 2 (13/04/2022)

Rationale-3

In the feedback session, Dr. Hayati recommended me to specify more about the topic, the type of MMORPG, so I amended my rationale again. 

fig 3.3, Rationale 3A, Week 3 (20/04/2022)

After I decided and revised my rationale, it was accepted. Now I need to add the title and write down the problem statement.

fig 3.4, Rationale 3B, Week 4 (21/04/2022)

Rationale-4 (final)

During the process of Critical Review, I struggle on finding articles that are talking about transparency, in the feedback session, Dr. Hayati allowed me to amend my proposal topic.

fig 3.5, Final Research Proposal, Week 9 (28/05/2022)

So, I changed my topic into talking about the game buttons, and here's my final proposal:

fig 3.6, Final Research Proposal, Week 9 (28/05/2022)

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WEEKLY PROGRESSION SHEET

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Week 1 - Week 4 for Research Proposal