Ditto Workshop 1

Ditto Press.

The Method.
For this brief I have decided that I will look into what people do to research their subject. Doing this means that I will find my own personal research methodology, and create a plan as to what I do when I am researching a subject. To do this I need to find a methodology that would work for any subject matter. After doing this I will test out my methodology with different subjects to see if they will work for each of them. This will be very interesting and will help me greatly with my research methods in the future.

Research Methods.

• Interviewing people, interrogating the subject.
• Googling the subject to see what comes up.
• Reading Books on the subject.
• Reading articles on the subject.
• Finding other things related to the subject.
• Looking at existing design around the subject.
• Photography on the subject.
• Experiencing the subject in some way.
• Asking different audiences about the subject, which will find different view points.
• Find and read different forums online about the subject.
• Mind map my thoughts and what I already know on the subject, what comes to mind.
• Find an audience and what they would like to see on the subject.
• Analyse the brief.
• Focus groups about the subject.
• Structured observation, watching people and how they react to things and their behavior.

Things I need to think about with my methodology.

• How I work and how I think.
• Something that is interesting and works for me.
• Doesn't have to be printed.
• How do I want to work?
• No individual topic - research anything.
• The methodology must work for everything, all subjects I use.

My research process (first thoughts).

1. Analyse the brief.
2. Pinterest/Behance the subject matter.
3. Collect books from the library to read and make notes on.
4. Photograph the subject/Experience the subject.
5. Make a mind map of different ideas.

Anaslysis.
When we were first given this brief, I was confused a lot between the research process and the research topic. This is something that I have been made more clear on. The brief itself is based on working out what our own individual way of researching is, regardless of the topic or theme. I first thought that I wouldn't be able to use the same methodology throughout different topics as I would approach them in different ways, although I have found that I do go through the same process to starting a brief. After reading through the brief I do have initial thoughts and ideas for an outcome, and usually form the research around the outcome I have in my head. This is something I need to stop doing, I need to research further into a certain subject before I find out what I am going to do for a brief. This is how my research methodology will help me. In the future if I use my methodology I will find out more information about the subject before researching my end outcome.

Action Plan.
For this brief I will figure out what methods I use and in what order I use them in more detail than my initial thoughts. I will also try to communicate this in an interesting way that works for me and that is most helpful for me. This will help me with future briefs also.

Tutorial.
The tutorial was really helpful as it clarified why we were doing what we were doing, and that how we currently research isn't wrong and we don't need to change how we do it, but we should be using a methodology within this process, this is what I need to think about so I am aware of what I am doing and how. This will fulfill this brief, and will be something I will think about leading up to the next session of 'The Method' with Ditto Press.