“Design is the application of intent – the opposite of happenstance.”

 

—Robert L. Peters

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Overview

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (1943) is a psychological theory suggesting that human motivation arises from fulfilling five sequential levels of needs: physiological (food, water, shelter), safety (security, stability), love and belonging (friendship, family), esteem (respect, recognition), and self-actualization (achieving one’s full potential). Building on this framework, students identify learnings from field observations and semi-structured interviews to analyze and translate insights into underlying human needs. 
 

A critical element of this process is writing rigorous fieldnotes (Pink, 2021; Emerson et al., 2011). Moving from observation to insight requires both analysis and synthesis. The synthesis process—often described as a “black box”—depends on researchers’ lived experiences, disciplinary knowledge, project scope, and available resources (Daynes and Williams, 2018). Sanders and Stappers (2019) describe this as the challenge of “making sense of mess” (p. 214). 
 

Design research tools can make this translation process more transparent and evidence-driven. This week, students engage in clustering quotes, mapping emotional journeys, creating routine maps (Pink et al., 2022, p. 167), and identifying invisible design tensions. Teams present early analyses from their interviews while testing frameworks, such as insight-opportunity mapping. The emphasis is on narrative coherence: transforming raw field data into human-centered stories that inform subsequent service- and system-level analyses.​

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Reflections

• Daynes, S., & Williams, G. (2018). On Ethnography. Bloomsbury Academic.

• Emerson, R. M., Fretz, R. I., & Shaw, L. L. (2011). Writing Ethnographic Fieldnotes (2nd ed.). University of Chicago Press.

• International Council of Design. (2023, November 6). Robert L. Peters: Guiding the
  Future of Design. https://www.theicod.org/en/resources/news-archive/robert-l-peters-guiding-force-future-designing

• Maslow, A. H. (1943). A Theory of Human Motivation. Psychological Review, 50(4), 370–396. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0054346

• Pink, S., Fors, V., Lanzeni, D., Duque, M., Sumartojo, S., & Strengers, Y. (2022). Design Ethnography: Research, Responsibilities, and Futures. Routledge.

• Pink, S. (2021). Doing Visual Ethnography (4th ed.). SAGE Publications.

• Sanders, E. B.-N., & Stappers, P. J. (2019). Convivial Toolbox. BIS Publishers.

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References

• IDEO (1999). ABC Nightline: Shopping Cart Project.

• Pink, S., Fors, V., Lanzeni, D., Duque, M., Sumartojo, S., & Strengers, Y. (2022). Design Ethnography: Research, Responsibilities, and Futures. Routledge.

• van Dijk, G. (2011). Design Ethnography: Taking Inspiration from Everyday Life. BIS Publishers.