Sleep Culture (team project)

Summary

The project:
To apply multiple Primary and Secondary Research methods, such as interviewing, questionnaire, and shadowing, for studying concepts related to sleep. Then analyze the data and breakdown the opportunities for the innovation of ethnographic investigation of the culture of sleep in the 21st century.

My Role:
I was responsible for Secondary research of new international trends for sleep as well as interviewing and shadowing the owner and customers of a mattress store. Based on the data I made the Convergence map, Eras map, and 10 types of innovation framework.

What I Learned:
I learned various contextual research methods, including Contextual Inquiry, Empathetic Research, Ethnographic Research, Interviewing, Questionnaires, and Cultural Probing Techniques. I gained experience in gathering, analyzing and reporting large quantities of user research data and information. I also came to have a deep understanding of the user-centered research, so as to develop people-centric design strategies for the creation of new product and service concepts.

THE TEAM

INTRODUCTION

Project Scope

This project is an ethnographic investigation of the culture of sleep in the 21st century. In the beginning of this project, the team focused on possibilities of solutions within the culture of sleep. Over time, we had to step back and look at the bigger picture which involved multiple subject areas beyond just sleep. We realized that if we did not see things from this lens we would become stagnant in our research. By having a macro view, we can identify areas related to sleep where there are opportunities for innovation.

Toolkits

We have used a variety of methods for this study. Most of the frameworks have come from the text 101 Design Methods. This text is very innovation focused and provides many frameworks as tools for research. The IDEO Method Cards give us a micro view of the many tools that may not have been mentioned in our first text. Frog’s Collective Action Toolkit allows provides us with templates that allow us to better work together as a group. Finally, This is Service Design Thinking is teaching us about how our research relates to a larger system.

SECONDARY RESEARCH

THE BUZZ REPORT

We first chose this method as a way to introduce ourselves to the entire industry around sleep. The buzz report was a collection of recent articles and publications about multiple topics involving sleep. We looked across a variety of sources from academic journals to current magazines. In analyzing our report, we found main categories that emerged and used these categories to group the data. The groups became environments, science, wellness, children, media, and culture.
We were too focused in our initial report. At this stage we should have been gathering information about broader trends and not just those pertaining to sleep. This tool will be easy to keep adding articles to for continual learning.

10 types of innovation framework

Although this project is so broad, we wanted to get an understanding of the current innovation field within the sleep industry. This framework was a method to find exceptional company and brand examples for the ten attributes highlighted above. This illustrated where there are major developments and gaps in the sleep industry.
Although we branched out to some from the traditional aspects of the sleep industry, it could be pushed farther to included other industries. We have revisited the framework from a bigger picture, including brands such as Apple and Google which has revealed a great insight; and evidence that the sleep industry is far behind leaders in the innovation landscape.

CONVERGENCE MAP

Aside from seeing the leaders in the innovation landscape, we wanted to see how these innovations and trends would overlap within several industries at once. Our assumption was that this would provide new areas of innovation. More specifically, this framework allowed for us to overlay areas of interest and see how they relate to one another. The areas we chose were environments, wellness and technologies because they were three of the most mentioned industries within our research thus far. This proved to be a good method for reframing our thoughts on different topics. We were able to see what trends were outliers in context to others. Some of the main insights we pulled from this were the internet of things and technology around lighting and environments. We can repeat this process in the future when we know more about the sleep industry.

Publications Research

Because there is a plethora of existing research done in the field of sleep, we wanted to find out what the world currently understands or doesn’t understand about sleep. This framework allowed for an in-depth analysis of articles related to sleep and a means to share that information with our group. We each focused on a sub topic (the same topics we chose for our buzz reports), and included the most relevant information from each of our topics into the framework. This method will serve as an easy way to share information with each other throughout this process as we have highlighted important quotes along with a concise summary of each article. As we begin to focus on a more micro level, we can continue to fill out this framework.

THE HISTORY OF SLEEP – THE HIGHLIGHTS

Eras Map

In order to best understand how events would end up on our eras map, we needed to map out events over-time. Our process for the eras map started off with filling out a timeline of important events, innovations and movements related to sleep. We broke these into groups: lifestyle and culture, environments and spaces, technology, products and materials, service trends, health and wellness, and science advancements. We then analyzed the timeline and identified patterns which translated into the eras. This illustrated the relationships between major events and how each era differed from one another. This process not only helped us identify the major milestones in the culture related to sleep, but it has provided us a macro lens of each movement and influence on the present day sleep industry.