DESIGN RESEARCH METHODOLOGY - PROPOSAL

28/08/18 - 18/09/18 (Week 1 - Week 4)

Yeap Phay Min (0331073)

Design Research Methodology 

Proposal

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LECTURE NOTES

28/08/18 (Week 1)

In the first class, we got a lecture on what research is all about. From the lecture slides, I understood that research is the investigation and study of materials to establish facts and reach new conclusions. Research should also be done to enhance our understanding and knowledge. 

PDF of Week 1's Lecture Notes

04/09/18 (Week 2)

This week, we learned about problem statement, research objective, research question as well as hypothesis and variables, which will be part of our proposal that we're currently doing.

Problem Statement: A detailed description of an issue and allows reader to further understand on the research problem. It can be split into three paragraphs: the ideal, the reality and the consequences.
Research Objective: What I aim to achieve by a project (example: to describe, investigate..)
Problem Question: An answerable inquiry related to the research objective.
Hypothesis: A tentative statement on the relationship between variables.

PDF of Week 2's Lecture Notes

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INSTRUCTIONS

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28/08/18 (Week 1)

This week, Ms Jinchi introduced us to this module by going over the MIB. She took us through the things well be doing throughout the semester, which was to think of any topic related to design, come up with a research topic, research problem, research question, conduct secondary research and more. She also brief us on what is needed to be done before the next class. We were required to start on our first project, which was the proposal. By next class, we had to confirm our field of interest (research topic), establish an area we wish to address/solve (research problem) and briefly explain why we chose it. 

Here are my slides, showing my initial idea of my research topic and research problem.

FEEDBACK: The direction I'm going towards, regarding sustainable packaging designs, is quite straight forward and there are already a lot of researches about it on the internet. I should provide more evidence to support what message I want to convey, and try thinking of my field of interest with different views.

With the feedback given by Ms Jinchi and Dr Noorhayati, I needed to make adjustments to my slides.


04/09/18 (Week 2)

Our next task is to update our slides after receiving the feedbacks, and add on slides for the problem statement, research question and research objective. At the end of the day, these are the elements that are included for our proposal, which is our first project of this module.

Here are my slides of the proposal draft, showing my updated idea. 



FEEDBACK: Ms Jinchi mentioned that my research problem sounds more like a hypothesis, where I'm claiming that something is happening. I should also just focus on one local brand and one foreign brand to do a deeper study on. As for my research evidence and references, I should read up on more reliable sources such as journal articles or books, not websites. When it comes to the hypothesis, I should be setting out to find out if it's true or not, therefore the ending of my problem statement should be me seeking to propose ways for local beauty brand's packaging design to be more sustainable. Lastly, I should make some changes to the second objective and question stated, since it went out of my focused area.


11/09/18 (Week 3)

There's no class due to public holidays, therefore we had to send our proposal drafts through email. After receiving feedback from Ms Jinchi, I needed to make adjustments to my proposal.

Here is my updated proposal (not final).



FEEDBACK: In my problem statement, I should avoid using the word 'you'. Instead of doing a study of a local and an international brand, I could just focus on one brand which is Lush and study about their packaging design and the effectiveness of it.


18/09/18 (Week 4)

Submission day! Before submitting the final slides of proposal, I got to have a one-to-one consultation with Ms Jinchi. After receiving feedback, I decided to make some changes to my proposal and only focus on one beauty brand.

Here is the PDF of the final proposal slides.




FEEDBACK: The problem statement had clearly indicated the research area, matched with sound research objectives and research questions, which are focused.