SYNTHESIS: it is the magic of design

The past week, we’ve been getting pretty deep into research/post research on our thesis project. Specifically over this weekend where we spent a lot of upfront effort in designing and manifesting data cards and document briefs. The document briefs are being used to catalog the most important aspects of the articles and books we have read that inform our thesis. Each brief has the documents bibliography, quick summary so we know why it was important / the overtone of the piece and a connections section which ties the respective document to either other documents or theoretical ideas. A snapshot of how it fits into the grand scheme of things. There are then three main columns for Theory, Implications and Examples. This information is culled from the source and is a great way for us to quickly reference the documents we’ve read.!

The data cards act much differently and are way more interactive. Which, depending on the information you are trying to synthesize, is crucial. Personally, I find the physical ability to manipulate information in a quick way enables me to develop stronger mental models of the data while simultaneously making cognitive artifacts. It’s a two-way street, you know the information better and you can leave it behind to move on to something new, but then easily go back and connect what previously seemed to be disparate or opposing data. (scroll past picture for more of the post)

The data cards are categorically advanced. 4 main categories drive the y-axis of the card (Opportunity, Obstacle, Evidence & Need) while 8 sub categories control the x-axis. (theory, trend, infrastructure and stakeholder: of which there are 5). The body of the card is then filled with either a quote, statement or general piece of information. Currently we have only aggregated interview data, but theoretically we could pull information from the document briefs as well, which we may in the near future.

The fun part is the synthesis. Since we physically manifested the cards, we are able to categorize, organize and connect pieces of information. Initially, we organized in columns by the x-axis. Which was helpful, but didn’t allow us to really develop a greater understanding. So we took a pass over all the cards and categorized them into 7 main themes. We are now focusing on each theme and building a story.

Which is where the magic of synthesis came in…We were able to manipulate the data, without worrying about who said what, but more, what does the information tell us. And from there we have been able to develop comprehensive and thoughtful stories for each theme. And in a much more concrete way have begun to connect the data. Our next step is to take each theme and compare them to each other, to see the next layer of connections.