Successful designs excel at being human-centered. At Daylight, this is the foundational principle for every project—whether it involves recruiting the right participants for research, conducting immersive home visits, or performing ad-hoc user testing. As pioneers in human-centered design, we consistently go above and beyond to draw inspiration from people. We find creative ways to empathize with the people we’re designing for, which I will share through some of my project experience.
At Daylight, we make it a priority to deeply understand the people we design for, no matter the challenge. During a project with an automotive components manufacturer, the client sought to understand market needs for car lighting in China. To uncover the most authentic insights, our team devised an extensive research plan in Shanghai that included studying Chinese EV brands, interviewing customers with unique lighting needs, attending inspirational outings such as TeamLab, and consulting experts from relevant fields. As a team, we embraced human-centered design and practiced this principle in the field. Through iterative cycles, we delivered one-of-a-kind concepts tailored to our client’s brand and technological capabilities.
Part of the challenge for this research project was the language barrier, as most of our team members do not speak Chinese. As a fluent Chinese speaker, I was brought in to help with conducting the interviews and navigating the local scene. It was my first time experiencing how cultural and linguistic differences can greatly influence the findings. The underlying meaning of words can often be hard to translate and communicate unless you're deeply immersed in the culture, which further vindicates Daylight's in-person research approach as essential.
Diversity is key to ensuring that findings for clients are not only valuable but also authentic. While achieving diversity in qualitative studies can be challenging, we are dedicated to recruitment efforts that ensure each participant is distinctive in their own right.
For a public transit project where we were tasked with exploring new uses for an IPS technology developed by our client, we devised a plan to recruit participants from various U.S. cities with established metro systems, including Atlanta, New York, Chicago, Seattle, and San Francisco. With support from our global teams, we also included international participants from cities such as Vancouver and Seoul.
Despite the challenges posed by COVID-19, we leveraged video diaries and remote interviews to gather insights and collaborate online, generating multiple viable concepts. To help our client understand how these concepts could integrate into people's lives, we also created journey maps illustrating how individuals transition from home to work and vice versa.
Snapshot of our participants list, all of them came from cities where a metro system is well established.
Journey maps to show people's experience taking transit to work and back home.
One crucial aspect of working as a consultant is effective communication and collaboration with clients—a vital component of a project’s success. It goes without saying that our clients possess the most in-depth knowledge of their respective industries. Therefore, understanding their needs, learning from their expertise, and fostering strong teamwork often have a significant impact on the project's outcome. In fact, we often bring clients into the field with us, enabling ad-hoc adjustments to the research plan as needed.
For example, during in-home visits for our home appliance project, our client joined us and made insightful inquiries during the interviews. We collaborated closely throughout the synthesis workshops and even participated in an inspirational outing that included a private chef lesson. These experiences fostered a strong bond with our client, leading to smoother collaboration. This teamwork ultimately resulted in more than 20 viable product concepts for the client's pipeline.
Home visits with participants to dicuss their home appliance use.
During our synthesis workshop, we brought in our client to experience our process first handedly, but also give them opportunities to pitch in their thought.
An inspirational outing with a private chef lesson with the client. We got to team bond but at the same time learn potentially relevant insight about the cooking appaliance.
Besides the comfort of being in their own environment, one of the top reasons we love conducting in-home visits is the opportunity for participants to show us how they live their lives and perform tasks involving physical components. In an automotive research study exploring near-future trends in Middle America, we asked participants to drive us around in their own vehicles. We observed their driving routes, the neighborhoods they lived in, and what they did in the car. Additionally, we shared a deck of cards featuring various car use cases, allowing them to pick the ones they resonated with and share their relevant experiences. These exercises helped us uncover unique insights and stories without needing extensive prompting or structured questioning.
Riding along with the participants allowed us to observe their usual routes around the neighborhood and their driving routines.
As part of the interview exercise, we asked participants to select a range of use cases that interested them and share their relevant experiences.
Research is, without a doubt, one of the most creatively challenging parts of the job. Every day, I saw our team push themselves to find new and inspiring ways to uncover insights. Whether it was figuring out how to connect with hard-to-reach participants or coming up with fresh approaches for interviews, the balance between logistics, time, and creativity always kept things exciting. Along the way, I had the privilege of talking to so many amazing people from around the world. Their stories gave me a sense of purpose and made me even more passionate about designing concepts that could genuinely make their lives a little better.