Yesterday started the first workshop of this Master edition, in collaboration with Villa Necchi Campiglio. This workshop, held by Gabriella Piccolo and Elena Novati, is focused on user research and will explore the potential of ethnographic research applied in business, in collaboration with FAI (Fondo per l'Ambiente Italiano), the National Trust of Italy. As presented on the first day, FAI aims at redefining and redesigning the visitors' experience at Villa Necchi Campiglio, with a focus on the touchpoints available in the reception area.
This course will investigate how the research strategy plays an important role in the early stages of the design process, helping to have an in-depth understanding of the business, useful to orient the concept stage in the right direction. Students will apply a series of methodologies online and offline, discovering the principles of qualitative methods such as ethnography, netnography, and semi-structured interviews. They will use specific tools (such as observation grid, interview study guide, persona modeling, social media) to develop a meaningful analysis and find pros&cons among the insights they will collect. They will also analyze and interpret the data they will collect during the fieldwork at the Villa and they will have to make sense of them to define potential pain points as well as future opportunities to develop.
The findings collected during the fieldwork will be translated into insights after the qualitative analysis. Students will be guided to use the tools presented by the teachers, such as persona model/archetype, customer journeys, Moments that Matter, and so on, to transform the findings into relevant insights and put them into a meaningful narrative. At the end of the research, each group will have to build a short report to present during the last day of the workshop.
