Abstract

In today’s so called post-industrial societies, increasing influence of the symbolic use of object overwhelmingly dominates the relationship between human and object. As objects have become an important part of individual’s social and psychological world, qualitative research approaches aiming to gather a deep understanding of human behavior and experiences have gained importance not only in the disciplines of social sciences but also in design related disciplines. Grounded Theory is one of the qualitative research approaches aiming to discover and uncover the experiences and interactions of people "grounded" in everyday life practices and generate theories regarding social phenomena. Although Grounded theory was developed for sociology, it has been applied by different disciplines. The systematic methodology of grounded theory in analyzing data, differentiates it from most of the traditional qualitative research approaches. Consequently, grounded theory deserves a scholarly attention in design research. This paper intends to explore the contribution of grounded theory approach in design research by exploring the analyzing process of user experiences and preferences in the interest called automobile modification. Within the analysis process of the case study presented, this paper aims to transparentize the analysis process for those who are going to use grounded theory approach in design research.

Keywords

Qualitative research methods; User Experience Based Design Research; Grounded Theory

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Jun 16th, 12:00 AM

The Use of Grounded Theory in User Experience Based Design Research: A Study on "Automobile Modification" in Turkey

In today’s so called post-industrial societies, increasing influence of the symbolic use of object overwhelmingly dominates the relationship between human and object. As objects have become an important part of individual’s social and psychological world, qualitative research approaches aiming to gather a deep understanding of human behavior and experiences have gained importance not only in the disciplines of social sciences but also in design related disciplines. Grounded Theory is one of the qualitative research approaches aiming to discover and uncover the experiences and interactions of people "grounded" in everyday life practices and generate theories regarding social phenomena. Although Grounded theory was developed for sociology, it has been applied by different disciplines. The systematic methodology of grounded theory in analyzing data, differentiates it from most of the traditional qualitative research approaches. Consequently, grounded theory deserves a scholarly attention in design research. This paper intends to explore the contribution of grounded theory approach in design research by exploring the analyzing process of user experiences and preferences in the interest called automobile modification. Within the analysis process of the case study presented, this paper aims to transparentize the analysis process for those who are going to use grounded theory approach in design research.

 

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