Exploratory Research: What did we want to explore?
A six week collaborative research project between Alexis Bustos, Michelle Chang, and Joanne Lee.
Our focus? Liquor Stores. We wanted to learn what communities surround liquor stores, and if employees feel a connection to them. Do they feel welcome? Is this a place a home for anyone?
We started with our focus: defining the stereotypes that surround liquor stores, especially in Oakland and San Francisco. Who do we not know about? Then we did a little bit of secondary research into the subject, about the demographics of store owners and customers. We also researched the locations between the Oakland and San Francisco locations - and we did in-person surveys with actual customers that went to some of the stores we planned on researching.
Our focus? Liquor Stores. We wanted to learn what communities surround liquor stores, and if employees feel a connection to them. Do they feel welcome? Is this a place a home for anyone?
We started with our focus: defining the stereotypes that surround liquor stores, especially in Oakland and San Francisco. Who do we not know about? Then we did a little bit of secondary research into the subject, about the demographics of store owners and customers. We also researched the locations between the Oakland and San Francisco locations - and we did in-person surveys with actual customers that went to some of the stores we planned on researching.
The bulk of our process was conducting interviews. Our approach was to interview workers in the context of the store, so that we could see how they did their job, how they acted in the context of their job, and to get a better understanding of what exactly it was that we were interviewing. We wanted to make them comfortable in their own environments while we peered into their lives.
What transpired was an in depth look in their lives, their families, their workplace, and what their store meant to the neighborhood around them.
What transpired was an in depth look in their lives, their families, their workplace, and what their store meant to the neighborhood around them.
Then came the hardest part: Synthesizing. With all this information in hand, we started to write down everything, seeing patterns, pouring over transcripts, listening to each other's recordings. We had stacks of sticky notes, writing down every bit of information that our recorded interviews. We listened back to every single one, and arranged them into towers and models.
Eventually, we drew insights into our synthesis. Using the quotes from the interview, we were able to find three things about liquor stores that people may not have known before.
