Archival Research Study and extract information from different types of archival records, such as old maps, newspaper articles, historical photographs, personal documents and so forth. This can be especially valuable for creative projects such as documentary films and works of historical fictions as we can retrieve data that shed a light into the life of people, places and institutions. 

Cyber-Ethnographies Virtual immersion to observe and experience digital spaces firsthand. Though online fieldwork, we become part of forums, social media platforms, review boards and other forms of digital spaces to observe how users interact,  and what they say and think. 

Data scrapping The use of codes and computer programs to extract and map out data from internet sites such as Twitter. This is helpful in identifying trends, common search terms, etc.

Design Ethnographies Shot-term, high intensity ethnographic immersions to observe an experience from the point of view of their actual or future users. Relies on the same approach as conventional ethnography, but with immersion periods shorter than what is generally required by anthropologists.    

Expert Interviews Firsthand conversation with experts in the field to gather their professional opinion on any specific topic. 

General Due Diligence Background research to verify project assumptions and viability.  

Participative workshops A design thinking approach where we engage with participants around group exercises to gather insights from non-verbal data. This helps us understand how people feel about different products or issues without having the users literarily tell us. Great for highly innovative projects as users don’t necessarily have the imagination to describe things that doesn’t yet exist. As Henry Ford famously said, “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”

Literature Review Analysis of existing literature on a given topic to understand the state of knowledge. This is usually a good place to start, which we then complement with primary research (i.e. research based on unprocessed data). 

Market Research Study of target market, users and trends to understand user perceptions, current and future demands, and general state of an industry. Critical to define business strategies.

Participatory Design  A human-centered approach advocating active user and stakeholder engagement for co-design activities. This relies on design thinking principles. 

Participative Photography   The use of photographs by participants to spark conversations about important experiences that the researcher is not able to observe firsthand. Yields insights in the daily life of users.  

Prototyping Tangible creation of artifacts at different levels of fidelity for the development and testing of ideas with clients and users. We produce a low-fi version of the project (a plan, a 3D printed mockup, etc.) to evaluate how users respond to it.   

Quantitative Analysis The application of mathematics and statistics to decipher number-based data sets of any size. We’re able to analyze big data, produce small data sets to analyze and synthesize findings in a format that matches our clients’ needs. This is commonly used for property development projects and to validate assumptions. 

Spatial Analysis The study of city forms, connections, architectonics, compositions and other elements of both the man-made and natural environments.

User Interviews Firsthand conversations (usually semi-structured) on a given topic to yield insights based on a discussion between the researcher and current or future users. 

Web Analytics  Analyze the ongoing activities taking place on a client’s website to understand what draws people to the site, what content they engage with and whether they complete desired actions such as signing for a newsletter, making a purchase or contact you by email. 

Zoning Code Analysis In city planning, we study what types of projects are permissible to help you get a property development project approved faster and with no delays.