Week 3:
Prompt: Identify at least 3 research methods and possibly supporting tactics that will be most appropriate for your research. This again will be modified as you move along in your research. For the moment, tell us where you will start (using what method), how you plan on proceeding and why do you think this method will work. Give a short explanation of your logic.
While my topics are very diverse and broad, I have noticed that they actually have a lot of overlap in terms of the areas I am focusing on. This was brought to light by a comment by Jonathan with some critical feedback that actually allowed me to look at at my subjects in a different way. All my subjects, at their root, are about the ability to customize these products into something tailored to the owner. Because of this I want to reformulate some of my research questions to more of a "why" rather than a how and employ semiotics and other humanities research. Studying these people, the sub groups, the semiotics, and the context of each I will be more adept at understanding why these people have this desire of customization and how people use it to express themselves.
Since my subjects are all about such die hard sub-cultures I think empathy in terms of interviews would be extremely helpful. Asking these people what they want to see in the future and if they would be inclined to purchase a design would benefit this research and whatever I choose to make as a whole. These people have defined, built, and split the cultures from the ground up making them the experts in the field and the perfect people to talk to.
All of my subjects also thrive online as internet communities making it a perfect place to also research and bounce ideas. There are countless forums and places like reddit where ideas thrive and are the heart on information about computers, cars, and video games. These have created know all - end all guides for these subjects that could be matched by no other form of media. Therefore, I think a provocation quick and dirty approach would work great. I can shotgun a bunch of ideas and questions on a bunch of websites tailored towards these subjects to get a quick and immediate response from "experts".
This is a good approach. One of the things that I find so interesting is designing for a group that wants to design themselves. However, I think we might find that customisation does depend on objects/products/etc. that help with customisation. If it is 'build not buy' what can I buy and still consider it built. Where is that threshold? You might want to focus some of your research on the motivation that these groups have.