Design Research
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Design Research

Bring empathy and understanding to your next product, service, or customer experience design challenge.

Understanding human needs and wants with genuine empathy is Design Research’s superpower. We’re also passionate about design research because it focuses on outcomes. Knowledge isn’t the end goal; a new or improved customer experience, product, service, or brand interaction is.

Our Design Research team specializes in identifying unmet needs, revealing the contextual, subconscious motivators that influence attitudes and behavior even when consumers can’t quite express them. This highly participatory type of work can be the difference between “good enough” and “game changing.”

We specialize in:

  • Brand Design
  • Co-Creation Sessions
  • Design Innovation Deep Dives
  • Ethnographic Market Research
  • Information Design
  • Participant Observation
  • Prototype Testing, and Concept Testing
  • Workshops

Learn More

Design Research | Kelton Global
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Our Design Research Case Studies

Learn more about how our work has energized strategy for global brands, disruptive startups and everything in between.

Product Packaging and Design Research for Mike’s Hard Lemonade
Mikes Hard Lemonade Case Study: Product Packaging Design Research and Innovation
Case Studies

Product Packaging and Design Research for Mike’s Hard Lemonade


Innovation Consulting Case Study for Burger King

A whopping, rapidly evolving QSR landscape requires Burger King to continually innovate and differentiate their offering. Here's how we use innovation consulting to help them stay relevant when appetites change.

Here's how our ongoing insights work with Pfizer helps them understand patient attitudes and behaviors, and elevate the customer experience in healthcare.

Our ongoing insights work with Pfizer helps them understand patient attitudes and behaviors, and elevate the patient experience in healthcare.

Here's how we used whitespace identification to make sure LA's Beverly Center included a sharply defined brand experience.

L.A.'s Beverly Center was going under the knife with a massive remodel. We made sure the new look was more than skin deep using whitespace identification to sharply define the new brand experience.

Design Research
Perspectives

Design Research: Beyond Buzzwords


Your ultimate guide to Design Research: What it is, how it works, and when to use it.

Perspectives

3 Types of Participant Observation to Get You Out of the Backroom and Onto the Frontlines


Participant observation research reveals reliable behavioral insights for your business, shedding light on a lot of information in relatively little time. Done right, it can act as the ultimate empathy generator for the customers you serve. In this post, we'll explore three approaches to shatter the glass between you and your subjects.

Perspectives

Experience Design in Action: Super Bowl LII


Having worked on experience design projects across industries, we recognize the scale of effort and planning that goes into a high profile event like the Super Bowl. Here's some of the most interesting aspects of Super Bowl LII that contributed to a spectacular fan experience.

Perspectives

Co-Creation: Why Your Focus Groups with Collaging Don’t Count


This first installment in a three-part series from Kelton's Amy Snow explores the foundation of the co-creation technique, and how brands can use it to drive innovation.

Perspectives

Design Thinking in Action: Stories from the Business Community


We’ve scoured the internet and found some of the best resources to add to your design thinking toolkit - read on for ways to leverage human-forward thinking for innovation strategy.

Perspectives

Why is Everyone Talking about Co-Creation?


In the second installment of our three-part co-creation primer, we take a look at the most common ways that the technique can help to solve brand challenges.

Perspectives

Workshop Playbook: 8 Exercises to Spark Innovation


Effective workshops give you the power to strengthen and support initiatives of all kinds. Here are some of our expert facilitators' favorite exercises.

Our Approach

No two projects or needs are alike. Kelton understands this and treats every project as an objective, one-of-a-kind enterprise, choosing methodologies that best serve each client’s distinctive goals.

Design Innovation Deep Dives


Explore your customer’s world to discover new inspiration and untapped opportunity.

Ethnographic Market Research


Use ethnographic interviews to uncover insights that drive authentic consumer connections and future-focused strategy.

Information Design


Make key findings stick with the power of narrative and compelling information design that creates common understanding across teams.

Participant Observation


Don't settle for only knowing what users say, dig into what they actually do. Immerse in your customer's world to find innovative ideas with consumer immersion.

Prototype Testing, and Concept Testing


Experience is everything.

Workshops


Push thought boundaries, create broad-based buy in, and uncover opportunities for innovation with stimulus driven, creative sessions.

Brand Design


Your brand identity, clearly defined and expertly designed.

Co-Creation Sessions


Inspire innovative new ideas and get closer to what your customers want by letting them play a role in the creative process.

Design Innovation Deep Dives

Explore your customer’s world to discover new inspiration and untapped opportunity.

Learn More

Ethnographic Market Research

Use ethnographic interviews to uncover insights that drive authentic consumer connections and future-focused strategy.

Learn More

Information Design

Make key findings stick with the power of narrative and compelling information design that creates common understanding across teams.

Learn More

Participant Observation

Don't settle for only knowing what users say, dig into what they actually do. Immerse in your customer's world to find innovative ideas with consumer immersion.

Learn More

Prototype Testing, and Concept Testing

Experience is everything.

Learn More

Workshops

Push thought boundaries, create broad-based buy in, and uncover opportunities for innovation with stimulus driven, creative sessions.

Learn More

Brand Design

Your brand identity, clearly defined and expertly designed.

Learn More

Co-Creation Sessions

Inspire innovative new ideas and get closer to what your customers want by letting them play a role in the creative process.

Learn More

How We’re Different

The essence of the Kelton brand comes through best in the people who are on the front lines. We’re not just number crunchers; we are botanists and baseball fans, giggly animal lovers and homebrew geeks, and, yes– data heads, creatives and sociologists who choose the right tools, resources and experiences to meet each client challenge.

Empathic By Design


We listen, observe, sympathize and strategize to produce tangible outputs that inspire action – and actually meet consumer needs.

Get to the “Why Behind the Why”


Our Design Researchers don’t just look for triggers and root problems. We push beyond the “why?” to understand how experiences and environments impact consumers, both consciously and subconsciously.

Rooted in Reality


We’ll never leave you with pie-in-the-sky ideas you can’t actually act on. Our concepts are customer-driven, realistic to execute, and provide a clear path forward.

Global Perspective


Across 45 countries and 6 continents, we collect insights and ideas that inspire us and our clients—here, there and everywhere.

Empathic By Design

We listen, observe, sympathize and strategize to produce tangible outputs that inspire action – and actually meet consumer needs.

Get to the “Why Behind the Why”

Our Design Researchers don’t just look for triggers and root problems. We push beyond the “why?” to understand how experiences and environments impact consumers, both consciously and subconsciously.

Rooted in Reality

We’ll never leave you with pie-in-the-sky ideas you can’t actually act on. Our concepts are customer-driven, realistic to execute, and provide a clear path forward.

Global Perspective

Across 45 countries and 6 continents, we collect insights and ideas that inspire us and our clients—here, there and everywhere.


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